Atlas 40-ft Wood Reefers

[Cumbo2000]

The latest run of the Atlas wood reefers are in at MBK.

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/N-Scale-Reefer-Refrigerator-Cars-s/1484.htm?searching=Y&sort=3&cat=1484&show=30&page=1

A few are close to selling out.

Bob Witt

[thomasjmdavis]

Wish they had done a GTW paint scheme predating "wet noodle."

How close are these to FGE cars?

Tom D

[Dave V]

Thanks!  Grabbing 3 of the FGE reefers now.

[reinhardtjh]

Thanks!  Grabbing 3 of the FGE reefers now.

How late are the FGE good for?

[Dave V]

How late are the FGE good for?

I dunno.  I just know they were around on Pennsy in the mid-50s.

[Cumbo2000]

Wish they had done a GTW paint scheme predating "wet noodle."

How close are these to FGE cars?

Tom D

The Atlas reefers appear closest to these AC&F reefers modeled by Westerfield in HO scale for the GN as built in the 1920s and the WFE after the GN joined the consortium. 

As the FGE Consortium rebuilt their reefers they assumed a common "look".  The biggest change would be the addition of a Hutchins roof for any car running post-WWII replacing the wood sheathed roof on the Atlas model. This roof was accurately modeled by InterMountain on their version of FGX wood sheathed reefers. I am not sure one can get roof as parts from InterMountain. One also may consider changing the ends to look more like the InterMountain FGE reefer and body mounting the couplers allowing one to model the channel end sill.

The FGE and companies liked wood sheathed reefers and ran them well into the 1960s. I was photographing them as late as ~1970. Ice reefer use ended rapidly as trucks took over the shipping of produce.

These wood sheathed reefers were discussed in a TKM Special Winter Edition 2008: The Wood Sheathed Cars of the FGEX/WFEX/BREX Freight Refrigerator Fleet: 1940-1953 by Bill Welch At one time it was a free download, but apparently no longer.

Bob Witt

[reinhardtjh]

I dunno.  I just know they were around on Pennsy in the mid-50s.

That's close enough for me!

[Cory Rothlisberger]

Wish they had done a GTW paint scheme predating "wet noodle."


Tom D

I wanted to, but this was the only photo I had.



If you have anything better, send them along to Paul...

[Mark5]

Re: Fruit Growers Express, if you read through this (lengthy) thread, the Atlas car is discussed a bit:

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=23982.0

Mark

[Dave V]

My thinking is thus:

They're very well detailed cars that look great and are painted to match a 40 ft wood FGE reefer in the exhibit hall at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.  The museum car is coupled with some other cars of widely-varying eras in a display train "pulled" by a PRR H6sb.  I don't care about the subtle differences in body style or if the IM car is a better match...I really like the Atlas detailing and paint.  And, if the car ends up being wrong for 1956 PRR, it's not wrong enough for me to care.  Pennsy ran long blocks of reefer cars on the Middle Division in the 50s and that's about the one style of train I haven't tried modeling yet (with the deliberate exception of the Aerotrain).

[reinhardtjh]

These wood sheathed reefers were discussed in a TKM Special Winter Edition 2008: The Wood Sheathed Cars of the FGEX/WFEX/BREX Freight Refrigerator Fleet: 1940-1953 by Bill Welch At one time it was a free download, but apparently no longer.

Bob Witt

Still available here --> http://s-clmodeler.aclsal.org/currentissue/fgexwoodencars.pdf  (via http://therailwire.net/forum/index.php/topic,23215.0.html and https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=23982.msg234031#msg234031)

[Cumbo2000]

Dave,

Thanks for finding the link.  That was the one historical group I didn't try and only remembered it after I made my last post.

Bob Witt

[thomasjmdavis]

I wanted to, but this was the only photo I had.



If you have anything better, send them along to Paul...

How about this, weathered and obviously has had some updates on the data, but better shape than the photo you have-
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/gtw/gtw206911jpa.jpg

Tom D