More Reefers

[doctorwayne]

Here's an old LifeLike (Proto-no-thousand) 36' reefer. I scraped off the cast-on grabirons and replaced them with metal parts, but should have replaced the roof, too as this car is in ice-service, and would likely have had its bunkers and hatches removed. My story is that the bunkers have been removed and the hatches sealed, a not-uncommon situation.




Here's another Tyco reefer, not much changed except for the new metal grabirions and sill steps:




The EG&E's standard wood reefers are slightly modified Accurail cars - I added Tichy hatches and hatch platforms:




This Intermountain car was factory-painted for the 1950's paint scheme, but since it's similar to that used in the '20s and '30s, I simply altered the BLT date:




This is an Athearn car with a few added details. Lettering is from Champ:




Another Athearn car, although I've replaced the steel ends with wood ones, and replaced the roof with a scratch-built older style one:




An Athearn steel car with a few added details. Lettering is from Champ:




This one is from Red caboose, again with Champ decals:




Tichy:




Another Athearn car, with Champ decals:




An Intermountain car - the factory paint scheme is too modern for my era, and needs to be re-painted and re-lettered:




A re-worked MDC 36'-er:




Here's an Athearn wood reefer with the steel ends replaced with wood ones and a back-dated roof. The hatches and platforms are from Tichy and lettering is C-D-S dry transfers:




Another re-worked Athearn car, although technically not a reefer, as its roof hatches and ice bunkers have been removed. It operates as an insulated car and is usually assigned to fish-service, where the cargo is simply top-iced for a quick trip to market:




...and finally, a re-worked Athearn steel reefer. This one represents a car from CNR's first order for overhead ice bunker reefers, and just barely squeezes into my late '30s era with an October 1939 BLT date:



These, and subsequent orders, were the apex of ice-cooled reefer technology:



Wayne