SLC Mechanical Reefers

[Gary S]

The mass produced refrigeration units look great! I can't quite make out what you made them from. Did you cobble them together from misc. parts? Fantastic!

Thanks Ralph. The units ar entirely scratchbuilt, most of it is from sheet styrene and strip, with the radiator grills cut from a boxcar roofwalk, there is a bit of styrene rod from a Walthers piping kit in there, and some brass wire.

   

[Gary S]

Wow those refrigeration units look great, I have seen a similar reffer at an industrial site next to a recycling business.

Have you had the kits long or do you know of a shop that has a stache of kits?

A couple months ago, I was visiting a local model shop which caters mostly to military and architectural modeling. They had a decent assortment of BB kits on the shelves. I bought up a bunch of 50 foot boxcars, and they had 3 of the 1624 undecorated reefers. I bought them only because they were cheap and I figured I would use them for pars, floors, frames, trucks. Then a few weeks later, I caught the BNSF switching out the potato factory with all the SLC reefers, and decided I wanted to model that. Went home and checked out the 1624s, they were a good starting place for the SLC reefers.

So, I began a search on-line, the only place I found a decent quantity was at Railroad Depot Hobbies, so I bought 12. They may still have more. They do have a decent assortment of other BB kits for reasonable prices. Athearn still makes these in RTR, although they will be painted for various roads. To do the SLC cars, could just sand off or otherwise remove the lettering, then paint them. Some judicious shopping can find the Athearn RTRs for 10 bucks, and they come with metal wheelsets.

[Gary S]

Actually what you are modeling is not the refrigeration unit. The refrigeration unit is all electric and mounted in the top half behind the upper screens. The unit on the lower half is a generator set powered by a Detroit Diesel 2-53 series engine. The reason for the sliding screen on the side is that the gen set slides out for maintenance. It can be slid out and hang over the side of the ballast for oil changes, or it can be slid out, unplugged, and picked up with a fork lift to r&r it for more exhaustive repairs. You are probably ok even if you modeled a reefer instead of a gen set. The only thing visible when the gen set is installed is the radiator for the diesel engine. The radiator is taller and wider than the diesel, and the generator on the end of the diesel is even smaller.

Key point - the louvers aren't missing on SLC 177 and SLC 146 - someone just forgot to slide them back in place. There's a track there, like a door track, to slide them back. Since the ladder has to come off to pull the generator, and there surely is some sort of fastening system on the 'skid' itself, it's not like it's going to go anywhere.

Cool stuff Russ and Randy, thanks for the info, and it makes sense. What I modeled was "just a bunch of scrap thrown together" to mimic what I saw behind the ladder. So, it can certainly be the generator. Mostly it is just the radiator grill. I'm going to take a much closer look at those photos now.

This is one of the reasons Big Blue is so great. Bound to be somebody that knows what's going on!

I went back and looked, Randy is exactly right. The cars don't have louvers over the generators, they have screens. Some of the cars have the screens in place which slightly obscures the generator, but on other cars, the screens are slid to the right out of place. Oh crud, now how do I model the screens?

It still amazes me how much I miss when looking at photos of the prototype.

[cnw1961]

Gary, looking at your mass production makes me feel like a lazy bum . Your reefers are cool .

[tetters]

Holy Schmoly! That is a ton of work for a such a small detail, but the end result is great!

[Gary S]

Thank you Kurt and Tetters.

I'm still wondering what to use for the screen...

[Russ Bellinis]

I think BLMA cyclone fence screen with a frame around it the correct size would work for the screens, Gary.

[Gary S]

That's a nice product, Russ. I just may have to try that out for the screens. I would also considering using that for the fences needed on the layout, but at $20 per 100 feet, that would be a tremendous expense.

[Ralph]

Ah! Thanks for describing the parts you used Gary! Way to make believable assemblies out of the assorted components!
Ralph

[Gary S]

You're welcome, Ralph. I didn't take too many pains in making these things "perfect". They are actually quite crude, but since they are up inside the reefers in darkness, figured they would be a decent representation of "there is something in there."

[Gary S]

Been working on the brake rigging and stuff that hangs quite low under these cars. Not trying to make it match the actual arrangement of rods and hoses and pipes, just putting some junk under there to give an overall feel of the real car. This is just a test car to see how it looks, I may extend the bottom sill down just a bit and lower the tanks and rods and pipes and equipment a bit more.

   

   

   

   

[SP1]

As for me getting the IM cars, that $32 MSRP is a bit steep. Plus, look at all the hobby value I am getting out of these $6 Athearn BBs!

I really like your attitude. Of course I also like what you have built

[Gary S]

I modified the model from the photo above, added on to the bottom seal to cover up the very top of the trucks like the prototype, and lowered the brake gear a bit.

Three of these are now built, sort of Rand D work, now I am all set to go into mass production. However, don't know if I am going to continue building these in the near future, as I have stuff to do on the layout.

   

And a close up:

   

[doctorwayne]

Great work, Gary, as usual.

For the screens, you may want to look at Detail Associates. Click on "Super Detailing Parts", then go to Page 7, Part No. 229-2711 - "Chicken Wire" air grilles for F-units. There should be enough in one set to do all of your cars.

To cut the material, use scissors or, working on a hard surface, a sharp blade - use only straight downward pressure, not a slicing motion, which will distort the screen.

Wayne

[Gary S]

Thanks docWayne. Walthers is out of stock, but I'll have to check if anyone else has them. I never really looked at DA's stuff before, wow, they have a ton of detail parts!