Help With Erie Refrigerator Cars

While doing research about suitable reefers for the layout era - 1952 - I came upon several refrigerator cars decorated in dubious paint scheme. Most of them were made by manufacturers know for they "creativity". However, a model among many caught my attention. It was the Accurail #4813 kit, which was re-released with an improved paint scheme (mainly the Erie Diamond logo) as kit #4813-1.

URTX-leased Erie reefer (credit: Accurail)

While Accurail is now for their nice quality kits, we all know they apply the paint scheme on their models if it is fairly similar to a real prototype. This isn't criticism toward Accurail because most major manufacturers do that to make their models more appealing to a large crowd. In fact, Accurail generally try to find prototypes that are close enough to not be foobies and generally, their paint schemes are accurate and based on real-life examples.

This is interesting since from that, I can guess the URTX-Erie paint scheme isn't a fabrication, but probably a real thing. However, finding the real prototype cars specification is quite hard. As far as I can tell, the Accurail car represent a reefer built circa 1936. The big question is did Erie still leased reefers in the early 1950s. If yes, were the cars repainted during that period of time. My guess is yes. I have many reason to believe an updated paint scheme wouldn't have mentionned "Ventilated Refrigerator" as this expression was no longer used by railroads by the 50s. Also, the way the dimension data is spelled is quite archaic.

So basically, my questions are:

Did Erie leased or owned reefers in the early 1950s?

If yes, what type of reefer was it (wood, steel, etc.)? Which prototype?

What was the paint scheme or did Accurail's paint scheme survived until then?

Any reference to specific ORER information would be valuable.

Modelling Early Erie Steel Boxcars

An interesting part of Erie's boxcar fleet was their early steel designs which roamed the rails for many decades. They could be tricky to model, requiring extensive kitbashing, but fortunately, within acceptable means we can build them without loosing insanity. The funny thing is decal companies have made many Erie boxcar decals or dry transfer, but focussing solely on the unavailable oddballs.

Fortunately, a few years ago, Dan Hanley ran a 4-part article in Model Railroad Hobbyist (April 2013) to describe how one could recreate a few of the iconic prototypes. I'm certainly not interesting in going to such lenght as casting my own resin cars, but his articles provide enough data to understand the fleet, its history and particularities.

Among Erie's particular choices were Chicago-Cleveland radial roofs, Buckeye ends and Viking roods. I'm certainly not an Erie fan by choice, but it is essential to capture this diversity to better represent the typical Erie freight consist. The most interesting boxcars are all fall into the 75000-76999 series. All steel, 40ft long, with various heights ranging from 8'-8" to 9'-4", they had character.

While I'm completely open to the idea of scratchbuilding Buckeye ends and alter significantly available models, a few readily available models are already on the market and can serve our goal efficiently.

Atlas ARA 1932 Boxcar (credit: Atlas Model Railroad)

The first model is Atlas ARA 1932 boxcar design. This model sports all the correct details for an Erie prototype and capture the flavour of this railroad. Modification aren't required, except if you buy the version with the yellow Erie Diamond logo, which should have been white on these cars. The paint scheme could also be altered to represent the modern Large Diamong logo instead. However, don't buy any Atlas ARA 1932 since they all vary in details according to specific roads. Stick with the ones clearly identified as Erie.

TLT CPR Minibox (credit: True Line Trains)

The second model is quite interesting since it brings us back to 1929, in the all steel boxcar infancy. Back then, very few railroads embraced the new concept put forward by the proposed ARA 1923 40ft boxcar design. Among the pioneers, Canadian Pacific built its famous home variation called the "Minibox". These cars had radial roof and early Dreadnaught ends. However, the sill had tabs and side steel plates were assembled in such a way it eliminated the ARA 1923 flaw of trapping water and rusting.

Fortunately, Erie had almost similar cars equipped with the same roof and ends. However, Erie built them with the infamous straight sill. It thus could be possible to use True Line Trains own's Minibox  plastic car as a starting point and bashing the straight sill. Also, some minor alterations could improve the likeless of Erie's Dreadnaught ends which were marginally different. While not 100%, this model would be both almost pinpoint on overall dimensions and details.

Red Caboose PRR X29 with Dreadnaught ends (credit: Intermountain Railway)

The third option would be to use the old Trains Miniature (Walthers) 40ft steel boxcar with Dreadnaught ends. This is the famoust PRR X29 design. Starting with a Red Caboose kit could also be a better investment in term of quality and prototypicalness. Only the car with Dreadnaught ends would be suitable. Bashing the radial roof would be the biggest challenge, but the straight sill would be "correct". Think of this option as another way to replicate what could be done with the CPR Minibox. It's a matter of choosing your fight! A radial roof could be made in styrene, then cast in resin for ease of replication. I believe it is somewhat easier to alter a Minibox tabbed sill than tackle a fully kitbashed radial roof. However, it ain't that much hard to do with sheet styrene.

To be noted, another easy bash is using Intermountain AAR 1937 (IH 10') boxcar and replacing the roof with a Viking one. Minimal alterations would make it an excellent car to model without efforts.

As you can see, it is quite feasible to build a decent Erie early steel boxcars without reinventing the wheel. Depending your interested in Erie, feel free to you to follow Dan Hanley and go full kitbashing. However, it is nice to see a large array of interesting cars can be modelled with relative ease.

Unseen Challenges

People following this blog must think I'm just a crazy guy building cars and never operating the layout... Well... They are indeed right! But hey, model railroading has multiple facettes and car building is probably one I enjoy the most.

That said, building a decently prototypical fleet isn't always a walk in the park. Over the last few weeks, while it was expected some cars would be straightforward, I end up facing several road blocks. I could have thought kitbashing would be hard, but at the end is was only time consuming. However, the worst had to come...

Wrong ERIE decals and reefers without ones...

Among them, accuracy of decal sheets was extremely problematic. By example, I ordered a few Tichy cars with decals. At first, I thought to myself: build the car per instruction and apply the relevant decals. So wrong I was. First, I discovered the USRA rebuilt decals for NYC cars were slightly wrong here and there. Not too much but I had to tweak things a little bit. However, the Pennsylvania decals were as bad as can be. The artwork was smudged and the decal film brittle. I could do nothing with them and thus the car is laying on my desk until I get replacement decals.

Slightly incorrect P&LE lettering but decent PRR and LIRR ones

I also bought a Kadee PS-1 ARR boxcar. Erie did have a few ones and since the car was unlettered and painted brown, it was an easy candidate for lettering. One again, I found out the Tichy decals were wrong. In particular, the font used on the Erie Diamond logo was so off I'm still scratching my head. Fortunately, I have left over from CDS Lettering that will do the job perfectly. But now, many more steps have been added to the process, making it slower again. Some other built date will have to be replaced too.

Remark I'm not complaining. This is part of modelling, particularly when you try to be more prototypical. And while I'm not annoyed, I now better understand older modellers complaining about decals and details. If you care about them, you quickly end up stumbling here and there. The only to do is to sit back, assess the situation and take action accordingly.

GARX 37ft Wood Reefers - Part 2

Among the 20-something cars on my benchwork, the first two are now painted and lettered. While they are not pieces of art, it's quite interesting to see how far you can bring such cheap models. It should also be noted the very spartan GARX revised paint scheme of the late 1940s also contrast with the garish billboard cars generally loved by the model railroading crowd. It helps to bring a sense of reality to the layout.

While I'm quite happy with the detailing, paint job and lettering (by Clover House), I must assess the result to learn from my mistakes.

If I had to redo these cars again, I would address two issues that felt minor at first but have a substantial impact on the credibility of the finished models.

The first thing would be to make the fascia board a little bit narrower. Thought I made sure to measure the fascia on a quality picture with little distorsion, it seems it is to wide. Hard to tell why, by when I painted the roof, it became quickly apparent. A comparison with a Rapido GARX meat ree shell confirmed that. To be honest, I believe the fascia were originally quite large. It was common on old wood car. But visually speaking, it doesn't look right.

A second issue is the roof pitch. I kept the Varney/Life-Like steep pitch since it was the normal thing to do. However, at the end of the day, the roof looks a little bit weird, particularly when compared to similar wood reefer models. I'm not sure if Varney was wrong, but I've seen many older model that got the roof pitch inexact. I'm pretty sure it wasn't. I feel I shouldn't have been lazy and could have fixed that earlier. Oh well, lesson learned!

That aside, the models now look decent. Not great, but OK. With some fading and weathering later, they should blend into the crowd. And while it took me countless hours to get that result, it isn't wasted. I've learned a lot and improved my skills, which was useful when I had to work on other cars. Better, scratchbuilding several parts and trying to figure out the underframe helped me to better understand how real cars are built. This is something you can't learn by simply aping kit instructions.

Kit Manufacturers Comparison or Where's The Fun?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working on several freight car kits to build up Harlem Station roster. I had to deal with kits from various manufacturers and thought it would be neat to share my impressions of each ones. It must be noted I’ve built models from these manufacturers for a long time. However, it was the first time I built some much detailed cars in such a short amount of time and with a focus on small details (brake gear, grabirons, roofwalk, etc.).

Life-Like: not a contest winner, but definitely an enjoyable process.

My endeavour started with a pair of Life-Like/Varney refrigerator cars. While absolutely crude, the sturdy and thick plastic used back then proved to be a blessing during the process. It is a sound and solid foundation upon which to one can add details to its heart content. Once again, Tichy details proved to be great to work with while Intermountain brittle plastic was less fun. Accurail AB brake assemblies saved also a lot of time and money. They can be modified too, though I’m not a fan of delrin plastic since I had to use epoxy glue to keep them permanently attached to the car. As much as possible, I prefer to use plastic that can be cemented with solvent. I also used Accurail Bettendorf trucks which are finely casted and affordable. The fine lettering moulded on is a plus to me. I certainly wish Accurail made more trucks. Finally, Kadee brake wheel were a bliss to install. Probably among the best on the market and ones must admit they are incredibly sturdy while having the finest cross section you can expect in HO scale. Overall, kitbashing Life-Like and Varney old train set took a lot of time, but it was a fun process and never tiresome or frustrating. You could almost consider it scratchbuilding since only the basic shell was kept and could have been easily built from scratch with less effort.

The next model I worked on were four Life-Like Proto 2000 Greenville Mill Gondolas. The last time I built this specific car, I was in high school back in 1999 and used a dull X-acto blade and CA glue. I recall the process to have been tedious. This time, sharp blades, solvent cement and tweezers made it much easier. However, the notoriously flimsy stirrups and annoying brake gear are certainly irritating aspects of P2K cars. I decided to order photo etched replacements from Pierre Oliver. However, I must admit the P2K cars are great to build and prototypical to booth. When you know their weaknesses, you can work things around so they are sturdier.

C&BT: Lots of remedial work required and far to be top notch

Then, I decided to tackle a pair of C&BT Santa Fe ice steel reefer. Tony Thompson and Andy Sperandeo once wrote about these cars back in the early 1990s. I thought Thompson was quite harsh when he concluded on his blog they weren’t worth the trouble. But after having spent hours on them, I must admit he was right. The plastic C&BT used is annoying at best. It is brittle and for this reason, many parts had to be oversized. This limitation also made many parts to look coarse approximation of the real thing, even from Average Joe’s standards. I ended up partially trashing the B-end details, the brake gear, ladders, stirrups, hinges, etc… I think you understand the pattern, only the shell was salvageable. But even then, dimensional errors plague the model. The roof doesn’t sit at the proper height and has oversized overhangs. The roofwalk is a joke, many platform brackets not molded.  I also had to alter the roof platform so they be prototypically correct (SFRD platform had long slots so the hatch latches could be dropped into it and not be a hazard for workers).

C&BT: This is an unintentional parody of a brake apparatus

At the end of the day, you end up with a model you need to extensively rebuild, alter and modify. It seems C&BT worked with flawed and insufficient data which made the model an approximation of the car. I can understand the limitation of the early 1990s, but it is quite frustrating to trash almost every details and waste time rectifying another’s mistakes only to get a passable result. When I buy a kit, I generally understand I can build it straightforwardly without having to extensively rebuild it (except if it is the stated goal from the start). I certainly don’t recommend this car, particularly when a vastly superior model is now available from Intermountain.

Intermountain: Flimsy stirrups, but great looking car

I then built two Intermountain PFE R-40-23 reefers. They did a great job capturing the prototype and the building process is quite straigtforward.  However, I’m not a fan of the plastic type favoured by Intermountain. It is quite flimsy for small parts and can easily break during handling. They plastic stirrups are a lost cause. They broke the moment I installed them and I can assure you I used paranoiac care to make sure they would survive. Thus, I ordered photo-etched replacement parts from Pierre Oliver too! But that said, Intermountain cars are generally well-designed and easy to assemble. The instructions are easy to follow too, which is a necessity when dealing with hundreds of parts.

Athearn: With some love, you can bring forward the potential

The Intermountain models then prompted me to update four Athearn 40ft ice steel reefer. Knowing the car was based on the PFE R-40-23 design, I ordered several Intermountain detail parts. I also extensively kitbashed the roof and hatches so they would be closer to the prototype. Using the Intermountain cars as a reference made it quite easier to do. While it required a lot of work, it was a great and rewarding challenge. I don’t regret any minute working on these cars and think they will be a great addition to my layout when completed.

Tichy: Top notch and extremely affordable

Finally, I continued my endeavour by tackling a bunch of Tichy USRA boxcars (single sheathed and rebuilt). Must I say Tichy product have the detail quality of resin kits and the ease of assembly of styrene kits for a fraction of the cost (even competing with Accurail). It is the best of both worlds. The level of detail is incredible and parts are generally free of flashes. Assembly is straight forward, instructions are generally well written and they use a sturdy type of plastic that is both durable and easy to work with.

That wraps up my impression with working with various types of kits available on the market. Meanwhile, I’ll soon have to work with Rapido kits (which are devoid of any instruction), Westerfield and Funaro & Carmerlengo resin kits. While I’m not new to resin kits – having built my share of Japanese garage kit and a Sylvan CN caboose back in my college days – I’m curious to see how I’ll find the experience.