Bill (or anyone else),

Do you know if the plug door version is also based on a PC&F prototype?
I'm not sufficiently astute to tell from the graphics what the plug door
width is or if this would be a suitable standing point for the
1953-built New Haven "State of Maine" Class XIH cars.

Regards,

Peter Ness

--- In STMFC@yahoogroups.com, Bill Welch <fgexbill@> wrote:

The hinged or swing door example from Accurail appears to be an
accurate representation of one group of 250 cars (WFEX 68400-68640)
built for WFE by Pacific Car & Foundry in 1949 characterized by the
hinges more or less shaped like a "home plate," double rows of
rivets, and 7' 6" doors. The door height will make this a problematic
kit to rework to represent other post-1948 FGE/WFE/BRE/NX cars. I
will buy one undec. to carve and sculpt a WFE model. The model
appears to lack the fan drive mechanism representations which will be
easy to add. I will be curious to see what brake wheel they do,
generic or actual.

The center sill step appears accurate for the WFE hinged door model
but is not accurate for any FGE/WFE/BRE/NX sliding door reefer. Aside
from this easy fix, this appears to a good representation of most of
the FGE/WFE/BRE/NX sliding door fleet. There were some variations of
the improved Dreadnaught end within the sliding door cars. Again
there is no fan mechanism represented.

As I already have several Sunshine kits to do the sliding door cars,
I will probably buy only one undec. of this model to carve and sculpt
and rework the sill to model a FGE 1949 PC&F steel rebuild of a wood-
sheathed car (FGEX 59900-59999).

I have sent a PDF to Mike B. of a large table I have created of the
FGE/WFE/BRE/NX steel reefer fleet.

Bill Welch