Andy Sperandeo alerted me to this and Craig Walker at Athearn sent
me a pdf. The following information is from that document.

These are the reefers Santa Fe used mainly for frozen food service.

Bob Chaparro
Moderator
Citrus Industry Modeling Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/citrusmodeling/ and

Model Railroads of Southern California
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Model_Railroads_Of_Southern_California/


====================================

Era: 1940 to 1960s
• NEW body tooling
• National B-1 Trucks (NEW tooling) • Fully assembled
• Machined metal wheels • Weighted for optimal performance
• Razor-sharp printing and painting
• Magnetically operated knuckle
couplers
• Includes molded and wire-form grabirons, stirrup steps, recessed
ladders and full underbody details
• Positionable Santa Fe style "reversed" ice hatches with etched and
formed hatch stops

Announced: 4-18-06
Orders Due: 5-16-06
ETA: September 2006

Can someone offer the number series for the SFRD Rr-30 reefers? The
ORER doesn't appear to distinguish SFRD cars by that car class code.

Also, is there a web site somewhere with good ATSF/SFRD+ freight car
rosters? I never seem to be able to google this info up when I need
it. Thx!

Chris Frissell, Polson, MT

Chris Frissell wrote:

Can someone offer the number series for the SFRD Rr-30 reefers?
The ORER doesn't appear to distinguish SFRD cars by that car class
code.

They were 50 foot cars, 100 of them built in 1940, numbered 37290
through 37389.

Tom Madden

The Athearn model has been examined by a friend of mine, and I am repeating his observations.

Though 100 of these cars were built, the last 25 cars came equipped with fans, a bit unusual in that both fans were on the same side of the carbody. Unless Details West comes out with a fan set, we will have to make our own fans.

The earlier class Rr-22 numbered 200 cars and differed in 2 big ways from the Rr30; earlier dreadnaught ends, and no National B-1 trucks. (I was told that the Athearn B-1 trucks are stunning in their appearence, blowing away the LifeLike version.) Maybe Athearn will tool a different end to do the similar Rr-22.

Both the Rr-22s and the Rr-30s had Durea Cushioned underframes. Here is an area where Richard Hendrickson will probably have an opportunity to show us how to correct a built-in problem with the Athearn underframe. Brake rigging is connected to the floor and centersill on the model, whereas the real underframes had brackets holding the brake equipment to surfaces that would not move relative to each other thereby preventing the shearing of components when the underframe moved.

Sounds like a nicely done model, though I would have hoped for a good model of something with more than only 75 cars.
-Andy Carlson
Ojai CA

Chris Frissell asked:
"Also, is there a web site somewhere with good ATSF/SFRD+ freight car
rosters? I never seem to be able to google this info up when I need
it."

Chris, I STRONGLY recommend you invest in the following print
resources from the SFRHMS :

Santa Fe Railway Listing of Freight Cars by Class and Car Number
1906-1991, Compiled by Larry Occhiello. Currently out of print, but
well worth buying if you come across one.

Refrigerator Cars: Ice Bunker Cars 1884-1979, by Keith Jordan,
Richard H. Hendrickson, John B. Moore and A. Dean Hale. The
definitive SFRD ice bunker car reference - was out of print, but
available again from the society as a digitally scanned reprint.
http://www.atsfrr.org/store/book3.htm

Furniture and Automobile Box Cars, by Richard H. Hendrickson, and
Santa Fe Box Cars 1869-1953, by John Dobyne.
http://www.atsfrr.org/store/book3.htm

These are well worth the investment if you intend on doing a lot of
work on Santa Fe reefers and boxcars, and will beat hands down any
source currently on the internet.


Ben Hom

Hello Chris,

The Rr-30 class cars were numbers 37290 through 37389. Built in 1940, they
lasted through the period of this list, with 98 cars still "live" in 1956,
and 84 in 1965.

So long,

Andy

Andy Sperandeo
Executive Editor
Model Railroader magazine
asperandeo@mrmag.com
262-796-8776, ext. 461
FAX 262-796-11142

--- In STMFC@yahoogroups.com, "benjaminfrank_hom" <b.hom@...> wrote:

These are well worth the investment if you intend on doing a lot of
work on Santa Fe reefers and boxcars, and will beat hands down any
source currently on the internet.

Ben: Thank you, a very useful list, and I will save it to consider in
future purchases. However, like may others, I only anticipate doing
a little work on ATSF freight cars--sort of a slow trickle, and only a
few car series, as they are foreign road cars for me. Over the past
couple of years I have graduated from mostly ignoring prototype
fidelity of foreign road cars to at least doing the research I can do,
given that resources preclude investing in a complete collection of
Color Guides, etc. (though I can see I am on the slippery slope to
that end...).

And a hearty thank you to Andy S. et al. for the number series and
service data. Regards,

Chris Frissell

--- In STMFC@yahoogroups.com, Andy Carlson
<midcentury@...> wrote:

The Athearn model has been examined by a friend of mine,

and I am repeating his observations.

Though 100 of these cars were built, the last 25 cars came

equipped with fans, a bit unusual in that both fans were on the
same side of the carbody. Unless Details West comes out with a
fan set, we will have to make our own fans.

The earlier class Rr-22 numbered 200 cars and differed in 2

big ways from the Rr30; earlier dreadnaught ends, and no
National B-1 trucks. (I was told that the Athearn B-1 trucks are
stunning in their appearence, blowing away the LifeLike version.)
Maybe Athearn will tool a different end to do the similar Rr-22.

Both the Rr-22s and the Rr-30s had Durea Cushioned

underframes. Here is an area where Richard Hendrickson will
probably have an opportunity to show us how to correct a built-in
problem with the Athearn underframe. Brake rigging is
connected to the floor and centersill on the model, whereas the
real underframes had brackets holding the brake equipment to
surfaces that would not move relative to each other thereby
preventing the shearing of components when the underframe
moved.

Sounds like a nicely done model, though I would have hoped

for a good model of something with more than only 75 cars.

Andy and Others,

The Rr-22's Duryea underframe was the earlier version, with
different crossbearers and torsion plates than that on the Rr-30.
The hatch covers were different as well. Add this to Andy's
comments about the ends and trucks.

Also, while the Rr-31s were externally similar to the Rr-30s, they
were two feet longer, with larger capacity ice bunkers. Hopefully,
Athearn won't letter later runs for this class.

A minor correction: As far as the fans are concerned, they weren't
on "one side." It was the sheaves that attached to external
motors (when stationary) and external controls that were on one
side. Later fan versions put the sheaves/hardware on opposite
sides. The fans themselves actually were at the bottom of the
bunkers, running across the car.

When Overland imported these 50 foot reefers several years
ago, they included brass castings of the fan pulley sheaves.
These could be easily used as molds and cast in resin. When
the fan cars got repainted in the 1950s, the fan plates were
painted black, providing an interesting contrast.

I'm excited that Athearn did this, because it could be a harbinger
of future projects based on "minor" prototypes.

Keith Jordan

--- In STMFC@yahoogroups.com, Andy Carlson <midcentury@...> wrote:

Sounds like a nicely done model, though I would have hoped for a

good model of something with more than only 75 cars.
I agree with Andy. Why do they pick unusual prototypes?

Ed

Wow, just 100 cars, and for 25 of them, it needs modification. I knew that photos were important-- detailed photos of the proposed prototype to be modeled. But this sounds like some ATSF guys have INCRIMINATING photos of someone at Athearn!<g>

Scott Pitzer

Keith Jordan writes:

I'm excited that Athearn did this, because it could be a harbinger
of future projects based on "minor" prototypes.

Hmmm. Tongue firmly in cheek...smiling....If one applies the Dave Nelson/Tim Gilbert "probability of occurrence" to these cars, one MIGHT be allowed one tenth of a car to be on the layout during a month of operating sessions. OTOH, if one were to...for some reason...model say two days [ as in May 14 and May 15, 1954 ] AND had proof that 4 of the Rr-30 reefers were in one train on one of those days in the area modeled...Bingo!...one could run 4 of them. No idea what to do about modeling and running the other 2400 or so cars active on those days in the area of the RR modeled. Not my problem.

Still...one might be permitted to wonder about the manufacture of a car with total production of 100 prototype cars when the AAR Alt Standard 50 ton hopper...about 50,000 prototype cars [ and, no, I'm not going to look up the actual total numbers ]...has never been built or, of course, the UP S-40-10...

OTOH, there were about 540 Pennsy Hippos [ 2-10-0 ] steam locos built as opposed to 25 UP Big Boys. Anyone care to guess which of these prototypes has had more models built of them?

"The World Wonders"....Nimitz to Halsey, Oct 1944

Mike Brock

But what about a solid reefer block, say, in the early 1960s?

Gary Green
ggreen@inreach.com

Correction...I mean the late 1950s.

Gary Green

Gary Green writes:

"But what about a solid reefer block, say, in the early 1960s?"

and follows it with:

Correction...I mean the late 1950s.

Clever fellow...that Gary. And quick. He could probably help Jeff Aley with clinics during Prototype Rails.

Mike Brock

According to Appendix F of the Santa Fe Railway Rolling Stock Reference
Series - Volume 2, Refrigerator Cars, Ice Bunker Cars 1884-1979 there were
12,986 SFRD Reefers of all types in 1960. Based on Andy S's earlier email
between 98 and 84 cars would have been active in 1960. If we use the higher
number, 98, that means the Rr-30 class constituted approximately 0.75% of
the SFRD fleet. Also, since these were frozen food cars they may have not
been as free running as other reefers. (I need to reread the chapter in the
book) These cars were a small percentage of the fleet.

However, I'll still pick one up for my layout when they come out, and since
they say Santa Fe, the great uneducated masses will buy them in droves.
Which is great since it pays for the tooling and encourages Athearn to keep
producing new models.

Brian J Carlson P.E.
Cheektowaga NY

Athearn has heard "How many F-units do we need, anyway?" and "How many PS-2s do we need, anyway?" but at least they won't have to hear "How many Santa Fe 50' ice reefers do we need..."

Scott Pitzer

Mike,

Actually, there were 598 Hippos built and sadly enough, only 1 left. In
the end, the Big Boys won out as there are at least 4 or 5 left. It
seems that it took an awfully long time for someone to do a Sante Fe
Rr-30 in anything other than brass. I bought and still have brass
Overland HO models of the Rr-30 and Rr-42 (another reefer that did was
not built in large numbers) for almost 12 years. Considering the
large amount of reefers that Santa Fe and PFE ran, not to mention all
the other roads and private owners, having one or two would be a drop in
the bucket on any good size model railroad where you ran reefer blocks,
especially east of the Mississippi.

There is this strange fascination for freight cars and locomotives that
were a very minority of any given railroad's roster with the model
manufacturers and importers. An example would be that I still would
like to see a "Welded PRR 250P(or F)75 tender". For the non-PRR guys,
this is a tender with a short coal bunker and a 25,000 gallon capacity
water space. They were used to eliminate numerous water stops on
engines in passenger service. Eventually they were removed and
re-assigned to freight engines. I have never seen photographs of a
welded version of this tender, but Railworks brought out two welded
versions of this tender, although riveted versions abound. The same
goes for freight cars in various scales: the more obscure the car, the
more models of it are built.

Tom Olsen
7 Boundary Road, West Branch
Newark, Delaware, 19711-7479
(302) 738-4292
tmolsen@udel.edu

Mike Brock wrote:

If one were to have a frozen food warehouse as an on-line industry, the
probability of seeing these cars goes up.

BTW "The World Wonders" was not part of Nimitz's message it was the
"pad", a random phrase put on the end of the message to confuse any
Japanese cryptologist trying to break the code. It was an unfortunate
choice because it seemed to fit the message and the decoding clerk
mistakenly left it in, thus leading to the perceived insult to Halsey!
Now for the trivia contest. What was the pad on the front of that
famous message?

regards,

Andy Miller

An interesting aside regarding this discussion. I finally got the Athearn
news announcement this morning (Thursday) at 1:15 and can now see what
everyone's been talking about. (I never saw a link in any of the posts when
this started.) It appears that Athearn doesn't send out all their e-mail
announcements at the same time. I knew it was a long way here when shipping
things, but I didn't know it took longer for the internet too!<G>

Dan Stinson
Helena, Montana