I went back to look at my photos of these cars and I need to correct what I said about the door handle on the BREX/MNX cars. Without a protractor, I have to admit I am not really sure what the angle is, but fortunately we can use the same limitations the builder used. The handle is angled to fit between the bottom left hinge and a fitting designed to mesh w/a complementary fitting on the cars side to hold the door open.

All of these cars had straight side sills. I get confused because WFE and FGE had welded versions of these cars which had tabbed side sills. Maybe "Archer" will run their weld decals in 1/87th scale!

For the WFE 68400-68649 examples they had door hinges that sort of look like "Home Plate," not unlike the hinge fitted to PFE's steel reefers, maybe even the same hinge. These cars were built by Pacific Car & Foundry.

The BRE cars were built by FGE's Indiana Harbor shops while the MNX cars were built by the BRE shops at Plattsmouth, Nebraska.

FGE's 39500-39799 were built at their Alexandria, VA shops, but I am uncertain where their 39300-39499 were built.

Bill Welch

--- In STMFC@..., "lnbill" <fgexbill@...> wrote:

FGE's 39500-39799 were built at their Alexandria, VA shops, but I am uncertain where their 39300-39499 were built.

Bill Welch

Bill,

As soon as I saw your name, I opened up your outstanding TKM/SAL special edition on "The Companies" reefers. I see that the WFEX only had 47 steel reefers through 1948. Yet the 1943 ORER has an entry for a new class (68000-68284), but with a quantity of "...".

The RPI web site has a picture of one of these cars from the '49 car cyclopedia (68144).

If this batch of cars was not built until '49 (6 years after the '43 ORER entry?? Does that make sense??), and they are 5 inches taller than the first 47 cars, then once again the WWII modelers have been shut out? Or time for a heavy kit bash?

I realize the kit has not been produced yet, so this question is premature, but does anyone know what the spotting differences might be between the first batch of steel WFEX cars and the later batches? I need to decide if this car would at least be a possible stand-in.

Many Thanks,

Dave Evans
An SPF stuck in WWII... (an era that more and more seems to be a modeling no-man's land)

Oh, PS - BLI's new catalog (on-line), shows a run of NYC spec 468 box cars coming (similar era/size to PRR X29), but in late 40's and 50's paint schemes (AARRGGHHH - what is it about POST-WAR paint schemes!!! I am beginning to wonder if there is some secret society that says manufacturers can not offer WWII paint schemes...)

This car would appear to fill a major model gap since I think there were a LOT of these (I am not NYC literate - see SPF note above - kind of heresy...;-)

Dave,

         No heresy in mentioning the "Big Oval"; after all we SPF's love it every time we haul one of their cars!

As Bill will say, there are many possibilities for FGEX / consortium cars. Will we get all of them RTR, doubt it.
Thankfully there are talented folks who kitbash them and publish the "how-to" articles. I'm confident that
Dennis has had more input for this model than usual; and he rarely disappoints. I'm looking forward to
expanding the fleet with the steel cars.

Fred Freitas




________________________________
From: devansprr <devans1@...>
To: STMFC@...
Sent: Sat, May 15, 2010 12:13:58 PM
Subject: [STMFC] Re: 40-foot FGE/WFE/BRE/NX steel reefers correction, clarification, amplification

 


--- In STMFC@..., "lnbill" <fgexbill@...> wrote:

FGE's 39500-39799 were built at their Alexandria, VA shops, but I am uncertain where their 39300-39499 were built.

Bill Welch

Bill,

As soon as I saw your name, I opened up your outstanding TKM/SAL special edition on "The Companies" reefers. I see that the WFEX only had 47 steel reefers through 1948. Yet the 1943 ORER has an entry for a new class (68000-68284), but with a quantity of "...".

The RPI web site has a picture of one of these cars from the '49 car cyclopedia (68144).

If this batch of cars was not built until '49 (6 years after the '43 ORER entry?? Does that make sense??), and they are 5 inches taller than the first 47 cars, then once again the WWII modelers have been shut out? Or time for a heavy kit bash?

I realize the kit has not been produced yet, so this question is premature, but does anyone know what the spotting differences might be between the first batch of steel WFEX cars and the later batches? I need to decide if this car would at least be a possible stand-in.

Many Thanks,

Dave Evans
An SPF stuck in WWII... (an era that more and more seems to be a modeling no-man's land)

Oh, PS - BLI's new catalog (on-line), shows a run of NYC spec 468 box cars coming (similar era/size to PRR X29), but in late 40's and 50's paint schemes (AARRGGHHH - what is it about POST-WAR paint schemes!!! I am beginning to wonder if there is some secret society that says manufacturers can not offer WWII paint schemes...)

This car would appear to fill a major model gap since I think there were a LOT of these (I am not NYC literate - see SPF note above - kind of heresy...;-)




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On May 15, 2010, at 9:13 AM, devansprr wrote:

Oh, PS - BLI's new catalog (on-line), shows a run of NYC spec 468
box cars coming (similar era/size to PRR X29), but in late 40's and
50's paint schemes (AARRGGHHH - what is it about POST-WAR paint
schemes!!! I am beginning to wonder if there is some secret society
that says manufacturers can not offer WWII paint schemes...)

This car would appear to fill a major model gap since I think there
were a LOT of these (I am not NYC literate - see SPF note above -
kind of heresy...;-)

Yes, there were almost 21,000 of them on the New York Central System,
including the Peoria & Eastern and Boston & Albany (see my article in
the March, 2007 Railmodel Journal), and some lasted into the 1960s,
so this is a model that has been much needed. The BLI models will
have '40s/'50s P/L schemes because they will have rectangular panel
replacement roofs, which were applied by the NYC during and after WW
II. This was actually a shrewd marketing decision because, as
modeled, they can be used by a large number of late steam and
transition era modelers for whom a model with original roof would not
be correct. However, back-dating the models with a flat-panel Murphy
steel roof wouldn't be all that hard. Also, the 1940s P/L scheme was
adopted before WW II (when the black herald backgrounds were
deleted), so WW-II era modelers can justify having a BLI model with
new roof and relatively fresh paint just by back-dating the reweigh
date.

Richard Hendrickson

--- In STMFC@..., Richard Hendrickson <rhendrickson@...> wrote:

SNIP...

This was actually a shrewd marketing decision because, as
modeled, they can be used by a large number of late steam and
transition era modelers for whom a model with original roof would not
be correct. However, back-dating the models with a flat-panel Murphy
steel roof wouldn't be all that hard. Also, the 1940s P/L scheme was
adopted before WW II (when the black herald backgrounds were
deleted), so WW-II era modelers can justify having a BLI model with
new roof and relatively fresh paint just by back-dating the reweigh
date.

Richard Hendrickson

Richard,

Many thanks for the great information - looks like I need to put a few on my to-buy list, with light weathering as opposed to heavy.

Dave Evans

A closer match for 50 pre-war WFE steel reefers would be a PFE 40-10, with different Miner hinges. Pre-war FGE reefers, only 55 of them, had horizontal sheathing (maybe use the IM ART kit here)while the 270 BRE pre-war cars had a very odd biforcated corrugation as part of the end ribs.

The Accurail kits will not be even close as a stand in IMO.

Bill Welch

Guys,

In regard to the BLI NYC cars coming out, you say that it is a Spec #468. Are you sure of that or should these be NYC lots 437B, 438B and 439B as listed in Terry Links Canada Southern website?

Tom Olsen
Newark, Delaware, 19711-7479