Tim,

Thanks, those are great photos and they show exactly what I was trying to describe!  There's one other photo I know about that is in one of the small softcover Anthracite railroad books.  It shows an overhead view of the CNJ yard on the Lehigh River with 3 SLRX reefers.  Since all my Eastern RR books are in storage elsewhere, I can't check.

Thanks again!

Todd Sullivan

Say Tim, What in the world do the MOP do to that EMD switcher that moved the exhaust stacks off to the

left side and radically changed the roof vents ahead f them as well? Talk abut the Rock Island's Christine,

this is quite a rebuild!

Cordially, Don Valentine

Say Tim, What in the world do the MOP do to that EMD switcher that moved the exhaust stacks off to the
left side and radically changed the roof vents ahead f them as well? Talk abut the Rock Island's Christine,
this is quite a rebuild!

Cordially, Don Valentine

Bob Webber

The Swift cars had BCR roofs, including the red cars. Obviously they
weathered to streaky gray and red. I’ll defer to others on the silver,
at least for the wood sided cars.

On Apr 3, 2020, at 5:30 PM, Todd Sullivan via groups.io
<sullivant41=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:

Brian,

Nice catch. My Rapido reefers are in storage in Syracuse, so I'd
better make a note to check the SRLX car when we are reunited. I'll
also check my Sunshine kit that is painted but not assembled. Hmmm,
maybe I should dig it out and finish it during this corona virus lull.

Fun story: Tony Koester had 26 of those red Atlas reefers, and Atlas
only produced about 6 numbers. As occasional yardmaster in
Frankfort's eastbound yard, I got awfully tired of seeing numbers
repeat in a cut of Swift reefers from Kansas City. So, I offered to
rework them a bit and renumber them, working in batches of 4-5 cars.
The next operating session, Tony presented me with a box with all 26
(!) along with some dry transfer numbers that were exactly right for
the Atlas lettering. The dry transfers didn't work very well, and I
decided it was easier to hand re-letter the cars. I found that any
of the numbers 0, 6 and 9, could be easily transformed into another
of those numbers, and the same for 3, 6 and 8, so that's how they got
renumbered. I tried using decals for the journal repack data, and
the first car took about 2.5 hours to get the decals settled into the
scribed siding on both sides. Nope, that wasn't going to work,
either, so I faked the RPKD data with tiny dabs of white paint. It
works with the 2 foot rule - no one has mentioned that it isn't
legible, and I still use the technique on my models!

Todd Sullivan

From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Bob Chaparro via groups.io
Sent: Friday, April 3, 2020 5:25 PM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: [RealSTMFC] New Run: Rapido HO Scale General American Meat Reefer

New Run: Rapido HO Scale General American Meat Reefer

From the Rapido website: "Rapido is pleased to announce a new production run of our HO scale General American 37’ meat refrigerator car! It has been quite a while since we’ve offered these popular cars for sale, and it’s about time that we did some more! We are offering new road numbers on some of the most popular schemes from the earlier runs, as well as an all-new HO release."

https://rapidotrains.com/products/ho-scale/freight-cars/ho-scale-37-general-american-garx-reefer

These are available in multiple road numbers for:

American Stores

Armour

Cudahy

Dubuque

GARX Refrigerator

Hormel

Kingan

Morris Rifkin

Oscar Meyer

Swift (Red Block, Red Billboard & War Bonds)

URTX Refrigerator

Undecorated

I have no idea whether all of these variants are accurate for prototype cars, however.

I have no financial connection to Rapido.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

The Swift reefers in the photo have doors with only 4 hinges, which stands out to me.  I think most reefers have doors with 6 hinges.  Can anyone tell me the difference?  Were the four hinge doors lighter weight or were the hinges more heavy duty?   How many reefer cars had the 4 hinge car?  I assume different manufacturers built the different doors.  Thanks

Chuck Cover

Santa Fe, NM

The Swift reefers in the photo have doors with only 4 hinges, which stands out to me.  I think most reefers have doors with 6 hinges.  Can anyone tell me the difference?  Were the four hinge doors lighter weight or were the hinges more heavy duty?   How many reefer cars had the 4 hinge car?  I assume different manufacturers built the different doors.  Thanks

Chuck Cover

Santa Fe, NM

The Swift cars had BCR roofs, including the red cars. Obviously they weathered to streaky gray and red. I’ll defer to others on the silver, at least for the wood sided cars.

On Apr 3, 2020, at 5:30 PM, Todd Sullivan via groups.io <sullivant41=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:

Brian,

Nice catch.  My Rapido reefers are in storage in Syracuse, so I'd better make a note to check the SRLX car when we are reunited.  I'll also check my Sunshine kit that is painted but not assembled.  Hmmm, maybe I should dig it out and finish it during this corona virus lull.

Fun story: Tony Koester had 26 of those red Atlas reefers, and Atlas only produced about 6 numbers.  As occasional yardmaster in Frankfort's eastbound yard, I got awfully tired of seeing numbers repeat in a cut of Swift reefers from Kansas City.  So, I offered to rework them a bit and renumber them, working in batches of 4-5 cars.  The next operating session, Tony presented me with a box with all 26 (!) along with some dry transfer numbers that were exactly right for the Atlas lettering.  The dry transfers didn't work very well, and I decided it was easier to hand re-letter the cars.  I found that any of the numbers 0, 6 and 9, could be easily transformed into another of those numbers, and the same for 3, 6 and 8, so that's how they got renumbered.  I tried using decals for the journal repack data, and the first car took about 2.5 hours to get the decals settled into the scribed siding on both sides.  Nope, that wasn't going to work, either, so I faked the RPKD data with tiny dabs of white paint.  It works with the 2 foot rule - no one has mentioned that it isn't legible, and I still use the technique on my models!

Todd Sullivan

On Apr 3, 2020, at 5:30 PM, Todd Sullivan via groups.io <sullivant41@...> wrote:

Brian,

Nice catch.  My Rapido reefers are in storage in Syracuse, so I'd better make a note to check the SRLX car when we are reunited.  I'll also check my Sunshine kit that is painted but not assembled.  Hmmm, maybe I should dig it out and finish it during this corona virus lull.

Fun story: Tony Koester had 26 of those red Atlas reefers, and Atlas only produced about 6 numbers.  As occasional yardmaster in Frankfort's eastbound yard, I got awfully tired of seeing numbers repeat in a cut of Swift reefers from Kansas City.  So, I offered to rework them a bit and renumber them, working in batches of 4-5 cars.  The next operating session, Tony presented me with a box with all 26 (!) along with some dry transfer numbers that were exactly right for the Atlas lettering.  The dry transfers didn't work very well, and I decided it was easier to hand re-letter the cars.  I found that any of the numbers 0, 6 and 9, could be easily transformed into another of those numbers, and the same for 3, 6 and 8, so that's how they got renumbered.  I tried using decals for the journal repack data, and the first car took about 2.5 hours to get the decals settled into the scribed siding on both sides.  Nope, that wasn't going to work, either, so I faked the RPKD data with tiny dabs of white paint.  It works with the 2 foot rule - no one has mentioned that it isn't legible, and I still use the technique on my models!

Todd Sullivan