The following is part of a review posted by reefer historian Byron Rose about
the new ACF wooden reefers from Branchline Trains. These cars are very
similar to the DL&W wooden cars, and they're as close as we're likely to get.
To the reefer hardcore, the DL&W were quite different than the
run-of-the-mill ACF car produced by BLT. To the general spotter, these cars
have all of the ACF details that make a reefer ACF -- the side and end sills,
the trim along the roof and on the ends and the doors and hinges and
underframe general arrangement. These are much more correct than the PFE
reefers released in DL&W paint from Red Caboose a few years ago.
As the reviewer states, the car isn't a great building experience, but to
paraphrase Popeye, it is what it is.
Read on: ....Mike
>>Branchline Trains just released a kit for a Refrigerator Car built in
1927 by American Car and Foundry, for Union Refrigerator Transit Comapny
and affiliated roads. It is a car which has been seen in modeling
several times before, starting with an HO resin kit (which I helped Al
Westerfield produce) and more recently in O scale, as a brass model and
as parts of a plastic model by Atlas. The usefulness of this car is its
longevity, in several cases lasting into the 60s. During its lifetime it
hosted hundreds of different lettering schemes, most of them well
documented if you want to do some digging. It was also the subject of
several largely photographic articles in the model/prototype press.
Truly, a useful car to model.
So what do we actually have when we open the kit box? A collection of
parts which clearly puts this model out of the shake the box class, but
based on discussions with BLT, a kit intended to be easily built. Now
that I have built one, I'm afraid that hasn't happened. Let me mention
several sore spots before I get down to cases.
Parts which DO NOT fit: Sides to car body. Trucks to underframe.
Underframe to floor.
Parts which bear no resemblance to their full size counterparts: Ice
hatches (murder on a reefer).
Parts which are incorrectly located: Side door latch bar, air hose.
Lettering crooked, smudged, poor color coverage, poor color registration.
That latter is really ironic. One of the reasons BLT wanted to produce
these kits is to show off their custom painting skills. I guess rushing
will take the edge off that. The artwork produced for these models is
phenomenal, the best I have ever seen. Lots and lots of time was
expended on it<<
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End of ErieLack Digest V3 #273
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