Fruit Growers Express Refrigerator 46244

I have built Westerfield Models Fruit Growers Express Company, F.G.E.X., R7-class ventilated refrigerator, kit 11661.  I wanted to add this car to my freight car fleet because of the Warren truss design and Hutchins Dry Lading Roof features. The kit instructions have a history of these cars built by the Pennsylvania Railroad, PRR, in their Altoona Shops or for the PRR by American Car & Foundry and later leased to F.G.E.X. and placed into the 43500-46350 car series.  Patrick C. Wider has a very complete article with excellent photos in Railway Prototype Cyclopedia, Vol. 15 on these cars.  After reading the Wider article and reviewing the article photos I decided to number the car 46244, in F.G.E.X. 45645 to 46270 series, built by AC&F in December 1913 to January 1914.  I used a nice photo of F.G.E.X. 46232, which appears on page 75 and a “B” end photo on page 71, in the Wider article, as a guide to build this car.

I began the build of this one piece body kit by installing the roof and fitting the floor.  To the roof, I attached the running board with barge cement.  I continued the build installing the kit coupler boxes with Kadee No. 146 long shank couplers installed.  Since I have my railroad set in spring 1955 and F.G.E.X. reefers had original trucks replaced in later years, I used Accurail ARA cast steel with spring plank trucks with a modified spring assembly and with InterMountain 33” metal wheels.  These trucks may be replaced later with Bowser trucks based on suggestions I received on STMFC website from Andrew Dahm, Ben Hom and Dave Parker.

Next I began work on the “B” end.   I installed the running board brackets fabricated from .005” strip brass stock.  I added the brackets to the “A” end as well.  I attached Tichy Train Group (Tichy) brake step from set #3013 after cutting a small notch for the retainer line.  Brake step supports are made from Evergreen, #8102, 1x2” strip styrene.  I added the retainer line made using Tichy, #1100, .008” dia. phosphor bronze wire with brackets made with MEK goop (scrap plastic melted in MEK).  A brake shaft step was made with A-Line, #29000, sill step.  Now I could add the brake shaft, Detail Associates, #2505, .015” dia. brass wire with a Kadee, No.440, 18” brake wheel installed.  Next, I installed all grab irons on this end and “A” end.  Finally, Yarmouth Model Works, YMW #400, Carmer etched brass uncoupling levers were installed.

Click or tap on photos to enlarge

I now turned to details on sides starting with the ladders.  I did not want to use or assemble the fragile resin cast ladders so I replaced them with Branchline Trains BluePrint parts, #100015 box car details set (no longer available).  These ladders matched the rung spacing  on the resin ladders perfectly.  I cut the seven rung ladders off to have six rung ladders for the sides and five rung ladders for the ends.  If I had not had these Branchline Trains ladders in my parts box, I would have used Yarmouth Model Works metal ladders which can be purchased with this rung spacing.  With ladders installed on sides and ends, I installed the A-Line, #29000, style A, sill steps.  The sill step hanging brackets portion were made with Evergreen .005” strip styrene with rivets added using a RB Productions rivet tool.  Next, I installed the grab irons.  A second grab iron was added on the left end of the side along with nut-bolt-washer castings.  Fascia letter boards and the jacking pads were installed to finish the sides.

I returned to the roof to add the remaining details.  I added the ice hatches followed by the roof grab irons.  The corner brackets for the grab irons are Yarmouth Model Works, YMW 355, eyebolts.  Now I fabricated the ice hatch rests using .005" brass for the base and Evergreen strip styrene for the vertical portion with the notch.  Bill Welch provided photo help as did his article in Prototype Railroad Modeling, Vol. 1, published by Speedwitch Media in 2005.  I only had the underbody work left to finish the car.

I did not begin the underbody by gluing the sill flanges in place first as the instructions state.  I saved the flanges for my last step as I felt it was easier to complete all the other underbody work before doing so.  I began the underbody detailing by installing the kit supplied brake components.  The mounting brackets for the air reservoir are plastic sill steps, from the scrap box, cut-off cars that had A-Line sill steps installed. Piping from air reservoir to control valve is Tichy, #1101, .010” dia. phosphor bronze wire (PBW) and the pipe from brake cylinder is Tichy, #1106, .0125” dia. PBW as is all the roddding.   The clevises on the rodding were made with MEK goop.  The chain is A-Line, #29219, black forty links per inch.  I also added a dirt collector from Tichy, set #3013. Next, kit provided drains were installed.  Finally, the sill flanges were glued in place.  I want to thank Bruce F. Smith for providing a drawing of the PRR AB brake system that replaced the original K system allowing a correct and easier brake system install.  In addition, I want to thank Rich Orr, Dennis Storzek and Ted Culotta for providing information helping me with the underbody details.

Now the completed car was moved to the paint shop. The four color paint job was more difficult and took more time due to the taping required. The underbody was sprayed Vallejo black grey (tarnished black), 70.862, the sides Vallejo golden yellow, 70.948, the ends brown RLM 26, 71105, and roof Vallejo aluminum, 71.062.  Once all paint was dry a Model Master Gloss Clear Acryl, 4638, was applied for decal base.  Decals supplied in the kit were applied with MicroScale Set and Sol using above mentioned photos.  Once decals were dry, car body was sprayed with Model Master Flat Clear Acryl, 4636, to protect decals and paint.

Thank You for taking time to read my blog.  You can share a comment in the section below if you choose to do so.  Please share the blog link with other model railroaders.

Lester Breuer