Here is the full text of the message from Silver Crash Car Works about the new
models - the Photo Album referred to is on the Early
Rail Group List.
Rupert
----- Original Message -----
From: "noilmr" <rmlion@remembertheaba.com>
To: <EarlyRail@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 6:59 AM
Subject: [EarlyRail] A New Version of the Silver Crash/Railway Recollections
34' Reefer
We have posted seven new photos in the Photo Album "34 Foot Refrigerator Car
Models 2". These photos show three models built from a
new version of the Silver Crash Car Works 34' refrigerator car kit. This new
version includes the same car body as the earlier kit,
but with the NBWs and starter holes for a six-rung ladder on the SIDES (rather
than the ends) of the car. The new version also
includes three new 5' wide door types; two are hinged "refrigerator" type doors
and one is a sliding door for insulated boxcars. The
area of the door opening on the car sides is "blank" siding on the new version
to allow for the maximum flexibility in the choice of
doors applied to any model. The same under frame, add-on details, and group of
4' wide doors used in the earlier kit are included in
the new version.
MODEL No. 1. The first three photos are of a model of the Denver, Texas & Ft.
Worth / Fort Worth & Denver City / Denver Texas &
Gulf, ("Pan-Handle Route") refrigerator car P.H. #85 shown in a Pullman
builder's photo on page 41 in White's "The Great Yellow
Fleet". The construction date of this car is 1888 or 1889. A roster in an
article "Reefers" by Masterson and Landregen (Burlington
Bulletin No. 12) indicates that the entire #75-94 series of these cars went to
the UPD&G in 1890 and were renumbered as C&S #350-367
in 1898. The remaining cars were renumbered 50000-50010 in 1911; all were
retired by 1915.
This model uses the four-hinge door with vertical sheathing provided with the
new kit. The trucks were built from a set of Rio
Grande Models narrow gauge side frames, with added "wood" bolsters and spring
planks, assembled with a new truck bolster as a
standard gauge truck. The lettering is a Clover House set of dry transfers,
with a builder's insignia added from an Art Griffin set.
The ends of the car are not visible on the builders photo and we have found no
additional information on them. The details and even
the color of the ends on the model are then based on pure speculation.
This and the words "Riordan Patent" over the door on the photo lead to the
major remaining puzzle about this prototype and, in turn,
to one of the more interesting aspects of the model. Some of the refrigerator
cars marked Riordan Patent had a pair of tall and
narrow doors on their ends. These doors could be opened to provide ventilation
for the lading. A photo of ETV&G car #12088 on page
67 of "PFE - PACIFIC FRUIT EXPRESS" by Thompson, Church and Jones shows a good
view of these doors (the end of this car from what
appears to be the same photo was posted on this site by Art Griffin about a
month ago). It is not clear whether P.H. #85 had these
doors; the patent covering them wasn't applied for until a year or so after the
Pan-Handle car was built. But we did add them to the
model to illustrate this interesting (and possible) feature.
MODEL No. 2. The next two photos show a model of St. Louis, Keokuk & North
Western #6022, a Wickes Patent Refrigerator car built by
the Michigan - Peninsular Car Co. in 1893 and lettered for the American
Brewing Co. of St Louis. The Wickes Patent apparently
describes an intricate structure of metal webbing and wires for the ice baskets
in refrigerator cars, designed to maximize the area
of contact between the cold surfaces and the air circulating through the car.
It must have been somewhat successful, as White states
that nearly 2,000 Wickes cars were in service by 1887 and about 10,000 in 1898.
Photos of these cars show a wide variety of external
features. Our kit allows modeling of those Wickes cars with six-rung ladders on
the car sides. Further, the top pair of NBWs can be
shaved off and the top pair of starter holes filled in on each side to model
additional Wickes cars with five-rung ladders. The
model of StLK&NW #6022 has the five foot wide doors with diagonal sheathing
that are provided in the kit. These were used on many
but not all Wickes cars. The lettering is from an Art Griffin set, and the
trucks are Bitter Creek Models T-2 swing-motion trucks
with a 5' wheelbase.
MODEL No. 3. The last two photos show a model of St. Louis Refrigerator Car Co.
#352, an insulated box car lettered for the
Anheuser-Busch Brewing Co. In the 1890s the St. Louis Refrigerator Car Co.
provided refrigerator cars and insulated boxcars for both
the Anheuser-Busch and William J. Lemp breweries of St. Louis. Art Griffin has
decals and photos for a number of these cars. The
builders photo of #352 that is the basis for our model shows that this car was
built in July, 1902 by the American Car and Foundry
Co. The car in the photo has several features, such as six truss rods and a tie
rod across each end, that are characteristic of cars
built around 1900. The model has these same features and the 5 foot wide
sliding doors included in the kit. The lettering is from an
Art Griffin decal set and the trucks are Bitter Creek Models T-4 arch-bar
trucks with a 5' wheelbase. The ends of the truck bolsters
nave been modified to match those on the "American" type trucks seen in the
builders photo. Again, models of prototype
Anheuser-Busch and William J. Lemp cars with five-rung side ladders could be
built by eliminating the top rung on each side of the
car.
These three models illustrate some of the wide variety of cars that can be
built from the new kit. Information for anyone interested
in these kits will soon appear on our Silver Crash Car Works website. Click on
"Links" over in the left column of this page, go down
the alphabetical listing to "Silver Crash Car Works", and click there to get to
our website.
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