I recently acquired two of these red, white, and blue reefers on ebay in seperate purchases. I’m not sure who manufactured the first one but the one that just arrived today is by Trains Minature. The first one had an all black roof and ice hatches. The second one was simply a plug door car with no ice hatches indicating to me it is a mechanical reefer. It also has a blue roof with a silver roofwalk. Here is the odd thing. Both are numbered 3246. The only way this would make sense is if the ice cooled reefers were converted to mechanical reefers and the second one is just a later iteration of the same car. Was that something that might have been done with the ice cooled reefers or is one of these cars non-prototypical?
Potatoes may have been shipped in reefers, but did not need to be cooled. However, when potatoes were shipped in cold weather, they did need to be kept warm enough that they wouldn’t freeze.
In the winter, in earlier times, they were often shipped in reefers, with charcoal burners in the ice bunkers, and in later times, in mechanical reefers, which could provide the needed heat.
Train Miniature cars are among my favourites, but all of their plugdoor cars which I had, also had ice hatches. This meant that they were ice reefers, equipped with ice bunkers which would have, in the winter, charcoal-burning heaters if they were moving potatoes.
Most of mine were painted for one of my freelanced roads, but the ice hatches are definitely visible…(click on the photos for a larger view)
Here in Canada, both the CPR and CNR used the charcoal heaters in the ice bunkers (when appropriate). Many of those cars had small exterior doors, allowing direct access to the bunker area.
Later, they developed reefers with overhead ice bunkers, and underslung self-feeding charcoal heaters, with the cars’ inside-temperature automatically-controlled…
This is an Athearn reefer, modified to represent one of those cars…
Wayne
The SOO Line had potato cars as well. Reefers, or insulated box cars with hinged doors, painted blue.
Picture from the “O gauge Railroading On-Line Forum”.
The Waupaca Historical Society has one at the SOO Line depot in Waupaca, WI.
http://www.wamrltd.com/?action=mikeKirk
Scroll down to see the photo. They also host a VRF cam.
Mike.
Without seeing your models, it is difficult to give you a precise answer as to what you have. Being from New England and seeing a lot of BAR cars, I direct you to the “Northern New England Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment” by David R. Sweetland and Stephen Horsley, by Morning Sun Books, ISBN 1-878887-36-4.
First of all, BAR did not roster any 40 foot mechanical reefers. BAR reefers were painted yellowish orange, not red, white and blue. All 40 foot reefers were ice cooled with roof hatches for filling the bunkers. Because of BAR’s affiliation with Pacific Fruit Express, BAR owned cars built by Pacific Car and Foundry, using PFE specifications. The plug door cars numbered 7000-7856 were R40-26 clones while the swing door cars in the 8500-8574 and 8600-8749 series are square cornered R40-10s and R40-10 look-alikes. BAR 8575-8599 appear to be ex-PFE R40-14s. Intermountain-Railway Company occasionally has PFE R40-10 and -14 models available in HO. BAR also rostered ex-MDT cars similar but not exactly like the PC&F cars.
BAR also rostered some plug door XIH class 40 foot boxcars for newsprint and potato service. These cars did not have ice bunkers or roof hatches but did have underfloor heaters, and had ventilator control mechanisms high on the side near the ends. Cars 2000-2299 were built by Magor Car Co. while 2300-2449 were PC&F products. These dual purpose cars were the first BAR cars to wear the red, white and blue, State of Maine Products paint scheme BAR is famous for. Interestingly, the New Haven tacked an order for 100 cars onto the BAR’s PC&F order and, it was cheaper to have them delivered in SOM paint instead of a totally new scheme.
As far as prototypical, your Train-Miniature car is closest but, it is definitley not exact, with incorrect ends, no vent mechanisms (available in HO from M
Correction to the above: Intermountain DOES NOT produce a model of the PFE R40-14. One may be had by replacing the ends of an R40-23 with round (W cornered) ends of a 4/4 dreadnought pattern.
I since found this article about an O gauge version that purports it to be the first protoypically accurate model. It says that POTATOES appeared in the red stripe only in the earlier version of these cars which also had BANGOR AND AROOSTOOK RAILROAD in the white stripe. Later versions dropped RAILROAD from the white stripe and changed POTATOES to PRODUCTS in the red stripe. If that is true than both of these cars should say PRODUCTS.
One other point I forgot to make in the OP was that the Train Miniature box label states it is a reefer for whatever that’s worth.
No, it’s just an insulated boxcar. No mechanical refrigeration.
The potatoes don’t really need to be kept cold, but they do need to be kept from getting too cold in the winter…
Note in the photo of the SOO car a few posts up the ice hatches are open. The cars are being run with no ice and vented. So the ice reefer is only being used as an insulated box.
One (or both) is clearly just the wrong car.
I can’t find any photos of any BAR 3200 series cars online, but here’s a nice example of a 2000 series car:
http://rr-fallenflags.org/bar/bar2024o23.jpg
Please note particularly:
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insulated plug door
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no ice hatches on roof
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side vents with opening control rods at the upper corners
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underslung boxy structure hanging underneath the car is actually a charcoal or alcohol burning heater to keep contents from freezing in winter
It’s not an ice reefer, and it’s most definitely not a mechanical reefer. It’s an insulated/heated box.
That’s really hilarious that that guy calls that an “accurate” model.
Can this Model Power product be improved in any way?
I got one of those too. Mine came with the original horn hook couplers. It will require some work, changing couplers, wheels, and weathering but it could be made acceptable. Since this is a 36’ wood reefer and the other two are 40’ steel, it just doesn’t look right if put in the same consist.
It probably wouldn’t take much to patch out the ice hatches and repaint the roof to match the others. Looks like I should renumber both of them. Changing POTATOES to PRODUCTS would be a bit more challenging and I’m not sure its worth the effort. If what I read about the original series is correct, they were labeled as POTATOES cars and it was the later ones that said PRODUCTS. I wish I could find a prototype photo labeled as POTATOES. That might give me a clue as to what the proper numbering should be. I found these photos of car 2573:
3946498646_540530da5f_z.jpg (640×427) (staticflickr.com)
State+of+Maine+Boxcar.jpg (600×337) (ogaugerr.com)
Looks like it might be a museum piece. From the photos I have looked at, it appears the 2000 number series are plug door boxcars and the higher numbers are regular boxcars.
It seems an odd coincidence that two companies would come up with differing versions of these cars but both settled on number 3246.
UPDATE: I found a reference that indicates car 2573 is in Conway, New Hampshire.
The New Haven hadsome State Of Maine R-W-B cars too. Were they used in potato service also?
oldline1
Hey, at least the striping and the colors accurately match their BC car and Bicentennial Geep!
From the Barriger Library:
5084001 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
4195001 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
4195002 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
4195003 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
— and a car washer for freight cars:
4195004 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
4195006 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
4195007 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/]John W. Barriger III National Railroad Li
The following photo is in an old issue of MR magazine. This Respondent from Ask Paint Shop says the car was included in the 9800-10300 series.
Quoted from page 139 of MR March 1999 issue
MR also has a kitbash article detailed in the December 1989 issue, p146-150. “State of Maine” heater cars in red, white, and blue - O scale models of Bangor & Aroostook and New Haven
My Model Power reefer has been painted the roof and both ends black. I consider it a typical reefer in the late 1930s.
I did some additional reading on it and learned when the BAR ordered their second batch of cars, these painted with PRODUCTS in the red stripe, the New Haven piggybacked their order for more cars on their order and agreed to have the same paint job to get a discount. I would doubt they were used for potatoes because it is Aroostook County in Maine which produced most of Maine’s potatoes and I would think they would use the BAR cars to ship them.
I learned something else through that reading. Maine potatoes are harvested in the cool weather months. The official potato harvest date in Aroostook County begins September 23. The schools actually shut down for several weeks so the kids can work in the potato harvest. Since my layout is set in midsummer, shipping Maine potatoes doesn’t really fit. I was going to have regular shipments to a produce warehouse in my largest town but now I have to rethink that. Maybe I’ll have them ship blueberries instead. That season runs late July to September.
Potato Recess | Potato Harvest in Aroostook County (newengland.com)
BAR’s insulated, heater equipped, boxcars were purchased with the intent to haul newsprint when they weren’t in potato service. During the potato rush, BAR used cars leased from New York Central’s Merchants Despatch Transit, as well as reciprocal use cars from Pacific Fruit Express. Once the rush was over, the reinforcements returned home and many BAR icers followed the PFEs west, to help out there.
The dual use of the BAR 2000 series insulated boxcars was evidenced in Boston when they delivered rolls of newsprint to New Haven’s Roxbury Yard. Because New Haven’s cars were built to BAR specifications by the same Pacific Car and Foundry, they hauled many a Maine potato to New York City. The routing was BAR-B&M to Worcester MA, and New Haven to NYC. Attempts to load these cars on New Haven’s car floats at their Oak Point Yard often resulted in expensive noise from the low-slung under floor heaters, many of which were later removed.
The elaborate red-white-blue paint scheme was expensive to apply and maintain and got repainted into a simpler all red paint scheme although they did sport a rather large, elaborate tri-color herald. Decals are available from Highball Graphics (www.highballgraphics.com) in most major scales. Most of the cars in HO being passed off as PC&F insulated boxcars are about as correct as a lead balloon if prototype fidelity is a consideration.
The Lionel 6464275 boxcar cited as being so accurate is a joke if you want a PC&F car. I recall reading somewhere, the 6464 boxcar was proportioned in size to fit in a standard Lionel freight car BOX, not from scale drawings. Lionel is guilty of following the same practices as most postwar pioneers. Make one body type of each major freight car and paint it in every gaudy paint scheme on the continent, whether it is close or
John, Thanks for that info and those links. Very interes
[quote user=“oldline1”]
John-NYBW
oldline1
The New Haven hadsome State Of Maine R-W-B cars too. Were they used in potato service also?
oldline1
I did some additional reading on it and learned when the BAR ordered their second batch of cars, these painted with PRODUCTS in the red stripe, the New Haven piggybacked their order for more cars on their order and agreed to have the same paint job to get a discount. I would doubt they were used for potatoes because it is Aroostook County in Maine which produced most of Maine’s potatoes and I would think they would use the BAR cars to ship them.
I learned something else through that reading. Maine potatoes are harvested in the cool weather months. The official potato harvest date in Aroostook County begins September 23. The schools actually shut down for several weeks so the kids can work in the potato harvest. Since my layout is set in midsummer, shipping Maine potatoes doesn’t really fit. I was going to have regular shipments to a produce warehouse in my largest town but now I have to rethink that. Maybe I’ll have them ship blueberries instead. That season runs late July to September.
Potato Recess | Potato Harvest in Aroostook County (newengland.com)
Since I have been living in Maine for forty years now, my East Penn Railroad does run a Potato Special of 6 State of Maine cars (5 Bangor and Aroostook and 1 New Haven). And some how Maine Central and Boston and Maine freight cars do make frequent appearances in eastern Pennsylvania.