I recently purchased some Tichy UP/SP PFE reefer kits. Is there any special color for these reefers or will a standard reefer orange or reefer yellow do. Thank you
PFE reference pics: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?id=PFE
UPFE reference pics: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/up/upfe.html
SPFE (buried in the list down the page): http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/sp/sp-frt.html
“Reefer Orange” as produced by several manufacturers is probably about as close as you’ll come. Even though these products may vary a bit from manufacturer to manufacturer, the deviation is probably less than the natural deviation you would find in the natural 12" = 1’0" world. The orange might fade from sun exposure or exposure to rain, snow, wind, etc. You might lighten the orange, almost to the point of being light yellow, and probably find a prototype justification. Dirt would accumulate. I’ve seen a few pictures (not a lot) in which the reefers looked almost black from steam locomotive soot, especially in WWII when equipment was used to its limits and maintenance was sometimes limited. Lots of leeway here.
Tom
The Tichy reefers are ice-cooled wood reefers, and a quick scan through Mike’s links didn’t show any of that type. You may want to check Tichy’s website, as I recently got notice from them of new decals for those cars and mention also of yellow cars - perhaps pre-dating the orange version?
I have several PFE reefers from Tichy, Red Caboose, and Athearn and used a combination of Champ and MicroScale sets, but would definitely use the Tichy ones if adding more cars.
Red Caboose:
Athearn:
Tichy:
I used Floquil Reefer Orange mixed with Reefer Yellow, but don’t recall the exact proportions - most of the cars (there are a few others) were done at different times and the paint would have been mixed for each painting session - not all the same, but certainly similar.
Southern Pacific Daylight Orange is a good match for the later orange PFE steel reefers. The Thompson/Church/Jones books have color swatches to compare to available paints. Also, MRHmagdotcom has a new book available on matching waterbased hobby paints to old colors.
Homer Simpson would not paint them yellow or orange
DOH! Hey, that’s not a Duff reefer!!
That’s an unusual arrangment for the grabirons: the car has the mid-'30s mandated second grab on the car’s side, but no ladder or grabiron ladder on the end.
Wayne
I believe the yellow cars, were those supplied by the WP railroad, they were wood reefers and painted yellow.
Rick Jesionowski
Thanks for that information, Rick. While Tichy does offer the WP decals, I didn’t see a clear explanation for their reference to yellow cars.
Wayne