Thinking of adding a couple Intermountain HO scale R-70-20 Mech. Reefer cars to service the cold storage warehouse on my early 80s era switching layout. I like the ones decorated for FGE, with the Real Cold logo and they are lettered with a built new date of 4-70. I’ve found evidence on the web that these cars so decorated were in service in the early 90s, but would like to know if that is true for the early 80s.
Thanks and Regards, Peter
Maybe, Maybe not - from a different thread on a different board:
[quote]
The story of the Solid Cold is as follows: In 1982 Fruit Growers Express, or FGE (owned by CSX) needed to repair and upgrade their 20 year old existing fleet of RBL boxcars (insulated plug door cars with moveable load dividers). 2500 of these RBL cars were to be retrofitted with a modified load divider system, as well as installing Chemply fiberglass resistant lining to the sidewalls and upgrading the cushioned underframe and plug door system.
The new refurbished RBL cars cost a fraction of the price of what a new car would have cost ($12,000 vs $60,000). These rebuilt cars were as good as “gold” and as “solid” as a new car. To market these new cars to shippers, FGE had the new cars re-painted with a 3D looking scheme that read Solid Gold.
The first prototype out of shop (in Alexandria, VA) was to be stenciled “Solid Gold” on the right side. During stenciling however, part of the ‘G’ had slipped and the horizontal leg of the ‘G’ was missing therefore making it look like a ‘C’. The stencil blunder gave FGE the idea to market their mechanical reefer cars in companion-like fashion to the Solid Gold and at that moment the name SOLID COLD was born.
In 1987 CSX replaced their marketing director with someone new. In an effort to establish his “identity”, he changed the “Solid Cold” to “Real Cold”. About 50 cars were repainted in this new scheme. The concept and the individual behind it were laughed off the property. As another interesting note, in 1983 FGE retrofitted 50 RPL cars for Stroh’s beer, in which they installed a 20,000 gal stainless steel tank for moving product at a protected temperature. These 50 cars had “The Chiller” logo in the same script as the Solid Cold cars.
During l
Thanks for the reply, great information and an interesting story too!
regards, Peter
Those R70-20 mechanical reefers are 57 foot cars. I’m not sure I’ve seen any of the FGE Solid Gold/Cold reefers in any length other than 50 foot in the time period the OP mentioned.
Here is a link to a photo of a Solid Cold reefer:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2673418
Jim
The Solid Gold cars were insulated boxcars (RBL) - those were 50ft.
The Solid Cold cars were 57ft Mech reefers, standard size of the mid-60s to mid 70s - there were rather few 50ft mech reefers build in the first place, and they were almost all retired by the end of the 1970s.
Check out Athearn’s new 11/22 pre-order’s for many variations of these cars in their sound-equipped reefers.
So the Intermountain “Real Cold” reefers are part of the bunch that was laughed off?
The PCF built FGE mechanical reefers are prototypical. It looks like they came from SPFE reefers in 1986.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?road=FGMR&cid=30