40' Wood Reefer kit Western Pacific/PFE #52493

Pacific Fruit Express reefers were just as iconic as the AC cab forwards that moved them over the Hill on their way to eastern markets. And at peak harvest time Roseville yard pumped out hundreds of cars daily. Even into the mechanical reefer age, requiring fewer cars for the amount of tonnage, the fruit blocks were fleeted, heading east starting at 5:00 am at the rate of one an hour until noon on most days. The bounty was table grapes, asparagus, tomatoes, garlic, onions, artichokes, pears, peaches, plums, apples, lettuce, avocados, carrots and nuts, primarily un-dried almonds and walnuts. I modeled an SP fruit block set in 1941 which is where this model is found in consist. Most know that PFE was a joint venture between the UP and SP but lesser known is that early on, Western Pacific was a party to the joint venture too, before joining Fruit Growers Express in collaboration with the Santa Fe and Great Northern in 1967. In general Accurail kits are easy to build and the appearance of the car body is excellent with paint and graphics clear, sharp and legible. The under car detailing is excellent as well. But they have two shortcomings. The wheels are plastic and will dirty up the track with ease and don't track well so they really need to be replaced. I use Intermountain IRC40050 (enough to build three 4 axle cars) all brass 33 inch wheel sets exclusively. They add weight to the car and roll really freely, especially with Accurail trucks. For a car of 40 scale feet in length the NMRA minimum standard weight is 112g. I weigh all parts before construction and it is a simple task to add any weight to the car as necessary. Usually I glue two or three pennies to the car weight supplied. If this car is going to be in the head portion of any large train consist you will want to change couplers, too. I always recommend Kadee Whisker type, medium, center set shank couplers for this duty. And they look better. So when the model is completed you may have $20 invested, but the car will look and perform better than any RTR car in this price range and in many cases those cars need to have weight added to get the car to the minimum standard weight as well. This makes Accurail a very good bargain in the end and the kits are fun to build making them highly recommendable.