Fenton Wells sent a summary of his HO scale plastic reefer kit upgrades. Here’s Fenton with the details.

The Accurail 8500 series kits are very nice, plastic injected-molded models of plug (sliding) door transition era, 40-foot refrigerator cars with ice bunkers. I model 1953 and found the prototypes were first introduced around 1950. I thought I should have one or two for my railroad.

The Accurail model is very close to the Fruit Growers Express (FGEX) family of plug door reefers as it comes out of the box. If you want a Pacific Fruit Express (PFE) R-40-26 class version you will need to modify the side sills, tack board location, and the car ends. Tony Thompson’s SP blog featured upgrades for PFE R-40-26 class reefers.

Being a fan of the Y’All Roads I focus on the FGEX family of reefers. All three of the Fruit Growers family had these cars, FGEX (FHIX), BREX, WFEX, and NX. The models are very nice as they come. One thing that bugged me was the lack of door detail due to the casting process. After looking at prototype photos, I wanted the door mechanism detail to stand out more. I just needed to figure out a way to achieve that without going off the deep end.

Here are photos comparing the injected molded car and the prototype. The offset mechanism detail was what I wanted to improve. The Accurail car sides are separate, which makes them easy to work on. Also, if you botch something during bashing, Accurail sells the car sides separately.

Another thing about these kits is that they can be purchased at the low end of the hobby budget so if a mistake is made recovery is not catastrophic. I decided to remove the latch bars that extend from the top to the bottom of the doors. I’ll replace those with wire so they would stand off the doors.

The next challenge was the rotating door mechanism that operated and locked. It also needs to be set off of the door surface. I used an X-Acto No. 17 blade to carefully remove the locking mechanism. I removed it from one side okay but wasn’t as successful on the other side. I ended up making a new one as best I could.

Here’s the first attempt at removing the door mechanism and unwanted cast-on details. I glued a small piece of 0.020-inch plastic the same size as the piece I removed on the spot where the locking mechanism will be reattached. This will elevate the door lock from the door surface.

Next, I used 0.019-inch diameter wire for the door rods. I wrapped the ends of the wire with 0.005-inch plastic so they stand a bit off of the door surface. I used paper on a second attempt instead of the 0.005-inch plastic as it was easier to glue.

I added the fan housing, fan mechanism (steam locomotive boiler wash out plugs), door stops, hand holds, and ladders.

Now it was time to reinstall the door locking mechanism. These are the completed car sides with most all the details added.

For the car ends I chiseled off the cast on ladders, then detailed them with new ladders and grabs. I also added the retainer valve, pipe, and brake platform supports.

With the end details installed, I attached the car ends. A Plano etched metal running board and end supports were also attached.

I used Scale Coat II reefer yellow and National Scale Car decals for the FHIX lettering.

I wanted to model the roof hatches in an open position. I installed Plano etched metal latches and made hatch plugs out of sheet plastic. I glued the hatch plugs to the bottom of the hatches, then glued the details in an open position.

Here’s the finished model of the Burlington Refrigerator Express (BREX) car. I used Microscale decals to finish this model.

PFE R-40-26 reefer

With the two Fruit Growers reefers completed, I can focus on a PFE version. There isn’t much difference on this reefer, except for the side sills, ends, tack board location and ladder details.

The PFE side sills are tabbed rather than straight. The Accurail sides have the cut outs marked on the inside of the bottom of the car sides. I cut and filed away the excess following a prototype photo. I had to make a couple of modifications for the fan mechanism area as the Accurail pattern isn’t marked at those locations.

The PFE car ends did not have poling pockets. I removed those details from the Accurail ends to be representative of the PFE ends. The PFE ladders are a bit different from the FGEX ladders and I tried to emulate that, too.

Another difference is the tack boards are mounted in a higher position on the car ends for the PFE car. I sliced off the cast-on Accurail tack boards and filled my gouges with putty. New tack boards were added from my parts box in the proper position for PFE R-40-26 reefers.

Here is the PFE R-40-26 class reefer built from the Accurail kit. Floquil Daylight orange paint and Microscale decals were used for the PFE version.

These are fun bashes that can yield very nice HO scale low cost plug-door reefers that you can’t buy in the hobby shops today. I hope you are inspired to tackle a few reefer upgrade projects. Thanks for reading about my adventures!

---

Wow! Thank you for sharing your Accurail reefer upgrades, Fenton. Those look great! We look forward to seeing more of your work here on the RCW blog.

Subscribe to the Resin Car Works blog so you don’t miss a new model announcement. Add your email address to the Subscribe function at the bottom of the page.

Questions and comments can be posted below. Please follow the instructions so your comment can be posted. All comments are reviewed and approved before they appear. Share the blog link with other model railroaders.