Kitbashing Santa Fe mechanical refrigerator cars
Painting, decals, weathering After cleaning and prepping the completed cars, I sprayed them with Polly Scale F414134, Undercoat Light Gray. I inspected the seams and joints and went back with more Squadron Green putty where needed. After the re-worked areas were sanded, I applied another undercoat. The carbodies were painted with Polly Scale F414119, Reefer Orange, which was a close match to several of the color photos in Moore’s book. I allowed some overspray onto the edges of the roofs.
I carefully masked the cars to leave only the doors exposed and painted them Modelflex No. 16-34, Santa Fe Blue, then removed the masking on the roofs and then lightly sprayed them with Polly Scale F414296, Stainless Steel, but leaving much of the Under- coat Light Gray showing through. This gave the roofs a subtle, mottled coloring similar to galvanized metal. The under- frames were sprayed with Modelflex No. 16-01, Engine Black. When the paint dried I gave the bodies a coat of Testors Glosscote.
Microscale set 87-255, Santa Fe Me-
chanical Reefers, was used for the ma- jority of the lettering. Microscale set 87-2, Gothic Data Sheet, supplied let-
54
tering for the doors, car ends and smaller lettering. I used Microscale’s Micro Set during the initial placement of the decals, then applied Walthers Solvaset several times to get the decals to snuggle down. The eight-foot diame- ter ATSF cross and circle herald decals were so large that I had to slit them along the length of the ribs to get them to snuggle down completely. After the last Solvaset application had dried, I touched up the resulting gaps in the decals along the ribs with the Mod- elflex Engine Black paint. When the decals were thoroughly dry, I used damp cotton swabs to wipe down the sides to remove any setting solution residue, then I sealed the decals with Testors Dullcote.
I weathered the cars starting with very light sprays of Grimy Black paint on the roof. I then came back with vari- ous colors of Bragdon’s Weathering Powders, principally light rusts and umbers, to simulate the two to
six
years of weathering these cars would have gotten by 1971, my layout’s date. The cars were done. Depending on how you look at it, these three Santa Fe Mechanical Temperature Control cars were either 20 years or several months in the making. Regardless, the
end result was a group of distinctive cars that the Santa Cruz Northern (and many other model railroads set in that time) should have in revenue serv- ice. If you decide to build one or more of these cars, I’m sure you will be just as pleased as I am to see them come to life in your hands.
Bibliography Mechanical Refrigerator Cars of the
Santa Fe Railway 1949-1988, John B. Moore, Jr., Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society, 2007. The Official Railway Equipment Register, January 1971, The Railway Equipment and Publication Company, 1971. Pacific Fruit Express, Thompson,
Church and Jones, Signature Press, 1992. The Yellow Steel Fleet, A History of American Railroad Refrigerator Cars, John H. White, Golden West Books, 1986. “Fruit Growers Express Company”, Stan Knotts, Lineside (The Newsletter of the Railroad Industry Special Inter- est Group), Vol. XV, No. 4, pg. 7. “Prototype Considerations for Early MTC Cars”, John B. Moore, Santa Fe Modeler, 2nd Quarter, 1989, pg. 24.
JUNE 2012
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