Western Refrigerator Line AC&F Reefer

In the spirit of throwback Thursdays, I am going to start digging into my past and sharing some of the cars I've built over the years. This model is a Western Refrigerator Line (Green Bay & Western) AC&F reefer. Branchline Trains offered them as decorated kits way back in the day. To one of the BLT cars, I added some detail upgrades, including wire grab irons and uncoupling devices, A-Line metal sill steps, wire upgrades for the brake gear, a Klasing power hand brake (with vertical shaft) from a Proto 2000 Mather box car kit, and 0.005" styrene strips at the lower door edges, below the hinges. I tried my best to match the gray, freight car red, and black to blend the detail upgrades.

Note the Proto 2000 Klasing hand brake

These cars were profiled in "Essential Freight Cars," so if you have the back issues of Railroad Model Craftsman, you can find the article there. If I were to model these cars today, I would use Tahoe or Rapido (from the NP double sheathed box cars) trucks, instead of the Accurail trucks shown above. Another vehicle to model these in HO scale is Westerfield.

Fayetteville, NC, Oct. 22, 1951, Col. Chet McCoid photo, Bob's Photo

WRL had 500 such cars delivered by American Car & Foundry in 1929 (lot 920,) car nos. 9000-9499. They were fairly long-lived, lasting well into the 1950s, with some surviving into the 60s. An indeterminate number of cars received side sill strengthening members that made the cars quite distinctive in appearance.