Rapido Trains Meat Reefers "Whoo Hoo!"

[up1950s]

  Well heck , some of us might actually buy a Canadian steamer , Maybe even without complaining ...... How about a Royal Hudson .....

They will do the Hudson if you promise not to complain about the B-C-B truck configuration .

[peteski]

They will do the Hudson if you promise not to complain about the B-C-B truck configuration .

Wouldn't that be 2'C2' , or even 2'C2'h2S ? 

[up1950s]

You mean a 4-C-2 I think . But Rapido is not doing steam , and my guess is steam is a Royal  ................ so the under carriage must be diesel , and just think of all that pickup and traction . Hmmmm D-D home brew yard bruiser .

[Angus Shops]

FA 2? FPA 4? How about a H16-44?

Geoff

[bbussey]

Bachmann makes a late H16-44, while Atlas makes the early versions.

[up1950s]

Maybe 1 is the CPR 4744 M-640


http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/data/lvn/20061117234549_8c_3.jpg

[OldEastRR]

Not to go into board gaps, but the white lettering on my Swift reefers looks kinda faded. The large "swift" especially. The dark lines where the board gaps run through the letters have a diluting effect on them, it seems to me. I traced white chalk over the gaps and it had an overall brightening effect on the lettering. I'm thinking of dry-brushing white paint in there. Has anybody else done this?

[bbussey]

Haven't done anything with mine yet, but that might be a good thing to try. Also adding black to the repack boxes, as they could use the added emphasis — particularly on any of the other (yellow) deco schemes.

[up1950s]

Re-looking at photos I took compared to other manufactures , Pete is right .
MTL looks about 3 x 1 , board width x crack width .
Atlas looks about 2.5 x 1.
Rapido looks about 2 x 1.

Out of all these the MTL looks best to me .

Interestingly the space between the ladder side rails in all 3 cases show about 3 boards and 3 cracks .

The crack depth that Rapido has doubles the thin feeling of the boards .

Clear flat will help but not cure .

[OldEastRR]

Haven't done anything with mine yet, but that might be a good thing to try. Also adding black to the repack boxes, as they could use the added emphasis — particularly on any of the other (yellow) deco schemes.

Yes, I noticed that later. All the black boxes have thin bands through them of whatever the body color is (from where the black didn't get into the board gaps). The yellow Swift reefers lettering overall seems thicker (more opaque) than the on the red ones. Maybe some cars just had lighter paint spray than others for some reason related to manufacture.
So I'm wondering if it's not so much the board spacing but that the gaps are relatively deep that's causing the arguments about this car. Be interesting to get a undec, remove the cast-on ladders and grab irons, sand the sides down so the gap is less pronounced, then paint and decal the car to see what it looks like.

[Cajonpassfan]

Well, since this is purportedly a Rapido meat reefer (whoo hoo) thread, I thought I'd do something radical and post a couple of actual Rapido meat reefer pics
The first is as is, the second has a bit of light weathering (it represents a two year-old paint job). I tried to go with a light color to not accentuate the grooves, but they are still prominent. The adjacent car is an Atlas reefer, for comparison purposes. I can certainly live with the car, happily, and move on to other projects...
Otto K.

PS: Dang, that feed truck has been stuck in the same place on Route 66 for months, and looks way too clean...

[arbomambo]

Absolutely Otto,
 I love my Kingan cars!

[OldEastRR]

Here's a Swift reefer I touched up:



The right hand side of the car I overpainted with red around the "SWIFT" and data blocks and really laid it on. The paint settled in the gaps and seems to make them less noticeable. (this picture doesn't show that but from a couple of feet away the difference is apparent.) Compare with the unretouched left side. The board gaps there don't seem  to have much paint in them thus are more noticeable.
The "S" and "W" of "swift" I likewise carefully touched up by painting white into the board gaps through the letters. You can see these two letters seem bolder and more solid than the unretouched 3 last letters that have lines running  down through them.
More than the gap size I think it's the paint job that is the problem with these cars. The paint doesn't seem to be getting into the gaps and that contrast with the painted boards really accentuates the gaps - especially with lettering. Maybe Rapido could try different paint consistencies to see if that makes a difference.

[peteski]

More than the gap size I think it's the paint job that is the problem with these cars. The paint doesn't seem to be getting into the gaps and that contrast with the painted boards really accentuates the gaps - especially with lettering. Maybe Rapido could try different paint consistencies to see if that makes a difference.

Neah, it is the gaps.    Paint is not the problem. This decoration is Tampo-printed using a rubber stamp. Because it is a stamp, it cannot squeeze into those deep gaps.