New Railway Express Agency page at N-scale Varnish User's Guide

[jmlaboda]

I am please to announce that I have added a new page dedicated to the Railway Express Agency to the N-scale Varnish User's Guide website.  Available N-scale models that appropriately represent REX cars as well as express boxcars and reefers of various REX owners are covered and I hope folks will find this page to be very useful.  This week I have also updated a number of other pages (dates noted on buttons) so that the express boxcars and reefers are covered under their appropriate owner.

The first link below will take you to the new Railway Express Agency page while the second is the User's Guide home page...

http://n-scalevarnish.info/index/varnish/UsersGuide/REX.htm

http://n-scalevarnish.info/index/varnish/UsersGuide

[nickelplate759]

This is great!
One possible correction (I hope).  Your page says "At the present time there are no decals or dry transfers available for lettering REX cars though most roads do have sets suitable for lettering express reefers and boxcars.  Please refer to the appropriate railroad page."

Microscale offers a set 60-1010 that I think applies for at least some cars:

http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MD&Product_Code=60-1010&Category_Code=REAX

[jmlaboda]

George...

Thanks so very much in pointing this out to me.  Microscale doesn't list the decal correctly so it doesn't come up when searching for Railway Express Agency but this is great news.  Will get this added in and the page reposted in just a little bit... definitely great news!!!

[CBQ Fan]

Thank you for doing this!  This is an awesome resource!

[arbomambo]

left to right:
MDC, Micro Trains, Skytop Models

~Bruce

[Cajonpassfan]

Jerry, excellent resource, thank you so very much for compiling a comprehensive listing! Very useful!
Regards, Otto K.

[OldEastRR]

PFE 558, MDC 50' wood side reefer, is not listed.

[thomasjmdavis]

Jerry, thank you for another fantastic resource. 

Here are a couple potential addenda (please consider these as advisory, you know much more about passenger cars than I do, but based on some of the resources I have at hand)-

ATSF had 2 classes of passenger equipped boxcars.  The list has the last version with the end doors (an FE-29 in ATSF parlance, IIRC).  The earlier (delivered 1941 into 1942) FE-24s- very similar but without end doors- have also been done by several manufacturers.  Con-cor's double door boxcar of the late 70s is based on these cars (IIRC), and has a sill that most resembles the first batch (10000-10200 soon renumbered to 4100-4299)- the sill on these cars was cut away on the ends. The Con-Cor paint job was not great, but repainted and decaled, the car is pretty good for its vintage.

George Hollowell did the 50s scheme on IM cars (he may have done map scheme as well, but I don't have any).  My opinion based on photos is that the IM cars look more like the batch of 100 additional freight FE-24s that were later converted, that ended up numbered 4300-4399, which have a longer sill than the original batch.  It is complete speculation on my part, but I surmise that the original 200 passenger equipped cars had bits of the sill cut away to facilitate access to the additional passenger equipment and/or to service the Allied Full Cushion trucks.  The cars later converted from freight kept the same sills they had as freight cars.  But I am hesitant to trust my old eyes, not to mention that I am basing this on a relatively small number of photos. but this is the info I am using in my own modeling, subject to any correction you or others may have here.

MT did several versions of FE-24 paint schemes on their "standard" 50' double door car, most recently the late 40s-thru 50s express scheme.  The sills are longer than either of the 2 mentioned above, and I speculate that the prototype for the MT car is a later vintage.  However, the MT car with end doors iS correct for the FE-29 cars, as you note on your list.

Also, there was a second, later CEI 50' express car (25-29, 31 34, 37, 38), based on a standard freight car body with single door, in addition to the modified troop cars.  These were ACF cars delivered in 1955 with 8' doors.  MT has a single door 50' car that looks generally similar, but again the sills are wrong (photo of the CEI car in CEI in Color show the sill ends modified ala the original ATSF cars), and I don't know what roof the prototype car had.  But for the time being, I have a MT car painted blue that I intend to decal as a stand in.  It may be that there is another model out there that would be a better starting point.

On the CEI converted troop cars.... According to the CEI diagram book (available from the CEI HS on DVD), the cars had 47.5 inches wide x 73 inches tall, that look in the diagrams more like the original doors than those of the CBQ/NYC/Monon internal doors, which look wider in photos.  So I wonder if the MT kitchen car as is, with windows blocked, might not be correct. The diagrams also note that over the years, several were given youngstown doors- so we might speculate that those were modified with larger openings.

[arbomambo]

this is one of the George Hollwedel ATSF express boxes (IM)

[thomasjmdavis]

Thanks for all the photos, Bruce. Nice work on your Fast Mail.

[jmlaboda]

PFE 558, MDC 50' wood side reefer, is not listed.

Is it a reasonable example for PFE?  Didn't list it because of the Fine N Scale model but probably should (at least listed as a "Stand-in"). Originally had it but then took it out when I found out about the Fine N Scale model but will take a bit of a closer look to see how close they are...

Con-cor's double door boxcar of the late 70s is based on these cars (IIRC),...

The quality of the Concor car is the reason why it was not included (the vast majority of models listed in the User's Guide are more recent models that have much better detail), and it doesn't match very well to the prototype either (but in looking at the MT model, it doesn't match the sill detail either and I likely will change it to being a " Stand-in").

George Hollowell did the 50s scheme on IM cars (he may have done map scheme as well, but I don't have any).  My opinion based on photos is that the IM cars look more like the batch of 100 additional freight FE-24s that were later converted, that ended up numbered 4300-4399, which have a longer sill than the original batch.  It is complete speculation on my part, but I surmise that the original 200 passenger equipped cars had bits of the sill cut away to facilitate access to the additional passenger equipment and/or to service the Allied Full Cushion trucks.  The cars later converted from freight kept the same sills they had as freight cars.  But I am hesitant to trust my old eyes, not to mention that I am basing this on a relatively small number of photos. but this is the info I am using in my own modeling, subject to any correction you or others may have here.

Will get these cars added in soon listed as a Stand-in.  The sill tabs aren't quite right but otherwise it is a great representation of such a car...

Also, there was a second, later CEI 50' express car (25-29, 31 34, 37, 38), based on a standard freight car body with single door, in addition to the modified troop cars.

They don't show up on two of my copies that I have of the Official Register of Passenger Train Equipment (1954 and 1960... have 1967 "somewhere" but can't put my hand on it right now), neither do they appear in my copy of the C&EI Passenger Car Diagram book (dated 1961) but it explains the MoPac Jenkins blue 50' car that John Eagan has shared in his Flickr account.  Will get these cars added in soon as well...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31385681@N02/8307444736

On the CEI converted troop cars.... According to the CEI diagram book (available from the CEI HS on DVD), the cars had 47.5 inches wide x 73 inches tall, that look in the diagrams more like the original doors than those of the CBQ/NYC/Monon internal doors, which look wider in photos.  So I wonder if the MT kitchen car as is, with windows blocked, might not be correct..

In doing a quick exam of the C&EI convered kitchen cars to that of the CB&Q and Monon cars linked to below you will see that the door is the same size as originally applied.  If you compare the row of rivets above and along side the door you will see that they match up with the door width.  Such a detail, at least above the door, would not have changed if the doors were of a different size (see comment below)...

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2880075
http://transport.castlegraphics.com/displayimage.php?pid=4046&fullsize=1
http://rr-fallenflags.org/monon/mon02210jpa.jpg

The diagrams also note that over the years, several were given youngstown doors- so we might speculate that those were modified with larger openings.

The cars that recieved the Youngstown doors were: C&EI 7, 11, 14 - 18 and 22 and you can see from photos that the door opening is quite large compared to the stock kitchen door.  Would make for an interesting kitbash but it will involve quite a bit of work to do it right...

MP X15034 ex-C&EI 7...
http://www.pjv101.net/film_bw/bw08/1482_170.jpg

MP X15044 ex-C&EI 17...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckzeiler/32108417296

MP X15045 ex-C&EI 18...
http://www.pjv101.net/film_bw/bw08/1482_180.jpg

Some work still ahead of me but should have these items taken care of later tonight.

[Mark5]

This is awesome!

From the info on the page, I am guessing this PRR car in the pic below is from the PRR 2000-2499 series of X29 cars.

[thomasjmdavis]

In doing a quick exam of the C&EI convered kitchen cars to that of the CB&Q and Monon cars linked to below you will see that the door is the same size as originally applied.  If you compare the row of rivets above and along side the door you will see that they match up with the door width.

Jerry, I owe you and Bill Denton an apology. Obviously you are correct. Maybe it is my computer screen, but I was perceiving the photos of the Skytop shell as having a wider door than the original car. 

Thanks for all the photos- quite helpful for modeling these cars.  Those are the first pics I have seen of the CEI cars with Youngstown doors.

I can't argue over the Con-cor car.  Definitely not up to the standard of recent releases. At the time, a pretty good looking car compared to the Bachmann and Atlas cars of that day, but the factory paint was very crude (it was the first time I ever stripped a SF car and repainted and decaled to correct a factory paint job).

One more question....
Over the years, several companies have marketed 40' reefers in REA paint. Did REA have any 40' reefers?  I have one from Intermountain, and they are usually pretty dependable on road names. Car #1113, although in the wrong box, as the box label says #1172.

And one more possible addition- Fox Valley produced a 50' ribside boxcar in Milwaukee Road passenger colors, road number on the model is 312. I am not a MILW expert.  Picked up the car because it was interesting, and because MILW express cars (although baggage, not box) occasionally show up in photos of trains I am modeling.

Tom D

[jmlaboda]

Did REA have any 40' reefers?

Except for some 40' express boxcars that were leased from various roads there were no other 40-footers... the closes was a small series of wood express reefers that were 45' long but they were mostly retired by '54... only one remained.  Elsewhere in another thread (MT April releases) it was pointed out that MT had done a 40' car... the problem with the prototype is that it is a fake at a museum that likely was painted up for a movie.

[OldEastRR]

Is it a reasonable example for PFE?  Didn't list it because of the Fine N Scale model but probably should (at least listed as a "Stand-in"). Originally had it but then took it out when I found out about the Fine N Scale model but will take a bit of a closer look to see how close they are...

Hmmm... the car is the same Roundhouse model as the REX version (whoever Roundhouse is now). Are you listing only the cars that are prototypical? Not sure if it's a PFE one.