Getting Real Column - 6
is the InterMountain car. They have offered cars both as kits
and ready-to-run in both number series.
It should be mentioned that this class is evidently the prototype
for the Athearn steel reefer, although both underframe and ends
of that model have some discrepancies from the prototype.
These cars were all delivered in the 1946 paint scheme with
the emblems of both railroads on both sides, with the UP em-
blem in red, white and blue. But in the 1950s, many of the cars
were repainted in the then-current scheme of two emblems
each side, but with the UP emblem in black and white. My
model of one of these repainted cars is shown, see (20).
Class R-40-10.
Table 2 shows that this class was the third-
largest of PFE’s classes and the first class of all-steel cars. For
21
21: This car was built from an InterMountain kit for Class
R-40-10. Car number was changed into the 41000 group
for variety. The paint scheme shown is the post-1946
two-emblem scheme, applied when many R-40-10 cars
were repainted after World War II, with their original paint
10 or more years old. It has received the car-fan upgrade
and a steel-grid running board. It is shown at the winery
in my layout town of Ballard.
some years, InterMountain has marketed a very accurate and
complete model for this car class. It is by far the best model-
ing option. They have numbered many of their models in a re-
stricted number series, but with model PFE decals (more on that
below), one can easily change car numbers to spread the models
over the entire class number series, see (21) for my model.
By the 1950s, most cars would have been repainted; many also
received steel-grid running boards and car fans in the late 1940s
and early 1950s. My model shows those characteristics.
Class R-40-26.
This was a 2000-car class, not one of the big-
gest in the PFE fleet, but a distinctive car because it was PFE’s first
class with sliding (plug) doors. These have been offered in brass
22: This representative of PFE Class R-40-26 is a
Challenger brass model, which was repainted and
relettered correctly. The model originally had a fan
control box below the side sill on this right side, which
is incorrect; it was removed. The model is shown on
my layout at Ballard.
22
MRH-Oct 2013
