Getting Real Column - 11
the bottom of the car side removed, and some of the clunky
Athearn details remedied.
Class R-30-9.
Although one of the last classes I will illus-
trate here, it is certainly not the least among the PFE car class-
es, numbering more that 7000 cars at one time. I believe this
is a frequently overlooked class, and there is no good reason
not to have a representative number of models, because Red
Caboose produced a fine model of this car. Both kits and, more
recently, ready-to-run cars have been offered.
I have built a couple of the Red Caboose cars from kits. The
one shown (29) was modeled with ice hatches latched open
29: Class R-30-9 is among the largest PFE classes, and
yet is often neglected by modelers. My chart, Table 2,
should make the need clear. My model, shown in a train
passing the Shumala section house, is a Red Caboose
kit, built with ice hatches latched open for vent service.
This particular kit was a special run for an annual meeting
of the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society. It
is lightly weathered to indicate a car recently washed.
29
for vent service, an operating feature described in Part One of
this column.
The Red Caboose ice hatches have plugs molded on the under-
side, as do the ice hatches of some other makers of refrigerator
car models. I painted them light gray before installation.
I think the opening angle of the hatches here, which corresponds
to the top of the kit’s latch bars, is a little too high, and I will
probably arrange my next model a little lower. But this arrange-
ment does offer an interesting variation in your reefer fleet.
Ice service cars.
Throughout its history, PFE needed to
move ice from places where it was plentiful to places with
30: This ice service car is spotted at the ice unloading
door of the ice house at Shumala. Its ice hatch openings
have been blanked off and lettering changed for its ser-
vice assignment. This is a modified Red Caboose car. The
white placard at the left of the car side reads “PFE ICE
SERVICE RETURN TO LOS ANGELES WHEN EMPTY,”
and is available in the new Microscale 87-501 set.
30
MRH-Oct 2013
