Let me make one important point. It often seems that model-
ers do not realize how many wood-sheathed cars continued on
the PFE roster, even well after the arrival of thousands of all-
steel cars, just because the PFE roster was so big.
For example, in April 1950, 62% of PFE cars were wood-sheathed;
by January 1958, the fleet was still 47% wood sheathed (and inci-
dentally, there were 712 mechanical refrigerator cars on the ros-
ter). If nothing else, models should be chosen with this proportion
of wood vs. steel in the car fleet in mind.
Modeling an Ice House
As I stated in Part One, describing prototype operations, most
icing facilities in PFE territory were ice transfer plants (ITP), and
many were not really
large. This permits
modeling a small icing
facility that is not out
of scale with the rest
of the layout.
In my town of Shum-
ala, I have done
just this, with an ice
house set up for rail
delivery of ice from
elsewhere, and a two-
car deck. The building
is a simple structure
of styrene novelty
siding, with a Grandt
Line window and sim-
plified doors. I show
Getting Real Column - 13
32: The styrene building is built
with novelty siding, reinforced
near the top of the sides with
square ABS ubing, and with an
angle shape at mid-height, along
with corner angles. This kind of
construction is quick and easy.
32
MRH-Oct 2013
