M O D E L I NG W ITH PA I NT A N D D ECA LS

ATHEARN HO SCALE AND MDC N SCALE
5 7-FOOT MECHANICAL REFRIGERATOR CARS CAR SPOTTERS GUIDE NO. 1 7
By James Eager Prototype cars you can recreate using just a stock Athearn kit with new paint and decals.
e d PFE to specify a larger door opening to better accommodate l o ad i n g a n d unloading with mechanized fork trucks. Where the opening on previous classes was 9 feet clear, the R-70-20' s opening was 1 0 feet 6 i n c he s , w i th the d o o r itself being 8 i nches wider for a n effec tive stepped seal. One-and-one-half feet might not sound like much of a differ ence, but it is easil y noticeable. Perhaps a more apparent d i fference is in the roof design. All previous PFE classes had peaked roofs, while the R70-20 employed a new flattened arch roof with internal trusses to support the c e i l i n g , i n s u l at i o n and roof s h e e t s . (Cross section drawings appear i n the 1 970 Car Builders ' Cyclopedia. ) O n the first batch of R-70-20s b u i l t in 1 969, the roof sheets themselves were either smooth or had three shallow stiffen i ng ribs pressed into them. The panels were arranged in an alternating smooth and r i b be d p a t t e r n , separated b y l arger pressed ri b s . R-70-20s bui l t i n 1 970 used only ribbed roof panels, as did the s ubsequent R-70-2 1 , -22, -23 , -24, and 25 c l a s s e s , but t h e c ar b o d i e s w e re otherwise i d en t i c a l . In a l l c a s e s , the smooth end panels sloped down to meet the ends. The end sheets had the same rib pat tern as earlier c l asses, with a thin, shal low rib above three larger ribs stamped into the top sheet, and four l arge ribs in t h e l o we r s h e e t , fo r a 3 /4 p a t t e rn . However, the top of the end was flat in the middle and sloped at the corners to meet the roof sheets. All the cars were equipped with in terior load divider bulkheads and sl id ing s i l l c u s h ioned underframes . B oth H y d r ac u s h i o n ( p r e fe r r e d by t h e Sou thern Paci fi c ) a n d Keystone were used on the first R-70-20 order at the i n s i s t e n c e of t h e U n i o n Pac i fi c . Subsequent classes alternated between the two. The only obvious d i fference i s the l arge cylinder below t h e center s i l l o n cars w i t h t h e Hydracushion system. Athearn ' s model d u p l i c ates a l l of these features very c l osel y . It comes

I

' ve always thought that Athearn ' s 57-foot mechanical reefer was one of the firm ' s best model s . I t ' s a very accurate and well-tooled ren dition of the Pacific Fruit Express class R-70-20 cars built i n 1 969 by Pacific cal c l as ses that fol l owed . It also hap pens to be accurate for several other

Car & Foundry, and the almost identi

railroads' cars as wel l . Now that Con Cor has released a model of PFE ' s ear l i e r mech a n i c al s , we thought it was time to cover the Athearn and MDC cars t oo. ( See Car Spotters Guide 1 5 o n the R-70- 1 4 to - 1 9 classes and clones in the March, 1 993 issue of "The Journal. " P FE ' s R-70-20 was similar t o earlier PFE classes at first glance, with i ts riv eted exterior s i de p o s t con stru c t i o n , exterior post Youngstown p l u g door and late improved Dreadnaught end s . However, the R-70-20 cars differed i n several ways. First, experience prompt-

C ar Spotters Guides
(providing specific prototypes for some of the 'better' kits) No . I : Life-L ike HO or N scale 50-foot flat-roof box cars appeared in the January 1 990 issue. No. 2: Details West 50-foot smooth plug-door box cars appeared in the March 1990 issue. No. 3 : Details West HO scale and Con-Cor N scale 50-foot double-plug door box cars appeared in the June 1 990 issue. No. 4: Details West HO scale 50-foot plug-door (exterior post) box cars ap peared in the October 1 990 issue . No. 5 : Eastern Car Works/Con-Corl Walthers HO scale and Atlas N scale 70 ton Airslide covered hoppers appeared in the December 1990 issue. No. 6 : S tewart Hobbies HO scale 4O-foot, three-bay, 14-panel hoppers ap pear in the January 1 99 1 issue. No. 7 : Athearn HO scale and Precision M asters N scale 4740-cubic-foot-ca pacity covered hoppers (and Precision M asters N scale 47S0-cubic-foot-ca pacity covered hoppers) appear in the January 1 99 1 and July 1 99 1 issue (page 55). NO . 8: Eastern Car Works/Con-Corl Wal thers HO scale and Atlas N scale 70-ton Airsl ide covered hoppers , the railroad-owned cars, appeared in the Feb ruary 1 991 issue. The private owner cars appeared in NO. 5 in the December 1 9 90 issue. No. 9: Model Power HO scale cyl in dric al covered hoppers appeared in the November 199 1 issue. No. 10: Precision Masters N scale two bay "Greenville" covered hoppers ap peared in the April 1 992 issue . N o. I I : MDC HO scale 4,700-cubic foot capacity grain cars appeared in the August 1 99 2 issue, with an article on the prototype cars and more photos in the December 1 992 issue. No. 1 2 : W a l thers : 5 3 -foot 6 - inch Commonwealther Cast S teel flat cars ap peared in the December 1 99 2 issue. No. 1 3 : Walthers HO scale models of the GSC four-bay or " quad" hoppers appeared in the January 1 993 issue. No. 1 4 : Walthers HO scale 50-foot FGE plug-door insul ated box cars, Feb ruary and April 1 995 . No. 1 5 : Con-Cor HO or N s c ale 57-foot RPL-CIass Insulated Box Cars , March and May \993 .

No. 1 6: Stewart M odels , HO Scale Penns y l v ania RR C l a s s H 3 9 Triple Hoppers, April and May 1 993.

* A n update for most of the previous Car Spotters Guides appeared in the No

vember 1993 issue.
RAILMODEL JOURNAL - December 1 993

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