1 - O Scale Trains Magazine Online

Review: 53’-6” Wood Express Refrigerator MSRP: $79.95AtlasO LLC 378 Florence Ave, Hillside, NJ 07205908-687-0880 • www.atlaso.comreviewed by Brian ScaceAtlas O’s first foray into steam-era passenger train equipment(if you don’t count the express version of the MiddleDivision PRR X29) is this model of the ubiquitous woodenbody/steel underframe Railway Express Agency expressrefrigerator. REA had (according to Vic Roseman’s REA book)167 of these cars, numbered from 275-474. One of our samplescame lettered for Seaboard, who rostered 18 similar carsin the mid-’50s. Again according to Roseman, theirs were50’-1” rather than 53’-6” cars.Compatibility and PerformanceOur sample checked out with the available NMRA andKadee gages for the basic compatibility dimensions. I hadno issues with merely plunking this car down in my prettyhealthy sized mail/express train and letting ’er rip. The carruns just fine on my mildly irregular trackage and super-elevatedcurves, showing no signs of anti-social behavior.The fit and finish are as we have come to expect fromAtlas. All components were straight, tight, and true in assembly.Paint and lettering were nicely applied. You can call itready-to-weather. The car comes with opening ice hatchesand opening side doors. This allows you to position the icehatches to ventilate, which is a nice option. I personallydon’t care to trade the delicacy of a well-modeled reeferclosely at the trucks. These cars originally rode on an eightfootwheelbase truck with fabricated journal-box yokes andsideframes. These trucks are easily identified as the yokeswere made up of two plates and a couple blocks, riveted tothe frame, with an outboard strap-steel strut. The truck onthe model is a much later cast-frame eight-footer with integralyokes. While this truck shows up in some postwar photos,I haven’t seen them in a photo of one of these cars datingbefore about 1953 (I’m still looking). Also, the frame itself (thetop member) has a noticeably thin cross-section compared tophotos of the prototype truck. The easy solution is to replacethe trucks, especially on those cars painted in one of the earlierschemes.While you’re at it, lower the car. Even with the stocktrucks, this does much to improve the overall appearance. Itook a slow-turning motor tool and a couple files to the lugon the frame bolster, and just removed it (leaving the pivot)to bring the car down a good six inches. The coupler boxesare mounted on lugs, too. Knock the lugs back to match thetrucks and screw the whole thing back together. This servesto get the truck/frame relationship where it belongs, mate thetruck and frame bolster bearing surfaces in keeping with thereal thing, and get the coupler boxes-draft gear in a bettervisual relationship with the rest of the frame.All in all, the carbody gets good marks from me. A quickchange-out of the trucks, especially for the pre-1955 crowd,will bring the entire model up to the level set by the carbodyitself.door hinge for the privilege of opening side doors,though.Fidelity, and Notes for the NeuroticI cracked open a couple sources to track thesecars a bit, Vic Roseman’s REA book, a couple ofOfficial Railway Equipment Registers, and someexcerpts from various years of the Carbuilder Cyclopedia.Basic dimensions and proportions of the carbodyare quite good, and the detail level is on parwith the rest of the ”Master” line.The more neurotic among us will want to lookNov/Dec ’07- O Scale Trains • 53