The steel express cars of PFE

A previous post on this blog showed both prototype photos, and model examples, of the wood-sheathed 50-foot express refrigerator cars in the Pacific Fruit Express fleet. Those cars, originally 300 in number and built in 1923, were supplemented in 1953 with 40-foot steel refrigerator cars, which are the subject of the present post. You can view the previous post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/01/pfe-express-refrigerators.html .

Those 40-foot cars came about when PFE, responding in the summer of 1952 to a shortage of express cars on the part of the Railway Express Agency (operator of pooled express reefers from a number of owners, including PFE), drew 50 cars from the 4700-car class of steel cars, R-40-10, and equipped them for express passenger service. 

The cars chosen were among the R-40-10s that had already been upgraded with Preco electric fans and steel-grid running boards. The additional modifications included marker light brackets, upgraded brakes, steam and signal lines, and most visibly, high-speed trucks. They retained their Type E freight couplers rather than receiving tight-lock couplers.

There is more about these cars in Chapter 8 of the PFE book (Thompson, Church and Jones, Pacific Fruit Express, 2nd edition, Signature Press, 2000), for which I wrote all the parts about PFE cars. I also posted  previously, going into the history is some detail (that post is accessible at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2016/02/pfes-40-foot-express-reefers.html ).

The new batch of express reefers was numbered PFE 901–950. Below is a photo of the first car, PFE 901, at Los Angeles Shop, freshly painted but not yet weighed (PFE photo, CSRM).

Since the car bodies overall were unchanged, it is tempting merely to paint a Class R-40-10 model in Dark Olive Green paint on sides and ends (black roof), letter it in Dulux Gold, and have yourself a PFE steel express reefer. And that is basically what InterMountain Models did a few years ago. (And you could also add a fan control box and a steel-grid running board.) But the issue of trucks, at least, calls for more effort. I have briefly addressed that before; see my post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2016/02/pfes-40-foot-express-reefers.html .

The prototype 50 cars, in process of being prepared for express service, received two sets of trucks that Union Pacific (co-owner of PFE) had been experimenting with, 25 sets of each type. These had been tested in UP’s high-speed stock trains from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles, but were superseded by roller-bearing trucks.

The first 25 cars, PFE 901–925, received a Chrysler FR-5 truck with hydraulic snubbers. The second 25, PFE 926–950, used the Symington-Gould Type XL trucks. Each is shown below, in photos taken from the PFE book. The Chrysler truck, with its prominent angled snubber outside, is at left; the Symington-Gould truck is at right.

As it happens, the appearance of the Symington-Gould truck is much like, though not identical to, the Cape Line T-13 truck, and I have used them to model a car from PFE 926–950. Shown below is the model of PFE 928, with the Cape Line trucks, being spotted for icing on my layout.

For the Chrysler truck, there is no commercial equivalent, but I’ve shown how I modeled this truck (see it at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2016/02/pfe-40-foot-express-cars-part-2-trucks.html ). The core idea was to add a resin casting for the snubber parts.

My set of these parts came from Ross Dando’s Twin Star Cars (you can visit them at: https://twinstarcars.com/WP/product-category/twin-star-cars-products//  ), though these parts are not currently on the website. If you wished to do the same truck modification, you would need to contact Twin Star directly to see if they can be ordered. Here is the truck with the Ross Dando casting attached.

The result was that I could model one of the first 25 cars in this PFE group. Here’s my model, starting with an InterMountain kit, correcting the trucks to resemble the Chrysler FR-5 and adding the etched metal running board (the fan control box is on the other side: there was only one per car).

I enjoy being able to operate these 40-foot steel express cars together with the conventional 50-foot wood-sheathed PFE express cars, reflecting the prototype fleet, whenever my seasonal produce shipping from layout packing houses calls for the use of express reefers.

Tony Thompson