FGE solid gold

I looked online a while for an N scale Fruit Growers Express "solid gold" line box car/reefer. I had trouble finding one. Does anyone make them? And if so which company makes the best one?

 

Atlas does for sure. I think MDC might have also made some, too. I would go with the newer Atlas runs which have Accumates already installed.

http://www.atlasrr.com/NFreight/nfgeboxcar1.htm

 

The Atlas model is the only accurate one for these FGE cars. Wish they would run some more!

 

A number of years ago when I saw a string of these reefers on the NY Central Hudson line, the lettering was somewhat faded and I made a mental note of what I saw. Years later when I saw the models of these cars made by Atlas, I thought a mistake had been made. You see, I recalled the slogan as saying "SOLID COLD" which I thought at the time made sense since it was both a play on the phrase SOLID GOLD and a reference to the fact that it was painted onto the side of a refrigerated car that was almost gold colored. Guess I was wrong; however, I think that SOLID COLD would have been a more memorable and more to the point phrase.

 

If you want to paint your own from an undecorated one, I have a bunch of decals for the "Solid Gold" reefer. Let me know if you want to go that route and I'll send you a couple sets.

 

I believe that the yellow/gold FGE insulated reefers were "Solid Gold." The FGE mechanical reefers were tan colored and did say "Solid Cold" in blue lettering. Here is a photo from Railroad Picture Archives taken by Philip Richard.

 

Thanks for all the replies. Doug, thanks for the link. I looked on there and somehow missed that one. That's exactly what I'm looking for.

I appreciate that but my modeling skills are not that good yet. I don't really have all the tools or the facilities to start painting my own locos and cars. I'm going to try it out one of these days though. Hopefully sooner than later.

Thanks again.

 

And here are a few more... http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?id=FGMR

I honestly had forgotten about these cars since it has been nearly 30 years since I last had seen one. While there were a number of the insulated boxcars on the Southern's Asheville line, mechanical reefers were extremely rare. Even the yellow FGE cars became scarce after the creation of NS but that might have been because of cars receiving SOU or NS paint in place of the typical FGE paint and markings (cars with railroad report marks were owned by that railroad and leased to FGE for shipment purposes).

The most unique that I ever saw, and the ones I liked the most were the blue and white N&W FGE cars. Blue body, white dual lettering for both FGE and N&W. Now they were nice even if they were fairly short lived.

 

Solid Gold was indeed used on FGE 50' boxes. These cars were later sold to SCL/CSX. With the purchase of the Conrail FGE cars, CSX has by far the largest number on the road.

"Solid Cold" in blue and "The Chiller" in black were used on FGE 57' refers. These were later purchased by BN/WFE. These were smooth side refers of which we have no model in N scale. I was hoping Red Caboose would do one, but they never did.

While the refers were a pale beige, the origonal "Solid Gold" boxcars were in several shades of yellow to orange. Atlas produced a 3-pack in the mid 1990's.

 

I've seen a Solid Cold reefer in N scale before, in fact I think I have one. IIRC, it was made by Roundhouse. Or maybe its the right paint on the wrong style of boxcar. I'll have to dig mine up and see.
I wanted to get a bunch of the Solid Cold cars since I'd seen alot of them on the Santa Fe in pictures.

-Mike

 

I have a number of the Solid Gold Atlas cars, very nice. i have not seen them in a while but I believe ConCor made the Solid Cold ones. That said, I have been looking for quite a while for the "Reefer Express" cars that I know I saw in the late 1980s.

Brad

 

I saw one of the BN/WFE repaints at Yardley a few months back, it was pretty beat up but was at the WFE facility so mabey they were fixing it.
Kevin

 

Are we saying there were two different letterings on the side of two different cars?

One says SOLID GOLD

Another says SOLID COLD

Is that the deal here? I have at least 2 MDC Roundhouse cars that I'm sure say SOLID COLD on the sides. I'll have to dig them out and see for sure.

 

2 Atlas FGE box cars Solid Gold SCL seaboard csx 2#'s - eBay (item 300285652184 end time Jan-13-09 05:37:07 PST)

 

Rick, yes, 2 different paint jobs. I have a few of the Solid COLD cars made by Roundhouse (I think)

-Mike

 

Yep!

 

"Solid Gold" was what was used on Insulated boxcars.

"Solid Cold" was what was used on Mechanical Reefers, a completely different creature.

Insulated boxcars are used for a variety of food and food related products, including beer shipments where the variation of temperature within the car needs to be limited but the need for refrigeration is not.

And most of the "Solid Gold" cars were already owned by railroads which was the reason behind the cars having report marks for such, only being built by and leased to FGE by the owning railroads.

 

[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Georgia, Verdana]Kevin M[/FONT] are you referring to Yardley in Spokane, WA? One of the last two Solid Colds left was recently in Spokane. I hope this information clears up some confusion.

The name, solid cold comes from my all time favorite boxcar: The mechanically refriderated Solid Cold "reefer". The story of the Solid Cold is as follows: In 1982 Fruit Growers Express, or FGE (owned by CSX) needed to repair and upgrade their 20 year old existing fleet of RBL boxcars (insulated plug door cars with moveable load dividers). 2500 of these RBL cars were to be retrofitted with a modified load divider system, as well as installing Chemply fiberglass resistant lining to the sidewalls and upgrading the cushioned underframe and plug door system.

The new refurbished RBL cars cost a fraction of the price of what a new car would have cost ($12,000 vs $60,000). These rebuilt cars were as good as “gold” and as “solid” as a new car. To market these new cars to shippers, FGE had the new cars re-painted with a 3D looking scheme that read Solid Gold.

The first prototype out of shop (in Alexandria, VA) was to be stenciled “Solid Gold” on the right side. During stenciling however, part of the ‘G’ had slipped and the horizontal leg of the ‘G’ was missing therefore making it look like a ‘C’. The stencil blunder gave FGE the idea to market their mechanical reefer cars in companion-like fashion to the Solid Gold and at that moment the name SOLID COLD was born.

In 1987 CSX replaced their marketing director with someone new. In an effort to establish his “identity”, he changed the “Solid Cold” to “Real Cold”. About 50 cars were repainted in this new scheme. The concept and the individual behind it were laughed off the property. As another interesting note, in 1983 FGE retrofitted 50 RPL cars for Stroh’s beer, in which they installed a 20,000 gal stainless steel tank for moving product at a protected temperature. These 50 cars had “The Chiller” logo in the same script as the Solid Cold cars.

During later years and subsequent changes in ownership, Solid Colds began to bare reporting marks such as SFLC, BNFE, ARMH and UPFE. These days, catching a Solid Cold is like finding a peice of hay in a needle stack. The majority of Solid Colds these days have been retired or upgraded/rebuilt under OT-37 or greater to make interchange rules. Rumor has it that many of the Solid Colds have been refurbished into the new UP Chilled Express cars. But that is another story. If anyone knows more on the whereabouts, history or even wants to trade photos of Solid Cold's feel free to drop me a line anytime. Peace!

FGMR 12646 - Solid Clod aka: 'Solid Cold' on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

The car I saw was at the WFE facility in Spokane Wa. It was some time ago as I have not been able to work there since late last year and we do not see as many refer's in Seattle.
Kevin