Freight Car project, F&C CNR 8 Hatch Reefers

By Pierre Oliver

Funaro & Camerlengo have offered this resin kit for over 20 years now and it still stands the test of time. It surpasses the RTR version on so many levels. And I can get the car from F&C with three different ends and two door styles. And I get to build it!
In part inspired by the S scale 8 hatch reefers and as part of the ongoing stocking of Manifest #402, I've built four F&C HO 8 hatch reefers for my fleet.
Armed with knowledge gleaned from the car history included in the S scale kit I altered a number of details in the F&C kit.
The bracket grabs were upgraded to Kadee bracket grabs and the kit ladders were replaced with 8 rung ladders with integral stirrups offered by Des Plaines Hobbies.

For brake levers I used my etched levers and Tichy turnbuckles were cutoff and used to replicate clevis' on the brake rods. You will note that the reservoir is in an unusual position. This is correct for the early series of CN reefers and 40-foot boxcars. I also made all my own mounting brackets for the brake components from styrene. The braces for the heater were fabricated from strip brass.

The most involved detail change was for the hatch rests. You'll see that there's a pair of little angles attached to the carlines of the roof for each hatch. The kit does include cast resin parts for this, but they're a tad lumpy and there isn't enough of them. Each car requires 16, the kit had only 14. So I made my own.

To insure that I wasn't caught short I made 80 hatch rests. 80 pieces of 1x3 6" long and 80 pieces of 1x6 6" long. Glue them together in an L and attach to the roofs.
The things we do!
But they look good, so I don't regret the effort. The car body was painted with CN Grey #11 and the floor was painted with CN Red #11.
The cars are waiting for decals. I had purchased four sets of decals from Black Cat Publishing, but do you think I can find them? So I reordered which means the errant decals will surface any day now.
Postscript: I did indeed find the missing decals this morning, nine months after the fact. Which just means I'll have to order more reefers from F&C!