More (Mechanical) Reefer Madness

CN 235116 in Winnipeg MB  in the early 1990's - it has seen better days

Hot on the heels of the Hawker Siddeley 231xxx and 233xxx series mechanical refrigerators, Kaslo Shops brought out the 235000-235299 series reefers.  These were a more common car on CN, with 300 cars delivered in 1966.  Some of these cars were in use until the mid 2000's with most being retired in the 1990's.  Their silver body with blue doors were distinctive, and when they were clean they were nice looking cars.  Unfortunately they didn't seem to stay clean very long.

These cars were common on the Hudson Bay Railway, with service to most communities in the north that CN served.  There was at least one car in semi-captive service hauling groceries from the freight house in The Pas to Lynn Lake.  These were also frequent visitors to Churchill, Thompson and Gillam, at least until improved roads to Thompson and Gillam arrived in the mid 1980's.  These cars have long been on my wish list of freight cars.  

I got a pair of kits to build and settled on 235152 and 235032 as my car numbers.  As with previous boxcar kits from Kaslo these were a straightforward build.  The etched ladders, grab irons and other fine parts went on with no trouble, and the underframe followed prior practice with wire airlines and brake rigging along with etched and printed parts. 

A nice feature is the separate plug door which greatly simplifies the painting process since all these cars had blue doors - at least that I have seen photos of. I painted the doors separately from the body and underframe.  

Prior to painting I washed the car with soapy water to clean off any dirt and oils from handling.  Tamiya fine surface primer was the base coat followed by Vallejo Air Silver 71.063 for the body and TLT CN blue for the door.  I applied gloss varnish in areas to be decalled.  

I used Black Cat Decals set CN 214152  for the cars; unfortunately due to a decalling mishap I only had enough car data decals for one side of 235152.  I was not able to get to Intercity Hobbies to pick up another set (it was between Christmas and New Years so store hours and my schedule didn't mesh well), so I dug into my stash to see what might be there.

CDS dry transfers came to the rescue. These were a mainstay of Canadian modellers for years until they closed down a few (many?) years ago.  I had a set and amazingly the car number was 235152! It was meant to be...




235152 before weathering.  These are sharp looking cars

I decided to apply the dry transfers to clear decal film to (hopefully) simplify application.  I burnished the transfers on the film and they went on perfectly.  I applied some Microscale liquid decal film to seal them on the backing.  Once it was dry I applied the new "decal" car data and it worked very well.  Sharp eyed viewers will notice slight differences between the two sides, but they are very close. CN 235032 got Black Cat decals on both sides, luckily without any decalling mishaps. 

I sealed the decals on 235152 with Vallejo Ultra Matt varnish.  This is a very nice matt finish which is a great starting point for weathering.  I'll post some photos of the car when it is weathered.  I need to finish CN 235032 as well; it was fresh out of the shops in July 1983 so will remain in as new condition.  The silver and blue is a very attractive paint scheme so a shiny new car will be nice to have on the layout.


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