【Athearn】50'エクステリアポスト・メカニカルリーファー

先日配信されたアサーンニュースで注目したモデルが50フィートのメカニカル・リーファー．古いブルーボックス・キットの焼き直し．呼び名を"Exterior-Post"としている．これ，昔は"Outside Braced"だった．そう，アマチュア的な名前だったのに，プロフェッショナル的に改めたということ．うむ，感心感心．
　ならばと，確認したのが，手ブレーキハンドルと冷凍機械の位置関係．BB時代は次の画像のように，同じ車端としていた．新製品はどうかと，立面図をじっと睨むと，なんと直っているではないか！

【追記】Athearn-Roundhouse時代の製品を入手したら，修正済みだった．2025-02-11






[Athearn Roundhouse] 50' exterior-post mechanical reefer (MR Forum)
A model that caught my eye in the recent Athearn News was a 50ft mechanical reefer (YouTube video). It's a rehash of the old Blue Box kit. They call
it "Exterior-Post". It used to be called "Outside Braced". So, what was an amateurish name has been changed to a more professional one. Impressive.
So I checked the position of the handbrake wheel and the refrigeration machine. In the BB era, they were at the same end of the car, as shown in the image below. I glared at the elevational drawing to see how the new product would look, and lo and behold, it had been fixed!




Unfortunately I am not familiar with PFE cars. My model, WFCX 8813 was within series WFCX 8800 to 8979, built by PC&F in 1967. Cars in this series had an interior lencth of 50', an exterior lenght of 63' 9".... (page 38 of Great Northern Equipment, Color Pictorial - Book Three by Scott R. Thompson 2000) According to this book, the first Western Fruit Express refrigerator cars with exterior-post construction were the WFCX 8200-8299 in 1963.


Page 140 of the Car Builders' Cyclopedia 1970 edition