Beer Car / Wickes Refrigerator
Built late 1880s to early 1900s
| 34' Side Ladder Beer Car / Wickes Refrigerator Built late 1880s to early 1900s | |
|
Beer was one of the most important
commodities shipped in refrigerator cars and insulated boxcars at the
turn of the century. A thirsty HO scale mob can wreak havoc on a
layout, so to help you keep the suds flowing, we here
at the Silver Crash Car Works have designed this 34' Beer Car /
Wickes Patent Refrigerator. It matches, first and foremost, the
insulated boxcars run by the St. Louis Refrigerator Car Company. This
private car line was a joint venture of the Anheuser-Busch and
W.J. Lemp breweries, and carried their products from the Midwest to
every corner of the country from the 1890s to the teens (when
prohibition put an end to all the fun).
The majority of the Anheuser-Busch and Lemp cars
were 34' long with side ladders formed of six grab-irons. By happy
coincidence, so were an impressive number of late-19th-century
refrigerator cars, including many which incorporated Wickes patent ice
baskets. The NINE different side doors included in our kit - three
5'-wide doors (including a sliding door for insulated boxcars) plus six
4'-wide doors - make it ideal for modeling a wide range of these cars
as well, like the Wickes and Riordan patent cars shown here.
As usual, this car is the result of first-rate casting work carried out by Barry McClelland of Railway Recollections, and has a one-piece body for speed of assembly. It also features a special insulated underframe just like the prototypes. (Unfortunately, the Riordan patent end doors are not included.)
Click on these photos for full-size images:
|
|||
|
|||
|
| Outside Dimensions of Car | Length 34'2", Width 8'9" over sheathing, Body Height about 9'9" from bottom of sheathing to top of roofwalk (depending on thickness of roofwalk and the cleats under it) |
| Siding / Roof | 5¼" beaded siding / 6½" double-grooved roof boards |
| Lettering | Decals for Anheuser-Busch insulated boxcars ('Busch352' on cat. p.4 & 'Busch926' on p.61) and the American Brewing Co. reefer ('AM.BREWING' on p.82) are available from Art Griffin at $6 per set. For the Panhandle Route reefer, Art Griffin has 'Panhandleroute' on p.57 for $6, and Clover House has dry transfer set #7344-01 for $4. |
| Recommended Trucks | Many of the St.L.R.C.Co. insulated boxcars rode on 'American' trucks which can be modeled by slightly modifying the bolsters on the Bitter Creek Models 5' arch bar trucks #T-4. The same company offers a suitable solution for the trucks on most late-19th-century refrigerator cars, like the T-2 swing motion trucks with a 5' wheelbase under the Wickes Patent Refrigerator Car shown on this page. |
| Estimated Construction Time | Basic kit: 3-4
hours including doors, grab-irons and brake wheel Options requiring more time: underbody brake rigging |
| Kits Available From | Silver Crash Car Works ($27) |
