Last year I was given a number of RMC “Collector Consist” articles by Keith Wills related to American OO, highlighted in this article.

In particular I was taken by this photo of a 1934 model by OO pioneer H. Temple Nieter, who was the person most responsible for encouraging me as I started out in American OO. I have long wanted to own one of his models, and there must be a few floating around out there, but unless it was actually lettered for his Lake Lines I would have no way to know it was his. This nice 36’ reefer looked pretty sharp on those Lionel trucks and with his custom, handmade couplers visible. The photo shows that the brake wheel was pushed down out of place, though, and it probably needed a bit of TLC.

Fast forward to about a month ago, and this model showed up in a lot on eBay, which I was able to spot and win. Between the Keith Wills article and today the car has picked up a pair of non-rolling Scale-Craft trucks. Also one of the couplers has lost part of the mount, probably in transit at some point.

The notes on the car, visible in the final photo, document what it is. The typed note from Temple says it was built in 1934, and he subsequently gave it to Pierre Bourassa who added his note in October of 1985. From there it made its way to a collection in Pittsburgh and now to me.

As to the car itself, I don’t doubt that Nieter built it in 1934, but it was certainly rebuilt at some later time, most likely in the 1940s. The decals are nicely applied but are almost certainly Walthers products (HO) and the car number used is the same as in the drawings in the Walthers “PLD1” book (521 Prototype Lettering Diagrams, first published in 1942 and reprinted numerous times).

The hatches look like Nason hatches and there are nice door details on the car, but the most notable detail are the couplers. They are made from sheet brass and spring steel wire, and would have coupled automatically and uncoupled with a ramp system of some sort. They also have centering springs and are a very interesting piece of craftsmanship that will mate automatically with a Kadee coupler today.

I won’t be changing the couplers but this car will soon be on a set of trucks that roll! And I will adjust the brake wheel and fix the coupler mount. Very glad to have this car, an authenticated piece from one of the pioneers of model railroading in American OO.