Back a few months ago I posted about an updated E. H. Bessey Swift reefer done by Bill Gilbert (article here). He corrected several issues with this prewar model, and looking at his example further I wanted to update the set of four that I had as well.

I’ve had these cars a long time, and I’ve set them up on several different trucks and had Kadee couplers on them for years. The original builder did a good job on them too, but the big issue that I had never liked about them were the truss rod frames. The builder took these to be “old time” cars, which was not the right take, as the prototype cars are steel frame meat reefers built in the early 1930s.

Backing up a second though, there was another problem with the models that I chose not to fix; the frame, roof, and ends are supposed to be black, but Bessy produced them as boxcar red. I left that element the same to persevere the nice, screen printed end lettering. In the photos you can see the full run of these models, there were four bodies produced, with the sides and ends factory painted and lettered.

What I wanted to do was replace the frames and set them up better for operation. I had some leftover material from making molds a couple summers ago, and I used that to make a mold of what is likely a Selley HO boxcar frame. It was the right length and general style. Using the old material resulted in some bubbles in the mold and the resulting castings, but not visible in anything like operation. I cast the frames in Cerrobend.

I had to paint them and needed to match the paint. I had purchased all the close colors of Scalecoat paint and found a close match there. Brush painting, it took several coats. For trucks, for now, the cars are on Scale-Craft trucks, so they have the look of vintage models. Perhaps someday I will upgrade. The brake cylinders are also not completely correct, but three of the four are originals used by the builder (with the fourth one a very close match from the parts supply), and are good enough for me.

The end result is these cars look visually much better now. It is great to see these nice and somewhat rare prewar American OO models rolling together again on the layout.