Recently completed were these two express reefers with Champion sides.

I had built up a Milky Way before, but the set of sides I used for the previous model lacked the board that is at the top of the side, seen on this new model. This model was built up from fresh parts (including a fresh Picard body), and had been languishing at least a year among incomplete projects, waiting for a bit of motivation to finish.

The motivation to finish it was the arrival of this Sheffield car, a recent and inexpensive eBay purchase. It was a bit rough, and lacked trucks and other details, but appealed to me as I had no example of the Shieffield sides. Curiously, the body is not a Picard body, and I’m thinking it is one the builder worked up from scratch. I added a few details (brakes, ladders, etc.) and did some light restoration, but it will never look great. It runs great though with the Kadee couplers and a fresh pair of Famoco passenger trucks, which pass well as express reefer trucks.