Here's a seldom-seen (for obvious reasons ) view of Hoffentoth Bros.' ice house in the city of Dunnville. At the icing dock, from left to right, is CNR 207040, an upgraded Tyco: new trucks, metal grabs and steps, some underbody detail, and new paint and C-D-S lettering. The next car, CNR 209506 is the eight-hatch overhead ice-bunker car shown earlier, followed by CPR 284517, an Accurail car shown previously at Finlay Fresh Fish, in Port Maitland.
Here's a PRR/REA express reefer. These cars ran all over North America, and, since I liked the looks of the car, I took a chance and bought my first rtr car. These cars are from Walthers, and I'm pleased to say that the car was definitely not ready-to-run :thumb: . Not only did the car require metal steps, but the roofwalk/hatch area was incorrect and needed reworking. In addition to that, the brake gear on the car was only a rudimentary representation, so I was forced to remove it and redo it with more detail. To top it all off, the car number was incorrect for the era, so another ammendment was in order. It's too bad some of these so-called rtr cars are so expensive, as they seemingly offer quite a bit of modelling activity.
This CNR express reefer is also from Athearn. The roof hatches were reworked to reflect prototype practice, and a complete UC brake system added. The usual metal steps and grabirons, along with C-D-S lettering on SMP Accupaint.
Grand Valley 2045 is from the used table at the LHS. I don't recall what the original paint scheme was. She got new steps and grabirons, new brake rigging and a pair of Athearn high speed trucks. The paint is CNR Green #11, from Accupaint, with C-D-S lettering.