Rapido Trains X23 box cars and R7 reefers

Rapido Trains recently released a couple of HO scale freight cars that fit right into my 1926 modeling focus. These models reflect Pennsylvania Railroad prototypes built in the Teens.

A pair of the X23 box cars and a pair of R7 reefers arrived recently. I had pre-ordered them from a hobby shop in May 2023. The model announcement was also featured on the blog back then. Let’s take a look at these new models straight from unpacking.

X23 box cars

Six versions were produced for the initial run of Rapido Trains X23 box cars. The models closely follow the iconic prototype design. Four of the versions followed pre-1920 paint and lettering practices while the other two are decorated with the Ball Keystone emblem that came into use in the 1930s. I model 1926, so none of the six versions are completely accurate for my modeling moment. I did not see an undecorated version on the website.

I bought a car in the Pennsylvania Lines lettering with smaller lettering indicating a Cleveland & Pittsburgh original owner. The Pennsylvania Railroad reorganized their corporate structure in 1924 and subsidiary companies like Pennsylvania Lines (Lines) were folded into the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Lines freight cars received a quick lettering adjustment with Lines painted over the P.L. reporting marks changed to P.R.R. With a few thousand cars across many designs to re-letter, this process did not happen overnight. But I’ve not seen any post-1925 photos of Lines lettered cars in service. I may weather this model heavily and keep the Lines lettering.

American Car & Foundry photo from the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library

The other X23 reflects a pre-1920 lettering style. I’ll need to update the light weigh location and date stencils on both of these X23 models. I’ll also need to decide on keeping the black squares to the left of the doors on both models. The prototypes had metal plates at these locations with the dimensional data stenciled on the plates.

In this photo, the metal plates remain attached to the sheathing, but the lettering has weathered away. Another great detail on this photo is the large paint out area for the road name, car number, and weigh data. Only the sheathing has been repainted here. In the far left lower corner, the original owner initials remain; P. C. C. & St. L. This was a Lines car that has been into the paint shop to re-letter the ownership. Only the painted out area was updated. The 1922 light weigh date stencil puzzles me as the tone of the stenciling seems the same as the updated lettering. Maybe this car was updated before the official corporate changes.

Overall, the models are gems. The previous two photos compare the Rapido model with a weathered Westerfield Models kit that I built. The truss components are well done. The ladders are very fine, as are the Carmer uncoupling levers. I’ll need to cover the weigh stencils under the car number on the ends. That practice seemed to go away after WW1.

The KD brake components, levers, rods, and underframe details are exceptional. I like the trucks and how they are painted in the same freight car color as the car body.

Speaking of freight car color (FCC), I really like how these cars look. Before the late 1930s, the Pennsylvania FCC leaned towards this orange-red shade. I’ve noticed Rapido Trains has used this FCC on other pre-1940s models of Pennsylvania Railroad prototypes. Weathering will tone down the brightness of the FCC. And you really should weather these models. I have very few prototype photos of clean, in-service, PRR freight cars.

R7 refrigerator cars

Shortly after the prototype X23 box cars came into use, the Pennsylvania Railroad added a refrigerator car variation to their fleet with the R7 class cars. The single-sheathed design made them stand out among other reefers of the day. You can easily see a pair of them in the 1920s image above taken in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. Most of the Pennsy R7 reefers went to the new Fruit Growers Express Company in 1922.

Rapido Trains produced six versions of the R7 reefers for the initial run. One version followed the pre-1920, as-built appearance in PRR paint and lettering, as seen in the above image. Two versions followed Fruit Grower Express (FGE) ownership practices of the late 1930s and into the 1940s. Another model reflects the National Car subsidiary of FGE. A version covers a few cars that were used by the Matheson Dry Ice company in the late 1940s and into the 1950s, and one version follows a couple of cars that ended up in Baltimore & Ohio company service. I model 1926, so none of the six versions are completely accurate for my modeling moment. Again, there isn’t an undecorated version on the website.

I bought a pair of FGE cars in the brown roof scheme. I can use the same superlatives for these models as I did for the X23 models. The details are exceptional.

Image exposure and brightness were adjusted to review the details.

I think I got lucky purchasing the brown roof cars as they have the KD brake system components. I don’t see specific info about models with AB or K brake systems on the Rapido Trains product page. The following is included in the product page text, “KD-Brakes being upgraded with AB-brakes, and the lap-seam roof being replaced with a Hutchins Dry-Lading roof.” But it’s not apparent in the individual model details. Also to note, the R7 brown roof castings are different from the X23 1920s roofs.

Very few details will need to be adjusted for my 1926 period. The weigh date stencil is an obvious update but there’s little else to add to reflect the early FGE ownership. The car ends have the appropriate stencils as seen on prototype photos. Granted, I only have a couple of images at hand for the early FGE ownership of these R7 reefers. Hopefully more photos will surface so I can make a better judgement on updates.

An important upgrade on these models are the trucks. The FGE brown roof cars come with 2D-F8 cast sideframe trucks. These should still ride on the original arch bar trucks in 1926. Rapido Trains includes one arch bar truck in a parts bag with these models. But the model needs a pair of arch bar trucks for the earlier era. It seems odd that only one truck is included. Since I bought two cars, I do have one pair to upgrade one car, but it still seems odd.

The truck screw is also a head scratcher. Check it out in the above photo. It’s very short and smaller than the usual 2-56 screws that are commonly used on many HO scale freight cars. I hope I don’t lose one when I remove trucks for the upgrades or to paint the wheelsets. Why did they use an odd screw for these?

A couple of grab irons are also in the bag. These can be added to the left end of the car side above the installed grab to reflect an appearance after the mid-1930s. This second grab iron wasn’t standard in the Teens and Twenties but became a recommended practice in the early 1930s when cars were repaired.

For those modelers who like the Pennsylvania Railroad version of the reefer, I checked the May 1925 ORER to see the quantity that remained with the PRR. I found 450 R7 reefers listed in Pennsylvania ownership, but these are in express passenger service. Some may have been seen in freight trains, but they may have stayed with the passenger trains for much of their duties. As Rapido Trains notes in their product text, the remaining R7 reefers were transferred to FGE ownership in 1932.

I hope readers can use these notes to guide their X3 and R7 Rapido Trains purchases and upgrades. These are prototypes I was not expecting as ready-to-run injection-molded plastic models. As I write this, I only wish Fruit Growers Express historian and modeler Bill Welch could have seen these models. I’m sure he would want to make a few upgrades, but I’ll bet he would marvel at these models as they come right out of the box.


Thank you for visiting my blog. You can share a comment in the section below. Follow the instructions so your comment can be posted. All comments are reviewed and approved before they appear. Please share the blog link with other model railroaders. To subscribe to this blog, add your email address to the function at the bottom of the right column on the main page.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

* Copy This Password *

* Type Or Paste Password Here *

36,819 Spam Comments Blocked so far by Spam Free Wordpress

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.