Fruit Growers Express Ice Refer #57708

[Cale]

Fruit Growers Express was a railroad refrigerator car leasing company that began life as a produce-hauling subsidiary of Armour and Company’s private refrigerator car line. In 1919 the Federal Trade Commission ordered the company’s sale for anti-trust reasons. Incorporated on March 18, 1920, the firm took possession of 4,280 pieces of rolling stock, repair shops at Alexandria, VA and Jacksonville, FL, and numerous ice plants and other facilities scattered throughout the East Coast. By year’s end, the Chicago and Eastern Illinois, New Haven, and Norfolk and Western railroads became major stockholders.

Car #57708 built in 1924 was one of several thousand refers owned by FGE. It is now preserved at the Railroad Museum of PA.

Here is the real #57708 at the Museum.

The side doors and ice hatches on the roof open.

Interior photo showing the ice bins.

Open ice hatch.

Brickshelf Gallery for this car.

MOC Pages

Cale

[Diamondback]

Nice! Interesting techniques for some of the details--may I lift some of those for my 10-wides?

[Cale]

Nice! Interesting techniques for some of the details--may I lift some of those for my 10-wides?

Thank You and lift away. I'm always borrowing Ideas from others.

Cale

[mania3]

I was looking at this earlier today but didn't get a chance to post a reply. This is both cool and informative. A great MOC!

[dhaas06]

Being a train fan, everything about this model is superb. But, for some reason, the detail that sticks out to me the most is the ice. I love the ice! It really brings the whole car together and makes it stand out.

[legotrainfan]

That's a really excellent waggon! Very detailed! I also love the ice!

[Cale]

That's a really excellent waggon! Very detailed! I also love the ice!

Thanks Every one seems to like the ice. In the future I'll have to build an icing platform to go with the refer.

Cale

[Hinckley]

This is amazing. I love how simple it is, yet capture so many of the great details that make the original model so unique and classic. I love the use of the black "battle droid arms." And those door hinges are brilliant brilliant brilliant! I will be using that to make cute shutters for my Fabuland creations. Thanks for coming and sharing the creation with us. I look forward to seeing more from you. This truly made me smile.

[Teddy]

Excellent job.

Looks like you really thought everything through.

The stickers you made are just fantastic and give that little extra, without being dominant.

An excellent design overall, I really like thos 8 studs wide trains.

kind regards,

Teddy

[Asuka]

A very detailed and functional work, simply wonderful.

And... mmm, ice plants...

[Freddie]

I'm always borrowing Ideas from others.

Have been looking for inspiration in Jake McKee's book, have we?

Silliness aside, this is a fantastic looking wagon with some nice solutions to hinges and opening doors and hatches. Brilliant!

[Eilif]

Thanks Every one seems to like the ice. In the future I'll have to build an icing platform to go with the refer.

Cale

I'd love to see that. I remember seeing pictures when I was a kid of workers in Chicago pusing blocks of ice into refrigerator cars with those long forked poles.

Great MOC by the way!

[Cale]

Have been looking for inspiration in Jake McKee's book, have we?

Silliness aside, this is a fantastic looking wagon with some nice solutions to hinges and opening doors and hatches. Brilliant!

I'm a equal opportunity thief

Cale

[Badsneaker]

Nice work! The decals look perfect! The more I see people like you building great train cars like this the more inspiration and motivation I get to to start working on my own!

[Lasse D]

This is a really great car with some lovely details (ice, rails, sculpted details in the corners, etc.)

I can you you are using robot arms to cover the wheels. Does this work well when it drives around the track?

[Marcus Aurelius Antoninus]

What a beautiful piece of rolling stock. Kudos to you.

[Cale]

This is a really great car with some lovely details (ice, rails, sculpted details in the corners, etc.)

I can you you are using robot arms to cover the wheels. Does this work well when it drives around the track?

Thanks

The trucks run very nice. I've equipped all my freight cars with them and many have multiple train shows with out any problems. I wrote an article for RailBricks Magazine on how they are built.

Freight Truck Instructions

2 Axial Passenger Truck

I borrowed the Idea for the robot arm sides from John and Ross Neal. I know the axial tube isn't a pure LEGO solution but it works and looks a lot better on my American RR equipment than the more euro style standard wheel sets.

Cale

[Hinckley]

Thanks

The trucks run very nice. I've equipped all my freight cars with them and many have multiple train shows with out any problems. I wrote an article for RailBricks Magazine on how they are built.

Freight Truck Instructions

2 Axial Passenger Truck

I borrowed the Idea for the robot arm sides from John and Ross Neal. I know the axial tube isn't a pure LEGO solution but it works and looks a lot better on my American RR equipment than the more euro style standard wheel sets.

Cale

Cool! I met the RailBricks guys at BrickWorld '08.

And it looks like someone blogged your cool train car!

[Cale]

Cool! I met the RailBricks guys at BrickWorld '08.

And it looks like someone blogged your cool train car!

Cool! I had hear of Classic Town but never checked it out.

Cale

[Lasse D]

Thanks for the answer. I guess it's time to begin reading RailBricks.

[Captain Green Hair]

Excellent work, i love all the details on it and the dark red with the yellow looks awesome.

You did a great job on the stickers and it's 8 wide!

Thanks for the answer. I guess it's time to begin reading RailBricks.

You should, they make great issues!

[Diamondback]

Any chance of getting a better view of the ends? I'm working on applying some of your design-principles to a 1946 NYC Pacemaker fast-freight service boxcar in 10-wide, and end corrugation is starting to drive me nuts.

[Cale]

Any chance of getting a better view of the ends? I'm working on applying some of your design-principles to a 1946 NYC Pacemaker fast-freight service boxcar in 10-wide, and end corrugation is starting to drive me nuts.

I took a few more pictures of the end construction today. Is this what you were looking for?

Brickshelf Gallery after moderation.

Cale

[Diamondback]

Thanks, Cale--forgot that reefers were frequently flat-ended. I need to check out RailBricks myself... now if only LDraw would catch up on certain parts like your grabirons. (I admire good SNOT technique when I see it, but hate trying to do it myself because of how much of a pain it is in MLCad.)

Now all you need is a whole bunch more of 'em pulled by a triple or quad of freighter F-units or early Geeps... typical practice for longhaul was to run reefers as "unit trains", at least on NYC.

[Cale]

Thanks, Cale--forgot that reefers were frequently flat-ended. I need to check out RailBricks myself... now if only LDraw would catch up on certain parts like your grabirons. (I admire good SNOT technique when I see it, but hate trying to do it myself because of how much of a pain it is in MLCad.)

Now all you need is a whole bunch more of 'em pulled by a triple or quad of freighter F-units or early Geeps... typical practice for longhaul was to run reefers as "unit trains", at least on NYC.

A string of Reefers would look nice. Especially if they were Billboard Reefers. A few of those circling a layout would be a nice show.

As for power the early Geeps are nice but I was never a big fan of EMD's E and F units. Alcos and in particular Baldwin Sharks are much more interesting though I have no plans to model either right now. And since the billboard reefers were banned in the 1930's that would mean using steam power which is much more My Style.

Cale