Looking for HO scale mechanical reefers used to haul beer

Hello all, it has been quite a while since I have posted, but I have been faithfully checking the site for the ever-present great info.

Here's my situation: I am looking for a good reefer (kit or RTR) that would fit in my mid-1980's regional (upper Midwest) proto-freelanced layout. Will be hauling beer from a local brewery and cars will be painted for either the brewery or the railroad so available roadnames don't really matter.

In a perfect world, the cars would be second hand purchases, so cars new to the industry in the mid-80's would not be ideal. Looking for something that hit the rails in the 60's & 70's. Any suggestions?

Man.........that title was SO misleading!

Only in the world of model railroading can you get away with saying something like that and not arouse the suspicion of the FBI, ATF, State and local authorities...

Have you checked the Walthers site or 2005 catalog? I think Walthers released some good refer kits that would fit your discription back in '96 or '97. Accurail may have one too. (I don't have any refer kits besides an old Bachman one from my toy train set and an old, wodden, "Kraft," ice cooled Athearn refer I got from my folks for Christmas one year).

Ah, you may be Casey Jonesin for some reefers but what you actually need are insulated boxcars (RBLs) which were common beer cars for the era you model (as do I). Walthers puts out cars manufactured by FGE. I beleive Athearn is now issuing the Details West cars they purchased as r-t-r. Both have a few glitches for detail accuracy (the Walthers cars have the correct FGE double columns of rivets, DW a single row).
Despite the current plethora of tv ads to the contrary, most beer is shipped in insulated boxcars (I'm waiting for the Bud "attack" ad on Coors about shipping bulk beer product in tank cars).

The car you need is the 62' Eel River RBL which is the prototype for the Coors cars. In actuallity only Coors needed the cold feature of the RBL as they did not pasturize their beer which required that it be kept cool in order to not go bad.

These kits are in short supply, supposedly Athearn has purchased the dies etc. and will be releasing them sometime.

Since other breweries built numerous plants around the country they used trucks to deliver their product. For rail service they could use plug door XLI type boxcars to deliver their product.

Rick

Thanks for the info. Now my brewery will be able to get fresh beer to the masses (hallelujah!).

I'm really quite disappointed that the moderator changed the topic (although I expected it). Is it really that offensive?

The only beer I know of that is shipped cold (at least on TV commercials) is Coors.

Most other beer is shipped warm. So any 60ft cushioned car is probably accurate.

Sound about right? everyone?, anyone?

i don't know if this will help at all but i worked for a short period of time at a local warehouse that loaded railcars with moosehead and guiness product.

cans and bottled product arrived in transport trucks from the plant and were loaded on 60' boxcars from CSX,BNSF and the Santa Fe. We'd pile the pallets 2 high and 2 wide with a cardboard honeycomb filler material through the whole boxcar but when it came time to the doorways we'd use 2 inflateable bags at each side so the product wouldn't shift back and forth during transit.

as for kegs they were always put in insulated 50 footers i belive mostly from cyrotrans? i belive these we're white with orange lettering and each car was named same process as the other cars just a tighter fit in the doorways, which was always fun with the forklift

if you don't have the space for a large brewery this would be an excellant industry to model in a small space

Uh, warm beer?
Beer is perishable whether it's pasteurized or not. Think of what happens to that sixpack left inside a locked car on a warm summer's day. Same thing as in a regular steel boxcar: it's "skunked." The reason it's shipped in insulated boxcars is so the loading temperature (say in the upper 30s/low 40s) isn't going to rise by more than a few degrees by the time it reaches the beer distributor warehouse. At Coors "beer reconstitution facility" in Elkton, VA (where they basically water down the beer concentrate shipped in tankcars from Colorado), they ship it out in RBLs. The PC&F "beer cars" are RBLs.
For the original poster, only Coors was being shipped in the PC&F cars in the early '80s. Your basic 50' RBL was being used by Miller, Budweiser, Schlitz, Pabst, and others. Walthers has the FGE and North American versions; Athearn even has one of their insulated plug doors decorated for Pearl Brewing.

All i know is after seeing how it was shipped... I wouldn't drink it

Some of the BNSF cars were in the process of being lined with sheets of foam insulation, how that turned out ....i haven't herd. The CSX cars were old FGE cars i belive, i'm not too sure on that so don't hold it to me

I have seen beer shiped in a normal cushened plug door boxcar at normal tempature one of the local venders in Auburn, NY gets between 2 and 4 cars a week. It comes up from NJ on NS or CSX to a local short line in the area.

You may want to check the older Athern Kits for Pearl Beer 50' reefers
check out the pic below to get an idea of what to look for. These ares are still rolling about there not many of them but there out there.

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/pbgx143.jpg

Thanks for the pix; really helps to have a visual.

If I remember correctly, beer is only skunked if it has been allowed to get warm after being chilled. Thus you can buy beer at the liquor store that is not in the cooler, yet after chilling it, it tastes fine (depending on the brand... ) There are always limits to such things, like heating it to 120 degrees in a car trunk, but basically it is fine as long as it hasn't been chilled before heating. This would explain why Coors needs refrigerated cars as their beer is 'frost brewed' so it has been chilled already, while others are heat pasteurized and don't have to be kept cold.

Also, isn't it light that affects beer? It would explain why many regional & micro breweries use dark bottles; because it extends shelf life. Breweries such as Miller and Budweiser don't need to use dark bottles as their product is turned over quickly enough that light doesn't have enough time to damage it. Maybe I'm way off, and I' just recalling all of this from a drunken bar discussion in college...

Either way, after this debate, is it likely that a regional brewery that transports its product by rail uses refrigerated cars or just insulated ones? I'm leaning toward insulated, but let me know if I am way off.

At the risk of getting beyond the topic and as a model railroader with a model brewery and a homebrewer with a minor brewery, I will get into beer geekness. Here's a few quotes from "The Good Beer Book" co-authored by Brooklyn Brewery's brewmaster, Garrett Oliver: "beer that has been sitting out in warm temperatures---anything above 75 degrees---even for a few hours, is likely to be stale." Also "beer in green bottles is especially subject to being lightstruck or "skunked"...a [beer in a green bottle] will skunk almost immediately upon exposure to direct sunlight, and over time in a lighted cooler in a supermarket." Basically the light causes a photochemical reaction in the compounds in the hops and uh oh. That's why you don't see a lot of American beers in green bottles. As for Miller in the clear bottles, you may draw your own conclusions.
For more beer fun, don't forget potential inbound ingredient loads. You can have covered hopper loads of hops, barley, and (for cheaper beers) adjuncts like corn or rice.
Just don't overviolate Rule G!