Bachmann Quasi Reefer

Bachmann Quasi Reefer Bachmann Quasi Insulated Boxcar....
Bachmann has made an all yellow 50 foot plug door boxcar for years. It may look good, but the problem is Chessie never had any all yellow box cars. The only thing even remotely close are a few classes of refrigerated boxcars. These classes had yellow with blue ends and roofs. If you get this kit under your Christmas tree or for a birthday gift, don't roll your eyes and tell the giver, "Chessie never had any of these", and throw it in the trash. They most likely do not know that little fact. What you need to do is salvage this car by stripping it completely and repainting it yellow and dark blue.

Since this is such a bad kit right out of the box, you can find them pretty cheap. I have seen them on eBay for $2-3, but after shipping that still makes them $5-6. So, if you want one (which I don't recommend) pick one up cheap at a train show for $3-4.

Below is a real pic of a Chessie insulated boxcar. There are no all yellow boxcars, so I can't show you a pic that looks like the Bachmann kit right out of the box. This is a Dean Heacock pic.

Where do I begin on what is wrong with the Bachmann kit??? Well for starters the markings are still wrong, even for an insulated boxcar. The Ches-C logo is way too big and too much in the middle of the car. The written out "Chessie System" logo is of the caboose variety ("Chessie" written with the Ches-C logo for the "C" and next to "System") not the freight car variety ("Chessie" written above "System", see photo above for example). The B&O letters and road number are way too small and too far towards the middle of the car. I also haven't seen a pic of an insulated boxcar with a roofwalk, but this car has one. All and all out of the box it is 50% or less accurate. I simply painted the ends and roof dark blue and weathered it heavily. This car can easily run in the middle of a train as is, or fill up a yard for a photo, but I wouldn't be posing it with my best locomotive for a picture.

You may just want to strip this car and start over, but when I did these cars I just wanted a stand in insulated boxcar since I didn't have any accurate ones completed. It worked for me for a little while, but I did finally strip this car and repaint it as Chessie B&O all blue insulated boxcar 475014. I took the other Bachmann I had and repainted it in the predecessor B&O scheme as road number 475033.