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fge Fruit Growers Express Insulated Boxcars...
In the 1980's the B&O and C&O leased hundreds of insulated boxcars from Fruit Growers Express (FGE).  These cars came in the FGE scheme at the time, but had B&O or C&O sublettering.  These cars would eventually be purchased by Chessie and remade with a different "Solid Gold" paint scheme in 1985 or so.

Below is a picture of a real FGE car.  George Elwood took this photo of a similar C&O FGE car.  The Walthers kit has a different door than this car.

                                                                                                                      George Elwood Photo

How to:
1.  Buy the Walthers 50' FGE insulated boxcar kit.  It is nearly perfect right out of the box for these cars.
2.  Paint the sides Reefer Yellow.
3.  Paint the ends Boxcar Red.
4.  Paint the roofs Flat Aluminum.
5.  Weather the roofs with rust colors.  This is done to taste, if you don't like rust, then skip this step.  However, the real roofs did rust considerably.
6.  Paint the inside of the car black if it appears translucent to you.  Mine that came in yellow plastic seemed translucent, so I painted it.  The grey plastic ones looked fine, so I didn't paint those.  Also, you can paint the bottoms black if you want.  I did, but frankly don't think you'll ever notice that feature.
7.  Weather the sides.  I put a wash of roof brown on the sides.  I thinned the roof brown paint with water.  I wasn't happy with how light it looked, and redid the panel and rivet lines with a mix of half black and half roof brown, thinned to a wash.
8.  Before the paint completely dries, use an eraser and remove the wash from the inside of the panels.  Leave the dark color in the grooves and rivet lines.
9.  Spray the car with gloss coat and decal with Champ's HR-70 FGE set.  Use the "B&O" letters from another set, since the Roman font from the Champ set is not correct for this car.  I used Herald Kings H-563 set.
10.  Spray the bottom 1/4 of the car with a roof brown overspray.  Seal the car with dull coat.
11.  You are done, enjoy your Fruit Growers Express insulated boxcar.

Below are all three FGE kits I had at the time of this project.  I started all three, but only had decals for one car at the time.  The other two will be decaled when I get more Champ decals.

Below the sides have been painted Reefer Yellow.  The yellow plastic car barely looks like anything has been done to it at this point.

Below are the boxcar red ends.  I painted these before painting the black, but took the photo after the black was applied inside the yellow car.

Below you see the yellow car at the top with the inside painted black.  The middle car is one of the grey ones, showing I did not paint that one black inside.  The bottom car is upside down showing that I painted the bottoms black on all three cars.

Below are the roofs, rused up and ready to go on the cars.

Below is the weathered car, ready for decals.  You want to weather this car first, because the eraser treatment would tear any decals on the car.

Below is the first car decaled and ready for assembly.  This is actually a more involved decaling project than it looks like.   The "B&O" letters came from a Herald King H-563 set for B&O covered hoppers.  The "B&O" letters included in the Champ set are in the Roman type face, which is incorrect for this car.  The more modern looking "B&O" seen here is correct.  Also, those black stripes take alot of time and patience to put on.  There are about 8 pieces of black stripe decal on this side of the car alone.  The wheel inspection dot decal came from a Microscale sheet and the consolidated stencil came from another Microscale sheet.  The ACI card came from a Herald King sheet, but any brand would do.

Below is a pic of the finished car, ready to earn its keep.