Al's Kustom Train Kars - 187 - Reefer, Ice, Steel - Painted/Lettered - 121998

Model Information: The prototype for this model is the PFE R-40-10 ice reefer built in 1936 and 1937.
MTL released this model with various road names, for which the actual prototype might in fact be different.

Prototype History: Not all steel reefers contained mechanical refrigeration units. Although today we expect that a modern reefer contain an air conditioning unit to be integral to the car design, this was not always true. There was a period following the second world war when the cost of steel was cheap but the cost of a refrigeration unit was high. Early mechanical refrigeration units were unreliable, noisy, expensive and costly to maintain, and for the early post-war years many railroads continued to use ice for refrigeration even though the technology for mechanical refrigeration was possible.

In the post-WWII period, steel once again became readily available and the railroads rapidly replaced their aging fleets of wood reefers with newly constructed steel cars. Among the more common steel reefers for meat and other perishable commodities were those built by URTX. These cars had a horizontal rivet strip along the middle of each side, improved Dreadnaught ends and diagonal-panel roofs.

From Wikipedia and other sources

Road Name History: Some items are designed to have their owner add whatever company marking they choose, usually in the form of decals or dry-transfers. These items are painted in a generic prototypical fashion but with all company affiliation deliberately left off.
These items can be lettered or numbered, but without any company name on it.

Brand/Importer Information: Al's Kustom Train Kars was a model train decorator from 1983 to 2004. They ceased customizing N Scale trains in 2004, but continued business under the same name though unrelated to model trains (on-line shop still available on eBay).

Manufacturer Information: Micro-Trains Line split off from Kadee Quality Products in 1990. Kadee Quality Products originally got involved in N-Scale by producing a scaled-down version of their successful HO Magne-Matic knuckle coupler system. This coupler was superior to the ubiquitous 'Rapido' style coupler due to two primary factors: superior realistic appearance and the ability to automatically uncouple when stopped over a magnet embedded in a section of track. The success of these couplers in N-Scale quickly translated to the production of trucks, wheels and in 1972 a release of ready-to-run box cars.

Micro-Trains Line Co. split off from Kadee in 1990 to form a completely independent company. For this reason, products from this company can appear with labels from both enterprises. Due to the nature of production idiosyncrasies and various random factors, the rolling stock from Micro-Trains can have all sorts of interesting variations in both their packaging as well as the products themselves. When acquiring an MTL product it is very important to understand these important production variations that can greatly enhance (or decrease) the value of your purchase.

Please consult our Micro-Trains Collector's Guide