Paint
Schemes
![](Curve.jpg)
1940-42 scheme
Intermountain
has produced a large number of paint schemes and varied details for the ATSF rebuilt
reefers RR-19, 23, 25, 27, 28, 32. These cars made up nearly 40% of the Santa
Fe fleet in the late 40s and early 50s.
Between 1936
and 1940 Santa Fe rebuilt over 4100 of its wood reefers as steel sheathed reefers,
all to virtually the same design. The Intermountain instructions give the details
for the correct small pieces necessary for each series. Of course the cars are
also available RTR.
![](SL.jpg)
1940-47 scheme
The curved-line and straight-line maps began
to be used in 1940, depending on which shop did the repaint. Sometime around 1943
the straight-line maps became the norm and were predominate through 1947. The
billboard slogans at that time included: Grand Canyon Line, Scout, El Capitan,
Super Chief, and Chief.
Another detail
is that cars repainted before 1944 hads periods in the S.F.R.D. reporting marks;
after that the periods were dropped and the reporting marks were S F R D.
![](ST.jpg)
1947-58 scheme
In 1947, the maps were no long painted and
Ship and Travel Santa Fe All the Way took its place. The Scout name was
dropped in 1947. By 1952, the surviving map/slogan cars would have been pretty
dirty and well weathered; cleaner SFRD reefers had the later slogan scheme.
In
1958, the slogans went away and the large billboard Herald became the standard.
Cars ran with this scheme until the mid 70s when ice reefers became obsolete.
Richard
Hendrikson wrote concerning the paint schemes:
"The
IM model is correct for classes Rr-19 through Rr-27 and can also be used for the
Rr-28 and Rr-32 classes by removing the parts of the hatch platforms that surround
the hatch covers, leaving just the rectangular sections of the platforms inboard
of the hatch covers."
"The map/slogan stenciling
was first applied in 1/40, so cars built prior to that didn't get it when newly
rebuilt (i.e., classes Rr-19, Rr-21, Rr-23, Rr-25, and some Rr-27s). Later Rr-27s
got slogans and curved line maps, Rr-28s got slogans and early straight line maps,
and Rr-32s were the first of the rebuilt reefers to have the final version of
the straight line map when delivered. For these classes, slogan assignments are
known. But most of the earlier cars and many Rr-27s through Rr-32s were repainted
with maps and slogans before mid-1947, and in those cases the only way to know
which slogans went on which cars is to have photographic evidence. Fortunately,
a fair amount of it exists. (Another detail is that cars repainted before 1944
hads periods in the S.F.R.D. reporting marks; after that the periods were dropped
and the reporting marks were S F R D)."
Bear
in mind also that cars repainted after mid-1947 did not get maps and slogans,
they were stenciled with the later style slogans and "Ship and Travel..."
replacing the maps. So by 1952, the surviving map/slogan cars would have been
pretty dirty and well weathered; cleaner SFRD reefers had the later slogan scheme.
You might consider doing one of each. Champ's decal sets for both versions of
SFRD lettering are excellent and contain everything you need, even the reporting
marks and numbers for the top of the ice hatch covers."
Santa
Fe did have at least two reefers which were painted with an experimental white
instead of the normal reefer orange. The balance of the reefer paint scheems appears
to have been normal. RR-48
11334 was one and photos are on the web. Keith Jordan remember a second car,
thought to be a RR-53, but no photos are known to exist of it. Roger Ziegenhorn
wrote an article "Santa Fe's White Reefers" for Santa Fe Modeler
November/December 1982 page 16.