ACL 490317 is a member of a 1961 built series of Fruit Growers Express insulated boxcars which were leased and placed into the ACL 490296 - 490345 series of cars. The roster information taken from the 1974 Condensed Roster of Equipment lists all 49 cars of the series intact. The series were 54'10" extreme length, 50' inside length, 9'3" inside height, 9'1" inside width, and were equipped with an 8' door opening. The car capacity is listed as 140,000 pounds (70 tons) and they rode on ASF style trucks. The available equipment diagrams do not yield any further construction details, however, from the photograph, it can be seen the ends are typical FGE ends of a 4/3/R Improved Dreadnaught design with the uppermost stiffener being smaller than as found on similar boxcars. Additionally, a Morton running board can be determined from the available shadowing on the car. Unlike more recent FGE products, the car features 8 panels on either side of the door which allows for a variation in modeling.
To model this car, I am using the Branchline Trains (Atlas) 50' Plug Door boxcar (Atlas part number 20001363).
The model will be upgraded with a Moloco Stanray overhanging diagonal panel roof to replace the kit roof which represents an earlier design. The trucks used are Kato Barber S-2 roller bearing design though Moloco's newest truck, TR-4110 70 Ton Ride Control roller bearing trucks could also be utilized. The model is in the initial construction stage at this point, but when completed will be decaled with Dan Kohlberg's SE-22 FGE Set #1. This will serve as a varied prototype in a string of FGE RBLs I'm building out.
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