Rapido 196103A HO Class R-40-27 Steel Reefer Single Car, Pacific Fruit Express 1966 Scheme

Rapido HO Class R-40-27 Steel Reefer Single Car, Pacific Fruit Express 1966 Scheme

Rapido Item #: 196103A

We're excited to announce the all-new, HO Scale Pacific Fruit Express R-40-27 and -28 Reefer, which is the first time that these cars have been offered as a plastic model!

The reefers were built from January through August 1957, with a total of 1700 cars built in class R-40-27. They were placed into the PFE 10001-11700 numbering series and featured a 4-foot-wide Youngstown sliding plug-door, sliding toward the left, combined with a 2-foot-wide hinged door to the right of it. This created a 6-foot-wide opening when both were opened, or just a 2-foot-wide opening if the car needed to be inspected before unloading in order to retain the cool interior temperature.

Soon the R-40-27 car’s plans were modified with a six-foot sliding plug-door, along with the established 2-foot-wide swinging door, creating the new class R-40-28 cars, of which there were 100 (PFE 11701-11800 )constructed by in July 1957. 

Both the R40-27 and R-40-28 class cars were cooled with ice, and included overhead electric fans to circulate the cool air enroute. As it would turn out these would be the last ice-cooled refrigerator cars built by PFE. After these classes, all PFE reefers utilized mechanical cooling.

The Rapido Trains HO scale R-50-27 and -28s  features:

• Accurately scaled from prototype blueprints and field measurements


• Separate wire grab irons


• Correct running boards and brake wheels


• Correct cooling fan housings


• Positionable roof hatches


• Rapido semi-scale metal couplers


• Free-rolling trucks with turned metal wheels


• Accurate paint and decoration


• Multiple accurate road numbers available for each paint scheme