Prototype and model
|
|
Prototype and model |
|
After building the simple boxcar and Ghthe hi-cube car model the freezer car model building arised as next project. These are also typcal old Hungarian cars. Being painted grey, rather than the usual freight car-red, they are surely eye-catching item on a layout. The vertical clads also emphasise their difference from the usual boxcars.
We can see a 1:5 scale model of this car
in the Budapest Transport Museum.
The old workshop yard in Istvántelke was the escape
place for two similar cars. These two cars were pretty alike,
the model in the Museum shows another type.
This probably older version can be shown
in several books and drawings.
The main characteristics and dimensions of the
older and newer types seem to be identical.
The details, however, look rather different.
The most visible difference lies in the brakeman's place.
The older car is equipped with a high brakmens' cabinet
while the new version shows a covered platform on the same front side.
All freezer cars were equipped with both air and hand brakes
as these were often members of passenger trains.
For the same purpose the old cars are also equipped
with a walking plate below the car lower side
and they show handgrabs along the sidewalls.
This similar to the post cars and cabooses of
that era, this way the conductor was able
to walk along the closed car even in a moving train.
These walking plates and handgrabs were removed
from the cars in the 1920's, probably the increase
train speeds made this practice too dangerous.
This might be the reason why we do not see similar
equipment on the newer cars.
We can discover further differences. The old cars have two-part bearing boxes, the new ones one-part ones. The old cars show long, straight bearing guides, the new cars shorter bent ones. The old cars have steps on the front side to climb on the roof the new cars have a ladder.
The two different versions of this car encouraged me to build two different models. The materials and methods were similar to those used at the Gh car model building. Due to the smaller dimensions constructing the "box" was easier, but to mount the breakmen's cabinet and the break rigging were rather difficult tasks.
This page was changed last time on April 22nd, 2010
© János Erô
