Parts for Atlas 40ft Steel Side Reefer

You may be able to pull one from an Intermountain steel reefer kit and drill the appropriate holes.

What a bummer, Not sure if Midsouth Hobbies has resin casting supplies, it may be worth while to make a 2 part mold and cast them out of resin.  I have made parts for my  North Shore kits that have not been made for a while using resin casting.  email me (in profile) if you have any questions

Rich I assume you need them because of bad castings.  I have at least 6 cars that are sidelined, more if I would dare to remove the trucks.  It was in the same era that they had the couplers with bad castings.

I talked to Atlas last year trying to get them and was told that the ones they had were in the same condition.  Atlas needs to do another run of cars along with extra bolsters.

Anyone that has 40 steel side reefers from the mid 2000's probably has the same problem and should not try to remove their trucks (like you need to do for Kadees) because the casting will come apart.

Atlas - We need new bolsters for replacement.  Do you see this?  I would hope that any that have these cars would call Atlas and make the issue better known.  Then we may get new bolsters.

This part can be made several ways

One way like I mentioned, is to make a two part mold of a good casting and make replacements out of resin.

Another way is to mak a 3-D cad model of the part and have the part printed at Shapeways.  This could be done without the threads, threads canbe added by the person needing the part.  I would be willing to help out in the 3-D part as I am a Tool & Die designer and use 3-D cad software every day.  I would even help Atlas to get the part onto a Shapeways Store so others may purchase this part.

Mike - I'm sending you an email.

Matt,

I tried the InterMountain route. They tried to help and sent me a complete set of steel reefer parts. However their bolster is a completely different design.

Marker,

I called Atlas a while back and asked Bill for help. He told me that bolsters will not be availabe until another run of Steel reefers are made. In a friendly way I told Bill that if Atlas announced a new run of 40ft steel reefers today, it would be a year before I saw a replacement part.

 The bolsters on my NYC reefer broke when I tried to remove a truck in order to replace a broken stirrup. One of the bolsters broke when I picked up the car off of the shelf, the other one broke while I was removing the broken bolster from the other end of the car.

Mike,

I will send you an emal. I have no experience in casting my own parts. I will drop you a note about this cad idea.

 Thanks to all for your help. Maybe Atlas will see this and find a way to help us out. I have well over 100 of thier freight cars. (hint Atlas)

It looks like Atlas is coming out with a new 40' steel sided reefer, which they just announced. 

Now is the time to contact them and see if there will be replacement bolsters available.