By Railroad Model Craftsman Staff

Scale Trains has announced at the Rocky Mountain Train Show in Denver over the weekend that it will produce the Trinity 82-foot reefer car in HO scale as part of its Rivet Counter series. The cars will be painted for BNSF and be available in multiple versions and numbers. 

In 2001, BNSF turned to Trinity Railcar to build a modern reefer car. Trinity built 810 reefers that year and two years later built another batch of 82-foot long, 17-foot tall rail cars. A unique feature of the cars is the HVAC unit and 300-gallon fuel tank mounted outside the car body on the A end. Later, Trinity built another batch of cars for JR Simplot. The BNSF cars received the railroad’s Santa Fe-inspired circular logo. The cars can still be found in service across the country today. 

Scale Trains is offering three different versions of the car, either with the Carrier reefer unit or two versions of the Thermo-Kine reefer unit (early or late). 

The cars will come fully assembled and a sound-equipped version will also be offered. The sound units will be operated either with power from the track or a battery. There will also be an LED-lit control panel just like the prototype. The models will feature factory-applied ladders, metal grab irons, track boards, coupler cut levers, train line hoses and more. 

Non-sound reefers will sell for $54.99 each and sound-equipped will sell for $89.99 each. The models are expected to be available on October 31. See Scale Trains’ website for more information.