Gustav Gets Cool New Gig

[EMD Trainman]

Hi to All,

In the Garden Railways Magazine Octiber 2012 issue there was a article called Gustav Gets A Cool New Gig. It was a article based on a animation project on a ice reefer. It was featured on page 66.

I read this and noticed right away the ice reefer used for the project and wondered if any of the readers knew the history behind the reefer used for the project.

The ice reefer used for the project was a USA Trains American Series Woodside reefer which was a custom run made for Feather River Canyon Locomotive Works. This series of USAT custom runs was called the Bear Whiz Series which featured a comical paint schemes of Bear Whiz Brewery on the reefers. There was 6 USAT custom run Bear Whiz Brewery woodside reefers in all and a Caboose. Feather River did advertise there would be a 0-4-0 Steam Locomotive but I don't think it was ever produced. The Bear Whiz series was released between 1994 and 1996. Most are realy hard to find today as these were very limited custom releases. There was only approximately 100 of each different Bear Whiz reefer made.

Feather River originally specialized in creating 1:22.5 Narrow Gauge Work equipment and was located Pagosa Springs Colorado. They are no longer in buisness today

[dwbeckett]

Thanks for the history lesson I was interested in those cars at one time but the extra cash and availability never seem to meet.

Dave

[EMD Trainman]

dwbeckett

Thanks for the history lesson I was interested in those cars at one time but the extra cash and availability never seem to meet.

Dave

You are welcome. Our website actually has been able to document 100's of USA Trains custom run rolling stock and who they were made for such as hobby shops, train shows, organizations. Would you believe as strick as the NMRA is that they actually had USA Trains make custom runs for them??  True story and the NMRA sold them as 29ft Reefers. Want to learn more about USA Trains products from the past ? Come look up our group, we have 1,000's of pictures and many PDF documents you can research on USAT products back to 1988 and it's totally free.

Shawn