Someone asked about modeling the 1890-1914 timeframe, so here are a couple of photos of a pair of freelanced wooden 28' reefers, modeled as they would have looked around the turn of the century. About as simple as scratch building gets: Tichy trucks and k-type brakes, Selley doors, and the rest wood or wire (although the sides on 765 are a resin casting of 763). Needless to say, 763 will be the only one of its kind in that livery, which is based on something offered in the 1990s by BC Models.
http://mprailway.blogspot.com
"The first transition era - wood to steel!"
Just by coincidence I was flipping through the April 1999 edition of Model Railroader Magazine a little while ago and on page 94 there is an article about modeling 28 foot boxcars.
I will have to check that out!
Good to see someone still using Selley parts. When I was first trying my hand at building (I guess it isn't really scratchbuilding if you use parts but the basic box of the housecar was scratchbuilt) I used Selley because they were cheap and available.
By the way somewhere on the Forums is a photo essay by someone about using the old Varney plastic reefer body (tooling which I think LifeLike acquired) as the basis for ice bunker reefers in your chosen era.
Dave Nelson