# De-Hatch an LGB tiffany reefer



## Sampug394 (Dec 30, 2010)

So here's the issue. I recently bought myself one of these, after eying them from afar for years:

 

After a while of poring over it, I then did some research, and then found that the roof is wrong. Very wrong. Completely inaccurate wrong. Enough so to bother me silly.



Tiffanys, as many know, had no ice bunkers at the end like most conventional reefers, but rather had shelves in the peak of the roof to put ice into. Therefore, no hatches are present at the corners.



So what's a man to do when he wants to make a generic LGB reefer a little more accurate? Either figure out how to kill the hatches, modify/replace the roof (Sadly LGB boxcar roofs have door rails molded into them, making a swap more difficult as I discovered), or pretend that the reefer is a secondhand purchase retrofitted with a regular reefer roof, bought from the DSP&P.

Currently pondering the course of action. Pretty sure I'm facing a dilemma other modelers have in the past related to DSP&P stock, but I'm open to suggestions right now. The other choice is to resell the car and buy something else to fix up and paint, and I'm trying to convince myself against that.


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## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

I was going to suggest swapping out the reefer roof for a boxcar roof, but the latter are "wood" with boards running across from side to side, whereas the reefer roof is "steel" or at least sheathed with metal, with only strips to cover the roof seams spaced ever few feet apart and running from side to side. So my advice is to tear off the Bachmann hatches and fill in the holes with styrene or maybe even part of the hatch cover (I didn't examine my reefer too closely to size up one of the hatches). If an extra strip is required, once again I'd just use some styrene. As for filling in the seams, if you do you plug up the holes, there are a number of modeling puttys that you can use (Squadron Green, for example), or a Bondo-like putty such as Nitro Stan, which is used in car body repair. Heck, ya might even try Bondo. Sound too much like work? Hey, that's what model railroading is about--modeling. 

Oops! After spilling all that purple prose I looked at your photo and realized your reefer is an LGB, not a Bachmann. So, in the words of SNL's Gilda Radnor, aka, Emily Litella, "Never mind."

Or just use styrene, like I said.


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Pull the hatches and roofwalks, sand down the ribs, and laminate with Evergreen styrene sheet. I use the 3/16" spacing "V groove" siding. If you remember to mark where the roofwalks attach to the original roof, you can drill out the styrene sheet and use the original screws to hold the roofwalks in place. I turned a USA Reefer into an EBT box car not too long ago, and had to do the same thing. 

Later, 

K


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