Refrigerating wagon
Ibes Frangeco LS Models

Nice wagons with well respected scale. Multiple metal inserts: handles, photoetched steps, transmission rods, or plastic: e. g. door locks. The ice containers’ access ladders, made of plastic, are quite thin.

The axles rotate in brass bearings. On one of the models, an axle rotates badly. It seems that the axle holder is a little narrower than the other. The wheels are not burnished. Flange height: 0.75 mm. Wheel back to back distance: 14.2 to 14.3 mm (NEM 14.5 ± 0.1). Axle length: 24.6 mm. One of the pivoting axle holders was askew because one of the return “springs” had jumped over its stop.

Once again, I note the irrelevance, if not the harmfulness, of pivoting axle holders, which don’t pivot unless their rotation is linked to the drawbar movement, as Roco did on their Ibbehs.

See the Loco-Revue Forum.

Series of 150 wagons built from 1965 to 1966 by Frangeco (source: DocRail).

Main characteristics: useful surface 25 m², useful volume 50 m³; tare 15.5 t; S-load 20.4 t; speed limit 120 km/h.

The next 150 wagons, built in 1966/67, are slightly longer (13.24 m) and have a slightly larger surface area and volume (25.75 m² and 51.5 m³ respectively).