Uncataloged Premier O Scale 36’ Woodsided Reefer Cars Announced

March 12, 2026 - M.T.H. Electric Trains has announced an exclusive Premier O Scale 36’ Woodsided Reefer in unique Rosato Brothers Exterminators livery for M.T.H. Authorized Retailer Roundhouse South. The cars will be produced in two car numbers in extremely limited quantities. They will be available for delivery beginning in May 2026.

Item No. 20-94806 Rosato Brothers Exterminators 36’ Woodsided Reefer Car
Car No. 12267
Early Order Price: $89.95 (plus freight)
Click HERE to download the order form from Roundhouse South.

Item No. 20-94807 Rosato Brothers Exterminators 36’ Woodsided Reefer Car
Car No. 70570
Early Order Price: $89.95 (plus freight)
Click HERE to download the order form from Roundhouse South.

ABOUT THE PREMIER 36’ WOODSIDED REEFER CAR

The coming of the railroad changed the way America ate and drank. Before the iron horse connected every town of any importance to the outside world, most food was grown or produced locally. The arrival of cheap, fast, refrigerated transport — in the form of the woodsided reefer with ice bunkers at each end — enabled local brewers, diaries, meat processors, and other food businesses to become players on a national scale.

Until 1934, shippers could advertise their wares on leased billboard reefers, each a hand-painted traveling work of art. That year, the Interstate Commerce Commission outlawed the flamboyant paint schemes because the cars often hauled shipments from other companies — whose freight bills thus unfairly paid to advertise the lessee’s products.

What doomed the billboard cars was truth in labeling. Depending on shipping needs, billboard cars often carried loads for customers other than the company named on the car sides. A beer company requesting an empty reefer for loading, for example, might find a cheese maker’s delivered to its door. Shippers were not happy when their product was carried in a car bearing a large ad for someone else’s product — they complained that their freight bill had in part paid for another company’s advertising.

Responding to these complaints, the Interstate Commerce Commission in July 1934 mandated the phasing out of billboard reefers and ruled that thereafter, the lessee’s name on a car could be no more than 12" high. By law, all billboard reefers were removed from service by January, 1937, although many soldiered on in drabber paint schemes as late as the 1960s.

Order directly from:

Roundhouse South
4611 S. Ridgewood Avenue
Port Orange, FL 32127
386-304-7002
www.roundhousesouth.com
info@roundhousesouth.com

M.T.H. Electric Trains will be releasing more than a dozen and a half limited-edition RailKing O Gauge Halloween releases beginning this Fall including an ES44 Diesel locomotive and matching caboose, an Alco PA with matching streamlined passenger cars, a Bump-n-Go Trolley with LEDs and more than a dozen complementing pieces of rolling stock. The Halloween-themed items continue a trend M.T.H. began back in 2008 and these 2026 releases are a great way to add to your own spooky collection of past cars, sets and buildings. Each of these offerings is expected to begin shipping to M.T.H. Authorized Retailers in September 2025.

Check out each of these offerings HERE.

These items are available to order from your local M.T.H. Authorized Retailer.

M.T.H. Electric Trains will be releasing the 2026 Premier O Scale 40’ USRA Double Sheathed Box Car in SIX different schemes this Fall. Each of these offerings will be produced in two unique car numbers and is expected to begin shipping to M.T.H. Authorized Retailers in October 2026.

Check out each of these offerings HERE.

These items are available to order from your local M.T.H. Authorized Retailer.

Check out each of these offerings HERE.

These items are available to order from your local M.T.H. Authorized Retailer.