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Refer Car Question...

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Refer Car Question...
Posted by marksrailroad on Saturday, December 16, 2017 1:23 AM

Could someone please tell me how long 36' foot refer cars were used in service with American railroads. The reason I ask is because I own a few but never use them because I'm not sure of the period that they were used in. Thanks in advance.

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Posted by DSchmitt on Saturday, December 16, 2017 3:27 AM

Generally 36' Reefers predated 40' cars.  They were used in the early 1900's and were common into the 1930's, but some built later were still in use as late as the 1960's. 

They carried perishable products dairy, beer and food products well into the 1960's.  In the later years their most common use was carrying meat.  For this reason they are often called meat reefers by model railroaders.

This ATLAS model represents cars in meat service                     

http://www.atlasrr.com/HOFreight/ho36woodreefer.htm

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Posted by tstage on Saturday, December 16, 2017 5:01 AM

Do any of them have a BLT or NEW date stamped on them?

https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling

Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.

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Posted by 7j43k on Saturday, December 16, 2017 9:49 AM

Checking out that link to the Atlas reefers, I saw that they "claimed" the Swift reefers were still running at the end of 1950.

I looked up those cars in the October 1950 ORER.  The series is SRLX 3300-5199, and there  were 1595 cars in it at the time.  The overall length of the car is listed as 37' 5".  A typical "40 foot" reefer appears to have an overall length of about 41' 8".

As far as how long they were used in service, that's a question that's a bit fuzzy.  Do ya mean the very last one?  Or do you mean in large numbers?  And by who?  Atlas says "well into the 1960's".  I see no reason to doubt them.  

I seriously doubt whether the list of late owners would include any railroad sponsored cars--just private owners.

Ed

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Posted by jrbernier on Saturday, December 16, 2017 7:05 PM

  The SRLX reefers ran into the 60's.  They slowly got replaced by steel cars, but trucking took most of the business by the mid to late 60's.  My 1959 ORER lists about 4200 meat reefers still on the roster.  Swift sold the cars to General American in the early 50's and leased them back.  GARC did the maintenance on the fleet.

Jim

Modeling BNSF  and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin

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Posted by marksrailroad on Saturday, December 16, 2017 10:23 PM

tstage

Do any of them have a BLT or NEW date stamped on them?

 

Hi Tom. Yes, the cars do have BLT dates of the 1920s. The one I'm most interested in is the milk refer I have. I just want to be correct about using the car for the right era... 

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Posted by doctorwayne on Saturday, December 16, 2017 11:17 PM

Part of the reason for those reefers' longevity was due to many customers' having loading/unloading doors spaced for cars of this length.  Longer cars needed to be cut for spotting, leaving some dock doors unuseable.  I suspect, too, that mechanical reefers were becoming more common, and car owners simply wanted to get the final few years of life out of those older cars before having to replace them.

Wayne

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Posted by wjstix on Monday, December 18, 2017 3:10 PM

Don't remember the particular issue, but the old "Model Railroading" magazine had a pretty extensive article about Swift and other meat co. reefers. I believe they referred to the 37'-6" cars as "38 foot cars", and said that largely due to the spacing of meat packing plant doors, the cars remained in service long after other sub-40' cars had disappeared. 1960's sounds correct, certainly sounded like they were very common in the 1950's in meat service.

Stix
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Posted by DrW on Tuesday, December 19, 2017 8:22 AM

Swift reefer SRLX 4863 in May 1959

http://yourrailwaypictures.com/oldrollingstock/21205.jpg

JW

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Posted by ATSFGuy on Thursday, December 21, 2017 12:12 AM

I have an Athearn 40 foot Reefer, painted orange with a black santa fe cross and a black roof. Is this car prototypical to use in a ATSF transtion era freight?

here is the car;

  " alt="" width="100" height="200" />

  " width="150" height="200" />

I believe this is the steel version.

 

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Posted by DSchmitt on Thursday, December 21, 2017 5:16 AM

 

If current cars are based on the same prototype as the old Blue Box car.

Steel reefer - PFE R-40-23 class ice reefer

Wood reefer - PFE R-40-24 rebuilt wood-sided reefer

from discussion   http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/214924.aspx   titled Athearn Blue Box Prototypes

Santa Fe reefers were not a PFE design

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Posted by dknelson on Thursday, December 21, 2017 11:22 AM

ATSFGuy
  I have an Athearn 40 foot Reefer, painted orange with a black santa fe cross and a black roof. Is this car prototypical to use in a ATSF transtion era freight?

here is the car;

  " alt="" width="100" height="200" />

  " width="150" height="200" />

I believe this is the steel version.   

Santa Fe reefers are a matter of pretty specialized information and knowledge, and whether the Athearn tooling/paint/lettering is "acurate" is really a matter of how tolerant you are of deviations from prototype accuracy.  Some guys happily accept the "close enough" very general physical resemblance -- that is, it looks like a steel reefer and is painted Santa Fe -- and others reject the many details and features that deviate in some cases significantly from the Santa Fe prototype.

There was a good discussion about Santa Fe reefers on these forums, to be found here:  

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/p/257909/2890962.aspx#2890962

 

It not only provides some good information but gives you a flavor of the nature of the discussion.  Which camp are you in, is a matter for you to decide.  

  The model in your photo is lettered to be of the ATSF's Rr53 class which I believe was an early 1950s rebuild with steel sides of an older car from the 1920s that had wood sides.  The underframe was retained.  So the Rr53 would have seen service in the very late years of the steam to diesel transition era.  But not prior to 1950.

There are certain matters where I am a stickler for prototype accuracy, but mostly it deals with my "home road" cars.  I have neither the time nor the resources to be as fussy about off road cars.  I'd prefer accuracy but don't get upset when I learn I have inaccurate cars, nor do I avidly seek out information about each and every car on the layout (or on the shelves).  I know guys who don't care at all and I know guys who care intensely.

Dave Nelson

 

 

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Posted by NHTX on Saturday, December 23, 2017 6:42 PM

    As identified by others, your car is a model of the Pacific Fruit Express R-40-23.  Athearn and Intermountain both offer this car in a plethora of paint schemes for owners who never had an R-40-23 including Santa Fe.  One major spotting difference between the PFE and SFRD (Santa Fe) cars is the width of the door openings.  PFE used a four foot door opening while SFRD used five foot swing door or, six foot plug door openings.  It should also be noted that SFRD mixed swing and plug doors within the same class cars.  The large circle-cross herald paint scheme as on your car didn't appear until 1959 so it would be a little late for the transition era.  More accurate paint schemes on more accurate cars are offered by Intermountain but, if you are happy with your car, enjoy!

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