Hello. I'm trying to get an idea of what refrigerator cars might be seen in Georgia, Alabama & South Carolina in the mid fifties. There seems to be little on the internet (or I'm looking in the wrong places). I did, of course look on this forum. The only cars that I know would have been seen were the West India Fruit ones that originated in Florida. Would reefers from other RR's with large fleets be seen there? ATSF for example?
thank you
Steve
There were two major companies that would have been used Fruit Growers Express was one. Their cars were burnt orange. Don't recall the other one. ATSF cars would be labeled return to sender when empty and would carry produce from the Imperial Valley in California
SFRD and PFE cars could be seen anyplace people ate fruit and vegetables from the Southwest.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
FGE built cars here in Alexandria VA specifically because of the north-south traffic that ran on the east coast.
As far as I'm aware, the Fruit Growers Express cars were mostly yellow, with the roof and ends painted boxcar red...
And depending on the era, you might see any of these, too...
Wayne
Thank you all so much for the information. I thought I would be able to rely on this forum. I hadn't heard of Fruit Growers Express before so will start looking for appropriate models. In the meantime it looks like my 2 SFRD reefers won't be out of place
Steve,
Your SFRD cars would never be out of place in the mid 1950s southeastern U.S. Although Fruit Growers Express cars dominated the shipment of perishables from that region, to the northeast and midwest, the cars of the other large refrigerator car owners, were not strangers to the region.
Fruit Growers Express was closely allied with the Great Northern Railway's refrigerator car arm, Western Fruit Express to the extent that the GN's goat herald rode on cars built for WFE in FGE's Alexandria, Virginia shops. Also a major player in southern perishable movement was the American Refrigerator Transit, a joint operation formed by the Missouri Pacific and, the Wabash Railroads. The MoPac had an extensive network of lines serving the produce growing Rio Grande valley south of San Antonio, Texas. MoPac was also a major player from New Orleans, Louisiana up through Arkansas to St. Louis and, Kansas City, Missouri. Spinach from Crystal City, Texas, probably rode ART cars to Atlanta.
You already have SFRD cars which blanketed the nation, often coupled to the cars of the jointly owned, Pacific Fruit Express. The orange cars with the Southern Pacific and , Union Pacific heralds carried west coast produce to the far reaches of both the United States and, Canada. A reefer from either Canadian National or, Canadian Pacific showing up in the American south is a "run get the camera" moment.
Other smaller players who did show up south of the Mason-Dixon line included the Illinois Central Railroad's fleet of reefers that primarily hauled bananas from the piers of New Orleans to the upper midwest (Chicago). New York Central was the principal behind the Merchants Despatch Transit which built ice reefers in their East Rochester, New York, Despatch Shops and leased them to other eastern railroads including of course, the NYC, as well as the Illinois Central and its future merger partner, the Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio. MDT cars also worked for the Lackawanna and the Bangor and Aroostook Railroads as needed, especially during BAR's annual potato rush. Solid 70 to 100 car trains bearing the reporting marks of any eastern refrigerator car operator, rolled out of Maine each year. Because of the seasonal nature of produce shipping from most growing areas, an operator of potentially idle and surplus equipment was more than happy to send it's cars where they were needed. The Bangor and Aroostook owned cars built on Pacific Fruit Express blueprints and when one railroad was in a slump and the other guy was swamped with traffic, the cars were at "home" where they were needed.
Smaller players in the refrigerator car arena were Chicago and North Western's North Western Refrigerator line, operating under NWX reporting marks. It was possible to find NWX's fish belly underframed, now steel sheathed, green and yellow reefers in major American produce terminals into the 1970s, complete with ACI bar code labels on their sides. Northern Pacific operated reefers, also built from PFE blueprints by Pacific Car and Foundry, to tap Washington state's apple growing Yakima valley region, delivering apples nation wide. Burlington Refrigerator Express was the refrigerator operation of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. BREX also had ties to Fruit Growers Express. West Indies Fruit and Steamship didn't venture too far from home in its final few years.
In addition to the produce hauling reefers, there were also large numbers of cars operated by the major American meat packers. Cars bearing the colors and heralds of companies such as Armour, Swift, Oscar Mayer, Cudahy, Dubuque, and many smaller firms moved their products from slaughter house to packing house. Meat reefers were usually equipped with special meat rails for the transport of hanging carcasses and were not free runners like their produce carrying relatives. Wood bodied refrigerator cars were the longest-lived cars of wood construction in railroading, due to the superior insulating qualities of wood. I remember seeing wood bodied Fruit Growers Express cars in the 57000 series in Penn Central freight trains into the 1970s and the end of the ice age of railroading.
If a load of Georgia onions had to be shipped from Vidalia, up to Boston, Massachusetts, and no Fruit Growers Express car was available, but your Santa Fe car is empty, and ready to head back out west. It will do so AFTER delivering those onions to Boston. The railroads were trying very hard to keep their perishable traffic away from better refrigerated trucks, operating on much improved, government funded and maintained highways, which is why the perishables HAD TO MOVE, regardless of the reporting marks on the car! One of the reasons for the demise of the "billboard" reefer was, the use of a car trumpeting a competitor's product to carry one's goods was deemed detrimental to those shippers unable to afford cars of their own. Meat reefers only work for the brand they wear, often cycling back and forth between the same shipper and receiver for months on end. As a young man, I remember the same Santa Fe AAR class RPM mechanical meat reefers in the 38000 series, and bearing the words "When empty return to agent, ATSF RY, San Angelo, Texas", showing up at the Armour packing house in Boston, Mass. It's a long way from Boston to San Angelo but, these cars in the low 38000 series were in chain gang service back and forth between these two points for Armour.
Another even smaller group of cars were operated by breweries, especially those in the Milwaukee and St. Louis areas. Union Refrigerator Transit cars wearing Milwaukee Road heralds hauled the products of Miller, Pabst, and Joseph Schlitz brewing companies out of Milwaukee, while the white cars of the Manufacturers Railway and, the St. Louis Refrigerator Car Company did the same for Anheuser-Busch of St. Louis.
During the 1980-1990s, the model railroad press included some now-defunct magazines that provided a wealth of prototype information on myriad subjects beneficial to the modeler seeking prototypical fidelity in their efforts. Fortunately, some of the articles as published in "Railmodel Journal" are available in these magazines at www.trainlife.com . Some of the relevent, era appropriate articles are:
36 Foot Wood Reefers, part one, Railmodel Journal Magazine, February 1996,
36 Foot Wood Reefers, part two, " " " , October, 1996
Intermountain's 40 Foot FGE Reefers " " " , February 2006
History of the ART Reefer, Box, & Covered Hopper Cars, Model Railroading Magazine, March and April 1989
HO Scale ART Reefers, part one, 40 Foot Ice Bunker Cars from Intermountain and Walthers Kits, Railmodel Journal July 2000
Here's The Beef!, Model Railroader, August 1987
PFE 40 Foot R-40-23 Reefers in HO or O scale by Intermountain, Railmodel Journal October 1994
Steve, the reason North America is standard gauge is so any car can appear almost anywhere on this continent. Enjoy your Santa Fe reefers.
Thank you so much for this. Lots of really useful information there, should keep me busy for quite a while. I was already aware of the Trainlife magazine collection & have used it numerous times although I didn't think to search for refrigerator lines.
The RMJ article on FGE/WFE reefers means I probably don't need to look for further information about FGE, it seems to cover everything. I will be reading the other articles you referred to as well. RMJ articles are always worth reading. As it happens, I am more interested in the produce traffic than meat.
I hadn't thought about FGE being outbound from the South & others inbound. Would FGE handle shipments within the Southeast? If so, based on what you wrote, would you see any available reefer?
regards
Fruit Growers Express was a consortium of mostly eastern railroads that included the Pennsylvania, New Haven, Baltimore and Ohio, Norfolk and Western, Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line, Louisville and Nashville and, Southern Railway, among its member roads. Like Trailer Train and, Railbox, the member roads were considered "home" for FGE cars. In otherwords, they could use FGE cars freely, just like their own cars.
The region from Boston to Virginia was industrial and very densely populated in the mid 1950s. The agricultural base of the region could never provide the food required to provision the area. With its longer growing season, the agricultural south was the source of much of the produce consumed in the north. FGE members Southern, Atlantic Coast Line, and the Seaboard funneled this traffic to the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad via Potomac Yard in Alexandria Virginia. The Pennsy served the metro areas of Wilmington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark NJ, and New York. The New Haven completed the route to Boston and all of these roads were FGE members.
Because different crops require different soil compositions and climatic conditions, things that did not grow well in the southeast may come from other regions of the U.S. This would bring lettuce in PFE or Santa Fe reefers from California, or apples from Washington in Northern Pacific cars, or Idaho potatoes in Western Fruit Express cars, into the southeast. These "foreign" cars would usually go to produce houses in the cities and larger towns.
Due to the perishable nature of produce traffic, short hauls by rail were rare. Even on a 500 mile trip, a truck would handily beat the train, even in the mid '50s. Piggyback was in its infancy at this time and the boxcar was stiil king.
As far as the use of other than FGE cars for shipments, yes, if a home road (FGE) car is not available, Association of American Railroads car service rules permit the use of another road's car if a suitable home road car is not available, for a "car hire" fee known as "per diem". Normally, once a foreign car is empty and is suitable for a load going in the owner's direction, the foreign empty should be used before a home road car. If there is no load going in the proper direction, the car shall be routed home empty by reversing the route over which it was received. Once a car became empty, the clock was ticking to get it headed home, usually within 24 hours, before the per diem charges kicked in.
Due to the different harvest times for the various crops in different regions, there were rushes lasting a month or two, slowing to a trickle. No railroad wanted to tie up money in a bunch of cars that would sit idle most of the year. This is why companies like Fruit Growers Express came about. Best example is the Bangor and Aroostook/Pacific Fruit Express arrangement. The Maine potato harvest required far more cars than BAR rostered. A large part of PFE's fleet was under utilized so, why not send 'em to Maine? When PFE's traffic picked up, and its cars went home, the BAR cars went with them to help PFE. As noted BAR even bought cars built by Pacific Car and Foundry, from PFE blueprints.
One other aspect of reefer traffic is the express refrigerator car. Some were owned by railroads but, the majority belonged to the Railway Express Agency. REA reefers usually ran on passenger trains, hauling highly perishable cargo such as seafood and cut flowers. They sometimes carried printed matter if a regular express car was unavailable. Occasionaly, they also appeared in freight trains if too many wound up in one place.
I'm glad you use the magazine feature of Trainlife.com. It's a shame this sort of information is no longer a part of the hobby. Cheers.
Even more information! How do you find all this stuff? One point sticks out for me. I model a branch line in the mid fifties with a grocery wholesaler in town. So the question is, if SFRD, PFE & others went to produce houses in the cities & larger towns would the last leg of the journey “down the branch” be in a reefer at all? Or by truck? Would you see reefers on the branch & if so, whose reefers? Presumably not the SFRD or PFE ones that brought the suff from the other side of the country
Keep in mind the products like citrus fruits from the Southwest were primarily going to the Midwest - Kansas City, Chicago, Twin Cities, etc. Eastern seaboard cities like Philadelphia, New York, Boston would be getting their citrus from Florida since it was a lot closer. Not saying Santa Fe cars wouldn't be seen in the East, far from it. But they would be outnumbered by cars from the eastern/southeastern roads.
A lot of information is contained in books such as Kalmbach Publishing's "Produce Traffic and Trains". Another must have for one interested in refrigerator cars and the traffic they serve is; "The Great Yellow Fleet" by John H. White, Golden West Books, ISBN 0-87095-091-6. If those books don't satisfy your interest in reefers, "Pacific Fruit Express" by Anthony W. Thompson, Robert J. Church, and Bruce H. Jones, Signature Press, ISBN 1930013-03-5 covers not only the cars but also the shops, icing facilities, the crops, the regions they were hauled from, where they went, everything-basically from field to table and PFE's part in the journey. It is not a cheap book, it is an investment to be repeatedly referred to if you have any interest in produce reefer traffic. The Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society has addressed the Santa Fe Refrigerator Department with two definitive titles covering SFRD's ice and mechanical cars. Check them out at www.sfrhms.org "American Refrigerator Transit" by Stuart T. Maher, G.J. Michaels Jr and Gene Semon, Signature Press, ISBN 9781930013377 and "Merchants Despatch Transit", a now out of print title by Signature Press, provide in-depth insight into their title subjects.
The defunct magazines from what I feel was the apex of prototype information for the railroad modeler, provided knowledge and information of what, why, and how the prototype did what it did. One title not available at trainlfe.com is "Mainline Modeler" magazine by Hundman Publications. MM focused more on the prototype than someone else's model railroad. Their articles ranged from in depth coverage of such diverse subjects as Greenville 86 foot auto parts boxcars to types of building windows, to different species of trees. Fortunately for modelers who missed out on the 1980-2006 run of what may be the Cadillac of model railroad magazines of that era, for prototype coverage, the entire library of MM has been put on a CD and offered to the public by the Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society ( www.cohs.org ).
To answer your other questions, I refer back to the indications given that your interests focus on refrigerator car traffic on branchlines in the southeastern U.S. in the mid 1950s. My knowledge is mainly from Georgia, as my parents hailed from the central and western parts of that state. In the 1950s most of Georgia was rural with the major cities being Atlanta, Columbus, Savannah, Macon, and Augusta. What you consider a "branch line" is important because larger cities like Augusta and Macon, were on the main lines of some railroads, and the ends of branch lines of others. These towns had a large enough traffic base to support all of thes lines and, it was conceivable for a sizeable produce operation to be located on that branch line. A lot of branch lines rambled into a small town of a couple of thousand people to serve a mill, quarry, or wood yard, or other regional traffic generator, to terminate. These smaller towns probably would not have a produce warehouse, relying on one in a larger town.
Depending on the distance from a larger population center, a produce operation may receive traffic by rail for distribution to smaller surrounding communities. This would usually be by truck, covering a 25-30 mile radius. Quite often a small, local chain of grocery stores (IGA-Independent Grocers Association, A&P-Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, Piggly Wiggly, etc) would have an area warehouse serving a clutch of its stores. During the fifties, there were still a lot of dirt roads serving many of these little dots on the state map. It made sense to leave the produce in the car it came from Texas or California in, instead of unloading it in Atlanta or Columbus or Macon and then trucking it around for a day. Remember, this stuff was perishable. To answer your question, yes, produce from outside the region would remain in the same car, to the final consignee. It was counter-productive to have to ice and chill a car to accept a load that had just crossed the continent in an iced and cold car, simply because of the reporting marks on the car.
Most produce consignees away from the major cities handled a wide range of fruits and/or vegetables. These crops came from different parts of the country and, it would not be unusual to see reefers from PFE, SFRD, WFEX, and ART on the consignee's track at the same time. In actuality, a Fruit Growers Express car at one of these produce houses would be a rarity because they dealt in stuff shipped in from outside their region. FGE cars would be passing by, heading for destinations outside of the southeast. In the fifties it was all about population density. Population had a direct influence on terminating traffic. The more mouths to feed, the more localized industry to statisfy the requirement. Today's centralization was still on the horizon.
There are books on all of the major refrigerator car lines except FGE. I have seen interest in doing such a work but, so far, no action. If your interest is in the hows and why's of the prototype from a modeler's perspective, investigate the NMRA's special interest groups for operations and, industries. They really get into these subjects. I hope this helps and, I'm always happy to assist.
Once again, thank you (& others who responded). I do like to find out about the “why” as well as the “what” of freight traffic in general. I've picked up quite a bit of information about different industries as part of the hobby, not just what they produce but where they produce it and find the research a rewarding part of model railroading. Looking at this forum it's clear I'm not the only one