Yesteryear's Growers Express GEX

[Texas Zepher]

Intermountain's Yesteryear Growers Express reefers are very nice with fruit crate label ... Any thoughts, or are these fantasies and not based on a prototype.

Since you've answered your own question I just had some related comments.  Yesteryear is a local company and I'm one of the ones who is collecting their fantasy reefers.  I have also started collecting fruit crate labels that some day I hope to get onto the sides of reefer cars.  Actually the real reason I am posting is just to point out that Yesteryear is a separate company, unrelated to Intermountain except by virtue of physical proximity.  Yesteryear purchases Intermountain's plastic and services, but it is not an exclusive arrangment.  Some of Yesteryear's work (They indicated they thought it was their best work) has been done with TichyTrains plastic as a base.  Unfortunately off the top of my head I don't remember which paint schemes are on the Tichy cars.

P.S. If anyone knows were I can get a Yesteryear "Mariposa Reefer" please let me know.

[wjstix]

Here's a link to an interesting website about FGE and others, both prototype and model (the website author is the son of an FGE employee from Florida):

TEAMWORK

That site says that Fruit Growers Express Co. started in 1920 due to an antitrust suit against Armour Packing Co., and was owned by the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Norfolk & Western, and New York, New Haven & Hartford railroads. It mainly served the Florida citrus trade east of the Mississippi.

[twhite]

I could be terribly wrong, and if so, I hope someone will correct me, but I was given to understand that FGEX (Fruit Growers Express) was spun off of some east coast railroads transporting Florida citrus to the northeast, and was largely concerned with the Florida East Coast and Atlantic Coast railways.  However, the cars became known nation-wide and ended up almost anywhere in the US where perishables were packed. 

I remember large blocks of the cars intermixed with Pacific Fruit Express reefers when I was a kid, being hauled east over the California Sierras on SP's Donner Pass route from the central California Sacramento, San Joaquin and Salinas valleys, so the cars were certainly well traveled.  During that time period at least--late 'forties, early 'fifties--the FGEX cars were almost all of wood construction--the only steel cars I ever remember were the later 50-foot mechanical refrigerator cars.   The reason I remember them so well was because of their rather plain appearance--no railroad heralds at all, as one would see on PFE, ART, WFE or Santa Fe.  Simply FRUIT GROWERS EXPRESS in black Roman lettering against their yellow sides.  Kind of fascinating, especially since back in that era, refrigerator cars from other companies were exremely colorful--even under the grime. 

Tom

[wjstix]

Due to some court cases and federal law enactments, about 100 years ago the U.S. railroads had 'spin off' their refrigerator lines as separate companies...although the new companies were still closely related to the parent railroad.

CB&Q: BREX - Burlington Refrigerator Express

GN     WFEX - Western Fruit Express

I believe Fruit Growers Express was owned by several railroads.

BTW the "X" at the end isn't for "EXpress", X as the last letter of the reporting marks indicates the car is being leased.

[Anonymous]

found the answer to my own question at YesterYears web site:

Yesteryear Models strives to create high-quality products for the model railroad hobbyist and collector. We try to match prototype details as much as possible when making models of real-world rolling stock and locomotives but we also have a desire to create quality "fantasy" models such as our Growers Express line of fruit crate label billboard cars that appeal to a broad range of tastes, including our own.

Nice models, but fantasy. Maybe they ought to have been? 

[Anonymous]

Intermountain's Yesteryear Growers Express reefers are very nice with fruit crate label billboards with GEX reporting marks. I have four of them, two wood ones from the 1930's and two steel ones from the 1940's.

I also have the Official Railway Equipment Registers (ORERs) for several years. The problem is that I cannot find references to just Growers Express. Yes, Fruit Growers Express (FGEX among other reporting marks). GEX is the marks for General Electric which did not have, as far as I know, wood or steel reefers.

A google search for "growers express" reefer -"fruit growers" yielded the modern Growers Express that was involved with spinach contamination some time ago.

Does anyone have any hard information on Growers Express GEX? Perhaps GEX was the reporting marks early on for Growers Express, something happened to Growers Express in the 40's or after, and then these marks came to General Electric some years later?

These cars appear to be modeled after southern California growers although there is one for Arizona.

Any thoughts, or are these fantasies and not based on a prototype.