At this time last year, David Leider published Pickle and Vinegar Makers of the Midwest: The History and Operations of Two Fascinating Industries. This 140-page book is the best single-book compilation of information out there on the pickle and vinegar industries in the Great Lakes region.
I just wrote up a lengthy review of it for the Pere Marquette Historical Society's newsletter, but the short version is that the book concentrates primarily on Illinois and Wisconsin, though it does provide useful information on businesses in Michigan and the Heinz operations in the Pittsburgh area. It covers the early history of the pickle and vinegar manufacturers in some detail, and has plenty to offer modelers in the way of photos (nearly 200) of buildings and rolling stock and fleet rosters.
It's available through several of the usual booksellers, or directly from the author. He has a web site with ordering information, but I cannot locate it at the moment. I hesitate to provide direct ordering information here, lest I run afoul of the forum's advertising rules and etiquette.
-Fritz Milhaupt, Publications Editor, Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc.http://www.pmhistsoc.org
I was looking for something today and found a kit I didn't even know I had, the Pola Vinegar Factory:
Very European, but maybe I can make it work...
Gary
I found this picture of the Midland Vinegar Company. The building seems fairly non-descript. The rail cars are on the left, so it's hard to tell, but it may be easy to model a plant like this with a DPM building.
Pictured is an old post card showing the National Fruit Products Co. way back when showing it's vinegar tanks . The company is still in operation.
Below is an HO Nat'l Fruit Vinegar Car
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
I do have some perspective on this - my great, great grandfather started the M. A. Gedney Company in Minneapolis in 1880, and our family has worked there since.
As I understand it, the process was not very sophisticated, but fairly standard across the country. At that time the companies were very regional; there weren't any national pickle companies with the possible exception of the H. J. Heinz company.
A company would contract farmers to grow cucumbers, and set up what were known as "salting stations" throughout the region. These are what are frequently modeled as trackside industry elements, and as described previously are sheds with a dozen or so 800 bushel wooden tanks.
The farmers would deliver cucumbers to these sheds each day by truck to be sorted by size using a mechanical size grader. The farmer was paid a different amount for each size. The cucumbers would then go into a tank designated for that size, and when full the tank would be "capped" with wooden boards. Then the tank was filled with water over the tops of the caps and some salt was added. Naturally occuring acetobacter would then ferment the sugars in the cucumbers and create lactic acid, basically sterilizing the cucumbers and preventing any further spoilage.
At this point the cucumbers were preserved and ready to move, and the infamous pickle car would be brought in and loaded with either wheelbarrows or bucket elevators, if the facility was highly advanced. The rail car would then take the cucumbers to the main pickle factory, where they were either desalted and packed in glass jars with a vinegar brine, or stored in more outdoor tanks on the premises of the main factory. In this condition the pickles were also protected from freezing, alowing operations to continue in the winter.
We still use this method of preservation to a certain extent, but we no longer use pickle cars or salting stations. Reefer trucks now deliver cucumbers directly to the main factory, and most of the pickles are packed directly in glass (or even plastic), a method called "fresh pack". the salting tanks we use for "naturally cured" pickles in our current facility in Chaska, Minnesota are made out of fiberglass.
So, there are two different opportunities for modeling - the salting stations and the factory itself. Both would be on rail lines. The factory would also possibly have packaging materials, vinegar, salt, and sugar (for sweet gherkins) delivered by rail. Most outbound finished goods were delivered by truck.
Vinegar, aka acetic acid, was also an important industrial chemical.
Check out:
https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~olsenk/ACETIC%20ACID.htm
Back in the late '50s/early '60s I purchased Athearn's pickle car, even though I had no place that it could logically be used. I later downgraded it to a work-service water car, simply by painting the whole thing boxcar red.Recently, I decided to upgrade it with wire grabirons and put it back into pickle service. At the same time, I backdated it by converting it to a truss rod car, with K-type brakes and a vertical brakewheel staff, then gave it a new paint job...
While I don't have a pickle-aging station, I do have a canning plant, and the car can also be used in through trains, from an off-layout shipper to an off-layout consignee.
Wayne
Hello all,
Just to throw the proverbial spanner in the works...
Saurkraut is not made with vinegar. It is produced by salting the cut cabbage thus allowing it to ferment.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
Baltimore had a picturesque vinegar plant. It was a distillery first. It looks like one of doctorwayne's creations. You could always smell the vinegar driving by.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/73850851@N03/sets/72157629922802791/
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
This is quite an old topic, but anyone that may find it, as I did, in researching modeling their own vinegar works or "pickle factory" might benefit from this.
Depending on your scale, there have been a number of vinegar cars offered over the years. They tend to resemble a tank car, but with a wooden tank with steel bands around it. Vinegar is (or was) too corrosive to put in cars in the old days.
In N scale, ER Models offers a Richter Vinegar Works car which would seem to be based off of a prototype at the Mid Continent Railway Museum (though not on display currently) which was acquired in 1970 from the old Ripon Pickle operation in Redgranite, WI.
Waushara County, WI is in the heart of sand country. You can't grow much there, or couldn't, anyway, back in the days before GPS Mapping and modern irrigation. Cucumbers, strawberries, peppers and potatoes were about all that would grow in basically beach sand conditions, made worse by the acidity of prevalent white pine trees. The communities of Wautoma, Redgranite and I think Wild Rose at one time had thriving pickle operations seasonally. All were on the old C&NW "Pumpkin Line" that ran between Fond du Lac, WI and Marshfield, WI., Redgranite being on an old spur that used to serve the granite industry until the quarries closed up after filling with water in the early part of the 20th Century. The Richter Vinegar car was abandoned, sans rails, for quite some time.I would contact the Waushara County Historical Society (they're on Facebook) and ask for pictures and information about the 'Pickle Factories' of Wautoma and Redgranite. I'm sure they have a bunch of info on the operations.I can tell you from my memory of the runes of the pickle operations that they weren't very sophisticated and probably would be quite colorful for modelling. The buildings were basically long sheds and inside I imagine they had sorting conveyors and workers would sort by hand. Outside were big wooden vats where the cukes would ferment into pickles. There probably had to be some sort of canning operation, which from my limited research thus far was all manual...ladies would pack the cukes in jars and fill with brine, etc. From there, I suppose they went out in standard box cars or perhaps reefers, depending on the type of pickle. Everything looked rather slapped together, to be honest, and it was only a seasonal operation, running from about mid-July to about November. Then it was time for the Christmas Tree operations to start up, but that's another Sand Country industry of the past.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Good morning. Over the weekend, I saw a Vinegar Car on eBay. In the listing is a picture of a Vinegar Tank Car owned by Vinegar Car Works in Baltimore, MD. The picture can be viewed on the Hagley Library web site at:
http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15017coll8/id/347
The car was owned by the National Vinegar Works in Baltimore. Does anyone know if plans for this type of car were ever published? Or, does anyone know if more information available on these cars?
National Vinegar Works is now opened by Fleischmann and is still active.
Thanks for your help.
Jerry
There were 4 stainless steel insulated milk tankers used. they looked like a box car with slightly rounded corners on top and ends. these were produced by General American Pflauder Company had markingx GPEX tated at 77,000 lbs with two 4200 gallon tanked with an 8' wide enclosed vestibule between the where the clean out manholes view ports and plumbing connections were located. Painted light school bus yellow with black lettering and roofs. These had stainless steel tanks but the flooring in the vestbule was mild steel and so was the undercarrige. shipping concentrated vinegar was very corrosive and these tankers did not last long. two were purchased in 1968 and another two in 1970 were used between 1968 and 1977. only one labored on until 1982 when it too was retired permently and cut up for scrap like the others.
according to the ORER 1923 Fleischman transport company had 143 wood tank cars, HJ Heinz had 12 and Milwaukee Pickle had 14. None were the configuration with vertical takns on a flat car like some of the models produced....
Richter had two built RSX 10 and 11 rated @ 80,000 lbs capacities 8277 and 8040 respectively. car 10 tas off the roster ten years later (rolled) and two more were built in 1944 a new #10 with a cap of 8212 and a number 12 holding 6920. Car 11 was rebuilt in the late 30's and now carried 7828 gallons. Car 14 was added in 1946 and held 8073 gallons. With the purchae of Milwaukee Vinegar Company Richter Vinegar aquired 11 double wood cars # 2,3,4,5,7,10,16,17,18,19,20, with capacities from 6993 to 9546 gallons and one Single tank car with 9546 gallong capacity.
two steel tank cars were leased from General American Tank Car Co.... these were coated by Heresite with a phenolic resin locally in Manitowoc WI to protect them from the Vinegar Acid corrosion.
The cars from Milwaukee Vinegar all carried the M.V.X. and were relettered to the R.V.C.X. fleet designations.
Car RVCX 11 was cornered hard shearing 43 rivits from the under frame between the C&O dock and the Richter vinegar plant.... a distance of 4 blocks. The C&NW RR denied any damage but agreed to move it to Red Granite WI where it was on lease to the Chicago Pickle CO as a storage tank. When moved it was even positioned after the caboose! While on lease there the 7 mile spur was removed and when asked to return the car after the lease had expiled this was realised. So that car was offered and sold to the mid continent rail road museum. The National Guard Tank Retriever division on green bay dissmanlted it and moved it to the North Freedom WI location.
After 1982 all bulk vinegar shippments and transferrs were done by semi truck. Richter Vinegar was sold after 113 years in operation to Fleischman Vinegar in 1988. I then continued to work for them until 1991 when I too was retired from their services realising that had learned as much from me as they could. Fleischman shut down all operations in Manitowoc a few years later and closed the entire plant.
I am looing for any old pictures and or slides but with the changes in photo media several moves and a divorce by my father is making this seem like an exercise in futility....
If I can gather any additional ionformation I will pass it along!
I recently saw the Pix if the SBIX 1634....
these cars were the ones that were prone to rollover derail with the long barrel tank swinging way out on curves, switching to the two tank configurations reduced these issues.
I believe the two Richter Vinegar and the one Standard Brands car are the last 3 wood rail road tank cars left in existance.
I have the info on the Stainless steel tanks at work and will try to post it up tomorrow as well as some of the additional info I have
Here is the Pic of the RVCX in Green Bay WI http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=479643
and the single tank car at the mid continent rail road museum in Freedom WI http://www.midcontinent.org/collectn/woodfrt/richter11.html
Doug
PICKLES
pickle-loading station Model RRer Aug2005 p.28
HJHCo.73 H J Heinz Co. pickle tank car ARA TW rectangular tank
This car not listed 54 Reg. Lowest # is HJHX 74.
Train Shed Cyclopedia #12 p.1928-308; p.1931-319
SBIX 1634 Standard Brands vinegar tank car
32' long 8000 gallons blt 1938 tank blt 1950 retired 1963
color pix at Natl Museum of Transport,St.Louis 1994
I took this photo with my film camera year ago, but do not have this photo scanned or uploaded to a photo hosting site. Maybe I can find it and post it in a day or two.
SBIX 1682 vinegar tank car blt 1957
"A Rolling Pipeline of Colorful Tank Cars: Classic
Freight Cars Vol.2" p.57 color pix
Speas Vinegar wood tank car SVMX 125 TW (ICC208), photo
Model Railroader Dec08. p.46
Doug-
Thanks for the correction!
This demonstrates the perils of relying upon the captions from a certain popular series of photo books. I'll gladly accept information from a primary source (such as yourself) any time over something second-hand like I was going from.
Would you have any further information on the steel vinegar reefers, such as when they were acquired and retired, and how many there were and/or a number series?
I'm interested in collecting enough information to model a couple of them.
Just a little background info on my authority and credentials on this subject..... I am 5th generation Richter Vinegar and family member who used to manufacturer and load these units with vinegar as well as ride the ferry across lake michigan with them back when the ferry carried rail traffic and ran all winter long too.
If anyone has more questions on the wood rail cars pleas ask,
Thanks
Doug Richter
Cannonball12 - Welcome to trains.com!
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
The milk reefer tanks were painted school bus yellow with black letters not orange. The info about the pickle station in Scottville MI is incorrect as well. Richter Vinegar Coproration had a apple pressing plant in Scottville MI. They bought the apple peels and cores from surrounding juice plants and pressed them into cider which they later turned into cider vinegar. this Vinegar was shipped via rail to the Home plant in Manitowoc WI utilizing the C&O car ferry system. Richter Vinegar did not do any pickling however was one of the leading suppliers of vinegar to the pickle industry.
Richter never owned any vertical multi tank cars as the ones that have been reproduced. they only had double tank hotozontal and one single tank configuration. Two of these units are still in existance in the mid continent rail road museum in Freedon WI and the other is in the National Rail road museum in Green Bay WI. The single tank car due to its length was prone to rolling and derailing with its center of gravity hanging so far off center of the cars trucks. thus the double tank configurations were later used.
For pickle-car owners who don't feel justified running these "oddball" cars without a suitable industry on their layout because they don't believe in thru traffic, Bill Banta is planning on producing a Pickle Salting Facility in HO per his website.
...a Pickle Works surprise!
The March 2009, Railroad Model Craftsman, has an 8-page article by David Leider,"Building a pickle salting station" which is why I bought the issue, along with the March 2009 Model Railroader. The article's first picture shows a pickling gondola car with a covered top with 12 access hatches which at a quick first glance resembles a boxcar roof.
The O Scale salting station models both roof-covered and non-roof-uncovered vats which are made from 1-1/2" PVC-pipe with details for scribing wooden slats and wood coloring. The overall idea does resemble the plans found in the "A factory for those pickle cars" from February 1961 Model Railroader, and; each article has a small wooden office building beside the pickling vats. Both the 2009 RMC & 1961 MR articles cover the subject quite thoroughly.
A pickle factory is targeted as one of my CR&T scratch-buillding projects due to its unique appearance and small layout footprint, and it fits circa 1956 with ease.
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
Yellow #5 is a food coloring which could be shipped either in a concentrated liquid or powder form. Even a VERY large operation would not use enough to receive in bulk (tanker or hopper). Powdered, probably in a 25-50# box, liquid in 5-gallon pails or 30-50 gallon barrels. Turmeric is a spice used for flavor/color and could also be liquid or powder. IIRC, about 6-10 fl oz of liquid, or 2# powdered would be enough to process enough pickles for about 4500 quart jars. There I go again with too much answer for a short question; short answer: LTL. Gary
One of Richter's customers was a pickle station in Scottville, Michigan, less than ten miles east of the Pere Marquette (later C&O) ferry docks in Ludington.
A related question, why would Whitehouse have a very large 62 foot RTR athearn tanker model? Is a vinegar works big enough to support such large rolling stock?
Weighmasteror yellow #5
Now, is that stuff a liquid or a powder?
How would it be shipped to a big pickle plant like discused in this thread? Tank car? Covered Hopper? Boxcar? or is it the case that so little is used that it's shipped in like a 55 gallon drum less-than-carload?
1966-1981 I worked in one receiving/salting station (pickles), four pickle mfg. plants, and two vinegar works, in Wisconsin, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The outdoor wood vats are filled with cucumbers, covered with lagged down wood covers and salt brine. They undergo a controlled fermentation which converts sugars to lactic acid, IIRC, which in turn with the salt brine acts as a preservative. They were conveyed/shipped to a "pickle factory" where they were desalted to about 4% salt by weight, and then "processed" by heating to 140 degrees under air and/or liquid agitation, coloring added at the same time, usually either turmeric or yellow #5. Once cooled, the were ready for packaging as dills, slices, etc., or further processed into sweet pickles or relishes.
Inbound deliveries would include cukes (fresh) or salt stock (cured, per fermentation), bulk or bagged salt, sugar (bagged or liquid by tanker), glass jars or tin cans, closures (lids), vinegar (by tanker), and lots of other misc.
The vinegar plants I worked in (Green Bay and "Nordeast" Mpls), used 190 proof SDA alcohol brought in by tanker. GB vinegar was pumped directly to the adjacent plant, MPLS shipped about 30 miles by tanker. Both were nondescript block buildings about 20' high, single story, with walkways at the tops of the generators, which were large wood vats. Very little outdoor details, except for bulk alcohol tank, which held about 7000 gallons. Mix was pumped from the bottom of the vats through cooling system to the top of the enclosed vats and distributed evenly down through beechwood shavings in a continuous process. Bacterial ingestion of the alcohol resulted in conversion to acetic acid (vinegar). Batch production could be controlled to specific times, normally drawn off at 11-12% acidity, but not before alcohol content was below 0.4%.
Sorry, got carried away more by process than as an answer to the original question... Gary
Frisco-kidI'm considering the possibility of modeling a small vinegar works on my layout (vinegar, pickles, sauerkraut, etc.).
I'm considering the possibility of modeling a small vinegar works on my layout (vinegar, pickles, sauerkraut, etc.).
After saving up paper route money, one of the 1960s Model Railroader back issues purchased, and still in my library, is a nice prototype-based pickle factory -- a small building surrounding a couple round wood-sided pickling vats with a wooden deck.
"A factory for those pickle cars"...
http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?opt=I&MAG=MR&MO=2&YR=1961&output=3&sort=A
A photo based upon these February 1961 M.R.plans appeared in Model Railroader last year. There are also (5) references from past Model Railroader mags from 1935 to 1961...
http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?opt=S&cmdtext=pickle&MAG=MR
Heinz in Muscatine used to get tomato'es from local farmers by truck. Then they went to paste by truck and or box car.
Had an uncle that farmed for Heinz.They told him and all the others in the area to stop hand picking and buy machines to do it. So all involved do that and then they say oh we only use paste now.So here they are stuck with all that equipment. Needless to say Heinz isnt allowed in the house anymore lol.But up until that happened it was hand picked ( yes by migrant workers and some of the greatest guys,the boss of them came all the way up from mexico for my dads funeral)and shipped via truck to Muscatine.
Yes we are on time but this is yesterdays train
Last Chance I think also Catsup or Ketchup (Which ever way you want to spell it...) is related to vinegar somehow. I remember a place in Ohio that made Heinz and there was always something about the air there LOL.
I think also Catsup or Ketchup (Which ever way you want to spell it...) is related to vinegar somehow. I remember a place in Ohio that made Heinz and there was always something about the air there LOL.
Reading the ingredients label of a bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup: vinegar is the second main ingredient. The ketchup is made up of tomato concentrate, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt, spice, onion power, and natural flavoring.
I can picture vinegar and corn syrup delivered in tank cars, but how is tomato concentrate shipped? Is it fluid enough to be shipped in tank cars also?
Mark