I have a small fleet of Pacific Fruit Express (PFE) reefers. I don't have any produce-related industries on my layout, but I do have a brewery. I was thinking of using those reefers for shipping out finished product at the facility. Would that be a prototypical thing?. I will also use insulated (plug door) boxcars to ship out finished product; I know those are used. I can't remember if, or what or who's reefers are used.
This is a modern-day (1970's) brewery, so the wooden sheathed (or even steel) reefers with the brewery logo on the side would not typically be seen. I would imagine leased cars, without any company identifier or logo would be on more modern cars, or even railroad owned cars as well. Your thoughts?
By your time period, I would think most beer would travel in insulated box cars such as Anheuser Busch was using out of St Louis. See MRS on fallen flags site for pictures of the cars. A/B used their own cars almost exclusively.
I guess you are taking about ice reefers. We used to haul frozen pork pancreases in mechanical reefers out of E St Louis to a drug company in Indianapolis for insulin production. They had to stay at -10 or below.
Charlie
E-L man tom...I do have a brewery. I was thinking of using those reefers for shipping out finished product at the facility. Would that be a prototypical thing?
That would be rare, if it happened at all. UP and SP maintained PFE for shipments of vegetables and fruit from the areas they served, and diversion for beer service would seem to be mostly out of character.
If you don't have industries yet for which the PFE cars would make sense, perhaps you could consider something like a grocery distributor or cold storage facility. Those are generic customers that could take a variety of traffic.
You could also keep the PFE reefers as through/overhead cars, heading from staging on one end of the layout to staging on the other end.
Rob Spangler
In general, PFE didn't want to have its reefers "captured" for other service, and they had agents in eastern cities to be sure the empties were sent back to California. However, there were sometimes exceptions. In particular, PFE and Bangor & Aroostook exchanged cars for use in California produce vs Maine potato seasons, so you could see PFE cars loaded with potatoes from Maine and BAR loaded with produce in California. This lasted well into the mechanical reefer period. PFE also had a series of cars equipped with meat rails.
charlie9 By your time period, I would think most beer would travel in insulated box cars such as Anheuser Busch was using out of St Louis. See MRS on fallen flags site for pictures of the cars. A/B used their own cars almost exclusively. Charlie
Athearn Genesis has an insulated beer car (PC&F) from their Genesis line being re-run later this year.
As for MRS, those box cars were frequently seen on D&RGW freight trains in the 80's and possibly 70's; they might have been part of freight passed to the WP in Utah. I'd love to see proper MRS box cars produced. Some looked similar to the Eel River PC&F insulated cars but with non-terminating ends rather than a washboard style end.
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AfrosteamFrom what I know, it was just produce. Hence the name, but if being prototypical is important why not have the brewery make some fruit flavored beers? ... That sounds disgusting.
Have you ever tried micro brewery beer? Some types they do have fruit in them and they are not disgusting but rather good. You should try some sometime; you might be surprised.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Many years ago. 1978 to be exact, Pioneer Seed Company received a PFE reefer loaded with lime. The agricultural kind, not the fruit.
As I remember, it was in 50 lbs. sacks. Back then in my teens, I spent a lot of time hanging around the local depot. The reason I remember this load is that the agent showed me the waybill. This load needed to be kept at a temperature of 54 degrees. He didn't know, and I don't think he ever found out, why it needed to be temperature controlled.
Jeff
As Jeff noted, there were rare exceptions to the usage of PFE reefers. The question is, is rare good enough for your layout? Your call ultimately.
Jeff,
As an agronomist, I know that finely ground limestone is used as a seed treatment, especially on soybean seed. The 54 degree maximum temperature is probably to keep the humidity down, as finely ground lime can pick up water from the air. They likely weren't using the lime as a soil treatment, as lime is generally applied in tons per acre, not pounds, unless they were applying the lime to soils in small research plots, which can be as small as 100 square feet or so.
Also, I guess I can take solace in the idea that, at least occasionally, the PFE reefers are used to haul shipments other than produce. Thanks everyone, for your insight and answers.
There were reefers modified with tanks to carry beer. I do not know how common it was for PFE reefers to carry any.
http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=69396
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
California produce at one time was shipped to North Carolina and in Kannapolis NC their was a large Cannon textile mill that shipped Towles back to California in the same PFE reefers.
Russell
Looking at this from a model railroad operator's standpoint, I have trains that run from staging to staging without ever switching a car. My other through freights have a block of eight cars (out of twenty total) that are never cut out at the yard where they change engines. If I was running your roster that's where those PFE reefers would go.
The through trains don't run continuously. They appear on schedule, interspersed with locals, coal units, passenger trains (mostly DMU) and helpers running light downhill, all controlled by a timetable (the prototype's) set in solid granite.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)