Just what the heading says, they were used in straberry service among other thing.
They were built to a proprietary PRR design in 1913-15 and used in the same service as other reefers, although I think they were probably seen rarely in the Far West. I have also seen photos of bananas being unloaded from an R7 in the 'teens, in Carlisle, PA.
After Fruit Growers Express was formed in 1920, the PRR joined that organization, and 2,849 R7's became FGEX cars through lease, effective May 1, 1922. An additional 447 R7's were transferred from PRR express passenger service to FGEX through lease in 1929. These leases were apparently terminated in 1932 and ownership conveyed to FGEX. This info from The Postwar Freight Car Fleet by Larry Kline and Ted Culotta, A.C. Kalmbach Memorial Library, NMRA Inc., Chattanooga, TN, 2006.
If PRR continued to operate any R7's under their own auspices after 1929, I am not aware of it. If so, there surely weren't very many. I understand there were other owners over the years, who operated rather small fleets of R7's. These were probably purchased from PRR or (more likely) FGEX. Westerfield offers their R7 kit in PRR and FGEX, of course, but they also offer it with lettering for Adams Express (AEX), Mathiesson Dry Ice, National Car Co. (NX), and Vandalia RR (a PRR subsidiary). Westerfield is pretty reliable when it comes to accuracy about such things.
FGEX continued to operate R7's in the 1950's, but I don't know when the last ones were retired. Westerfield suggests 1965.
In HO, the most accurate model is probably the Westerfield kit.
Tom
http://prr.railfan.net/freight/classpage.html?class=R7
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Thanks much.
In the 1913-15 period, PRR built thousands of cars to this general pattern. The R7's were built as reefers; X23's were built as boxcars; and the slightly taller X24's were built as auto cars. They all shared the same general appearance, and were a bridge between the earlier wooden cars and the later all-steel X25 boxcar.
In the development of the Westerfield models, several field trips were made to measure existing X23 boxcars, which used exactly the same components as the R7's. Being taller, the X24's used longer components. That's why Westerfield never released an X24 kit. The patternmaker measured everything carefully and replicated the dimensions precisely. I was there for part of this research. In a few minor instances, there were slight deviations from the dimensions on official drawings. When that happened, the actual dimensions were used to make the model components. It could be argued that the Westerfield model is a more accurate representation of the cars as they actually existed, than the official PRR drawings! Of course you would have to do some mighty fine measuring to tell the difference.
The Westerfield R7 and X23 models are extremely accurate, except that the the reefer door hinges are generic instead of PRR style. But that's really nit picking!