When raw milk in cans were picked up by rail were they placed in reefer cars or in box cars? At what point did the milk need to be refrigerated?
wdcrvr
Another posibility in the baggage car(s) of a local passenger train scheduled to provide milk service.
Reftigerated after it is deliverled to processing location.
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
For railroads operating in the Milk Sheds of major cities they had dedicated milk cars which were not reefers but had tanks in them for hauling milk. Also Pflauder made milk cars like this one:
This is an Intermountain Kit that I assembled, painted and decaled.
Here is an article about the milk trains and milk sheds that I found interesting:
http://www.riverraisinmodels.com/libraryData/milktrains.pdf
Rick Jesionowski
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
That is a great read, Rick. Thanks. I remember my grandpa talking about "back in day", and the SOO Line milk stops. He also talked about a stike, where trains were stopped, and the cans were dumped. I'll have to check into the history of that.
That might have been just a local thing that was going on.
Mike.
My You Tube
If the milk train got the milk to it's destination for processing quickly enough, the milk didn't need to be refrigerated. Seems to me Classic Trains had a story about someone riding a milk train a few years ago that mentioned the time, I want to say it was like 12 hours?
Another consideration is when picking up milk from rural stops in the winter, the railroad would want to be sure the milk in the large cans didn't freeze. I seem to recall that reefers were sometimes used in the winter, not to keep the milk cool but because the cars were better insulated and so kept the interior temperature above freezing.
There used to be the occasional farmer on model railroad forums. Who KNEW stuff. I haven't noticed one for a long time--perhaps appropriate subjects have not come up for commentary.
The article supplied by Rick (above) has a LOT about the subject.
Anyway, a quick internet search shows that milk is "willing" to start to spoil right away, but is not in a tremendous rush. Thus implying that it can't hurt to refrigerate (34-39 F). Obviously, you can leave a can of milk at room temperature for 5 minutes. An hour. Etc. At some point, you can't sell it. And the less time at room temperature, the better your chances of providing a saleable product.
Incidentally, both raw and pasteurized milk will go bad. Just differently.
There was, and is, a tremendous incentive to refrigerate milk. If YOU deliver milk that goes bad, YOU may end up on the list of folks who don't sell milk. And you can see that applies to the entire production chain.
You don't need "active" (mechanical or ice) refrigeration to transport milk. Insulation can do the job. As long as the milk is kept in the temperature range, things should be fine. Or so I hear.
Ed
7j43k There used to be the occasional farmer on model railroad forums. Who KNEW stuff. I haven't noticed one for a long time--perhaps appropriate subjects have not come up for commentary.
I grew up spending the summer on the family dairy farm and learned a thing or two about small scale milk production.
Yes, insulation can help, but milk is pretty hot when it comes out of the business end of the cow. We had a big huge refrigerated tank in the milk house on the order of 1500 gallons. It was always hot in there from the combination of the milk itself and the refeer gear. It takes a lot of power to get that much milk cooled and stay cool when you're repeatedly adding more hot milk to it.
The truck that came to get the milk was refrigerated, but it was not all that well insulated. I'm not sure the milk stayed in it for more than a few hours, but it made runs to several farmers and you didn't know what temperature the previous or next load would be. So, cool that down and keep it there.