Orange Juice Industry

[Anonymous]

Where would I look to find info on what an orange juice plant served by rail might have looked like? I have an imagination, but am wondering if any were ever covered by MR or if anyone has info. Thanks.

[dehusman]

Do a Google search for Tropicana. I know they ship by rail, maybe there is a photo of a plant.

Dave H.

[jrbarney]

Brian,
I just did a quick keyword search at this site's Index of Magazines using the keyword "orange." The search yielded 4 citations, three on modeling orange tree groves and one on the Tropicana train.
Bob

[GerFust]

Tracks Ahead did a story on that in the last season. Their website is at http://mptv.org/Trax_main.htm.

-Jer

[Anonymous]

That link is 404 not found

Lee

[ndbprr]

There isn't much to see at any modern plant these days particularly food plants. That is due to the environmental laws and FDA requirements. I would suspect that oranges come in by truck and are dumped into a receiving area. A conveyer belt would take them past hourly workers to sort them. A series of machines would slice them and extract the juice. the juice would go to half gallon waxed paper containers, gallon jugs and pints to be stored in a refrigerated room. Most of it would be concentrated by boiling off the water or most likley centrifuging it off. It would then be quick frozen and stored in a freezer. Insulated and refrigerator cars would almost be exclisively used. i doubt anyone would get tank car quantities and private label but it is possible. One winery had a wine tank car many years ago. As far as a plant description it would be spottlessly clean do to FDA requirements and probably scrubbed down daily internally. Some cooling towers for the refrigeration units, some roof mounted cooling units, some smaller tanks and a lot of space under roof with at least two loading tracks - one for fresh and one for frozen and frequent shipping. Nobody makes money stocking inventory today particulary perishable inventory subject to damage in power outages, etc.

[Anonymous]

ndbrr,

May I offer some information? One of the companies I used to run for had a Tropicania Account. And they were to deliver orange juice to walmart for distribution to superstores. The suppliers they recived loads from were recieving tank truck loads of concentrate. Perhaps there is a concentrate plant for the raw juice. Add water and preservatives and voila "Orange Juice"

I have hauled oranges and other similar products and they are demanding little monsters needing a soft ride, good temprature control and timely delievery. As a driver I was allowed onto the dock, restroom phone and vending and outside. They do not let anyone get into senstive areas. (This practice is followed at most plants, but there are a few one can get in)

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

I strongly recommend the video "Streak of Orange," available through
Pentrex (though not a Pentrex production). It has some good shots of
the Tropicana facilities in Bradenton. Sadly, the video doesn't follow
the train all the way to Jersey or Ohio, but it's a cool video nonetheless.

Juan

[GerFust]

HighIron2003ar - Might have been a temporary problem, but http://mptv.org/Trax_main.htm worked for me.

PineIslandBriam - Program number 512 on page http://mptv.org/Trax_series5.htm is what you are looking for.

-Jer