I had other business that brought me near my LHS and whenever I do I make it a point to drop in. I had nothing specific in mind so I just did some browsing. One item caught my eye. It was a yellow Fruit Growers Express ice bunker reefer. Nothing exceptional about that except for one thing. It was a 50 footer. The only 50 foot ice reefers I had ever seen before were the Pullman Green express reefers. As many years as I have been modeling and looking at pictures of prototype railroads, I figure I would have seen one before now. I had thought by the time 50 footers became the norm, mechanical refrigeration had come into being. Did 50 foot ice bunker reefers exist and how common were they?
I picked up the latest MR and RMC but nothing else that I was interested in. Had no trouble spotting the April Fool's joke.
Well Santa Fe Reefer Dispatch had 50' iced reefers going back to 1940. I believe the SFRD car is the one Athearn's 50' reefer is based on. I wouldn't be surprised if FGE had something very similar.
Not sure who else had them, but ATSF had lots of them.
http://old.atsfrr.org/Reviews/HO/Freight/AthReef/Index.htm
I have all of them that Athearn offered, and some undec versions waiting to become ATLANTIC CENTRAL versions.
I know Athearn later offered them painted for some other roads/reefer services, don't know how correct they are.
But 50' ice reefers did exist.
The Athearn cars are very nicely detailed.
Sheldon
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
The following is a quote from “The Wood Sheathed Cars of the FGEX/WFEX/BREX Freight Refrigerator Fleet”: 1940-1953 by Bill Welch, page 18. “Late in 1940... …Also, this same year Fruit Growers Express' first fifty-foot freight refrigerators appear in the Official Railroad Equipment Register. Although the numbers listed for these cars are 600-650, there are only ten cars with ten overhead tanks designed to hold crushed ice. I don't seem to be able to directly link to the full article but if you type this.... "The Wood Sheathed Cars of the FGEX/WFEX/BREX Freight ." ...in Google you should be able to read it. It would appear that is hard to be accurate when writing about the Fruit Growers Express reefers Cheers, the Bear.
Very interesting, thanks.
John did not identify the brand of the model, but the Athearn ATSF car, which I know Athearn offered in some additional roadnames, is a steel car, not a wood sheathed car.
Hopefully John will respond with more details about what he saw?
ATLANTIC CENTRAL which I know Athearn offered in some additional roadnames
ATLANTIC CENTRAL which I know Athearn offered in some additional roadnames Gidday Sheldon, if John saw the HO scale Athearn car with the FOBX 4055 reporting mark, then it is not prototypically accurate. Bill Welch refers to these cars, on page 40 of his article as having plywood sheeting, Dreadnaught steel ends, with ten roof hatches. They were also so wide that the ladders, grab irons and door hardware was recessed into the sides. “They can not be mistaken for anything else”. Cheers, the Bear.
Agreed, I did not think the cars were correct, or even close, for the other roadnames Athearn released them in.
But John's question seemed to be as much about there actually being 50' ice reefers, as being about that paint scheme being correct?
"Did 50 foot ice bunker reefers exist and how common were they?"
The Santa Fe cars in question were 50' and the Athearn models are reasonably correct.
And Bill's article is focused on wood sheathed cars. I don't know the whole detailed history of FGE cars, so I will leave that to you and others.
But to the simple question, "did 50' ice reefers exist", yes they did.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL The following is a quote from “The Wood Sheathed Cars of the FGEX/WFEX/BREX Freight Refrigerator Fleet”: 1940-1953 by Bill Welch, page 18. “Late in 1940... …Also, this same year Fruit Growers Express' first fifty-foot freight refrigerators appear in the Official Railroad Equipment Register. Although the numbers listed for these cars are 600-650, there are only ten cars with ten overhead tanks designed to hold crushed ice. I don't seem to be able to directly link to the full article but if you type this.... "The Wood Sheathed Cars of the FGEX/WFEX/BREX Freight ." ...in Google you should be able to read it. It would appear that is hard to be accurate when writing about the Fruit Growers Express reefers Cheers, the Bear. Very interesting, thanks. John did not identify the brand of the model, but the Athearn ATSF car, which I know Athearn offered in some additional roadnames, is a steel car, not a wood sheathed car. Hopefully John will respond with more details about what he saw? Sheldon
I meant to say in the OP that it was an Athearn RTR. I have to go on memory but I'm pretty sure the end label called it an ice bunker reefer. The picture of the ATSF reefer looks like what I saw. It just seemed strange seeing a 50 footer when I have become so accustomed to seeing these as 40 footers for so many years.
Well, no doubt most ice bunker reefers were first 36' and then 40', but as early as the 30's a few 50' cars, not counting express cars, did exist in both wood and steel.
In fact the very first mechanical reefers were 40' cars, followed by 50' cars, both with the same size and construction as the typical ice bunker car. The taller 50' and 57' mechanical reefers most people think of were actually the third generation of mechanical reefers.
Another rather prolific group of ice reefers from the late 50s were those of Wilson Car Lines (WCLX). These were the cars that hauled the products of the Wilson meatpacking operation. An entry in the April 1970, Official Railway Equipment Register lists two groups of cars as WCLX 4000-4053 and, WCLX 5000-5134. These cars are listed as having an inside length of 45 feet, length over coupler pulling faces of 56' 5", and a capacity of 100'000 lbs. Due to not having racks in their ice bunkers, the were were restricted crushed ice only. They were not suitable for stage or half stage icing, and were equipped with meat rails and, fork lift pallets, as well as six foot wide plug doors.
An article on building a Railway Express Agency express reefer using Walthers (former Train Miniature) 40 foot ice reefers by Andy Miller appeared on page 116 of the January 1989 issue of the Model Railroader magazine. A color photo of WCLX 5124 is on page 64 of the book "Classic Freight Cars-The Series, Vol.9, Insulated Boxcars and Mechanical Reefers" by Henry Maywald. For those who are interested, the book was published by H&M Productions of Flushing NY in 1996 as ISBN 1882608-14-3. The ORER lists 53 cars of the 4000 series and 134 cars of the 5000 series still on the roster as of April 1970, almost to the end of the "ice age". Photos of these cars might also be found in Morning Sun's "Refrigerator Car Color Guide."
Their very long, low appearance makes them stand out from other cars, with their widely spaced side panels. Lettering for one of the older meat packers should available from Clover House as dry transfers. The only problem would be finding, and having the stomach to cut up a pair of Walthers, or worse, Train Miniature 40 foot icers. I would also investigadte Walthers express reefer as a possible victim. I remember always seeing these cars, up into the 1970s, in Boston's meat packing district.
Lastspikemike CPR had wood reefers that were 45' "over the sills". Not sure if that's similar to a 50' reefer. I think they were four hatch end ice bunker design, not overhead. http://www.readytrain.com/catalog/cpr_expr-reefer/cata/index.html We use (inaccurate for us) 50' Athearn kits as stand ins when we don't have the "real" thing. Scale length difference is tiny.
CPR had wood reefers that were 45' "over the sills". Not sure if that's similar to a 50' reefer. I think they were four hatch end ice bunker design, not overhead.
http://www.readytrain.com/catalog/cpr_expr-reefer/cata/index.html
We use (inaccurate for us) 50' Athearn kits as stand ins when we don't have the "real" thing. Scale length difference is tiny.
That is an "express reefer" designed to run in passenger trains and they were typically 45' to 50'.
The type of car John was asking about is freight type reefer generally found in solid consist trains moving large volumes of perishable goods. Until modern refrigeration took over in the early 60's, most such cars were only 40'. Only a few were 50'.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL The type of car John was asking about is freight type reefer generally found in solid consist trains moving large volumes of perishable goods. Until modern refrigeration took over in the early 60's, most such cars were only 40'. Only a few were 50'. Sheldon
That is essentially the answer to my original question. These cars did exist but not in great numbers. So far I've only seen evidence of the ATSF cars unless I missed somebody posting other companies. It isn't surprising that Athearn would want to produce this car for other companies to increase sales, even if they aren't prototypical. That has been a practice in this hobby for a long time with lots of different kinds of equipment. Manufacturers will produce a car based on one prototype but reproduce the same car for many other railroads. Can't say as I blame them since they can get a lot more sales out of the same tooling. It's up to us as hobbyists to determine what is prototypical if that is important to us.
Other 50' ice reefers did exist, and some of the alternate roadnames Athearn did on the ATSF cars had 50' cars, just not 50' cars that look like the Athearn cars.
I don't have the prototype info at my fingertips right now, but they did exist, and I remember several being available as craftsman kits back in the day.
I have four volumes of Ted Culotta's books on refrigerator cars, which show some very interesting cars of which I was not aware.
In 1932, Pacific Fruit Express built 100 wood-sheathed 52'6" reefers, meant for general use (not express cars as used in passenger trains) for frozen foods.
As for Santa Fe, they received 100 50' wood-sheathed reefers from Pullman in 1931. In 1936, 10 of them were re-built with additional insulation, in this instance, for handling frozen fruit juice. Like the PFE cars, above, these cars were intended for freight service, not as express cars. In 1939, another 10 of these cars were re-built with thicker insulation and assigned to frozen food service.
In 1937, Santa Fe ordered 200 50' all-steel reefers from General American, with cushion underframes. These cars were overly-wide due to the thicker insulation needed for frozen food service and as a result, the grabirons and ladders were in recessed panels on the sides of the cars, to comply with AAR clearance standards.
Both the wood-sheathed and the early all-steel 50' cars were lettered with the Santa Fe logo near the left end of the cars, with only the usual dimensional data near the right end of the car.
In 1940, Santa Fe received another 150 all steel reefers from General American. These cars had a different placement of placard boards to accommodate the slogans and maps that were applied to these cars.There are only two photos of the 50' all-steel cars with additional lettering, one showing the slogan "The Chief Famous daily streamliner West", and another with the straight-line map and "Santa Fe all the way".
Wayne
Wayne, thanks for the info!