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Re: NKP Consist

Douglas Harding
 

I too wondered about “skins”. The skins are in reefers, whereas the hides are in boxcars. Indicating the skins needed to be preserved with refrigeration. Could the skins be fur bearing pelts? Not just sheep skins, but rabbit skins, mink skins, raccoon skins, etc. used to create fur coats and the like. I once visited a fur buying operation, he had a large refrigerated room where he skinned the fur bearing animals to preserve the pelts until they could be tanned.

 

TRAX 12436 containing SKINS, is a reefer leased to Armour. The TRAX reefers were built by ART in 1954, attached is a photo of another car in the series taken by Jim Sands from my collection.

ARL 1860 containing FRZN SKINS, is also a reefer leased to Armour, attached is a photo of ARLX 1900.

 

As the reefers in question are leased by a meat packer, they may not be fur bearing pelts. More likely sheep skins.

 

Doug  Harding

www.iowacentralrr.org

 

From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io [mailto:main@RealSTMFC.groups.io] On Behalf Of Schleigh Mike via Groups.Io
Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2019 8:24 PM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] NKP Consist

 

Hello Bill & Group!

 

I also wondered about "Skins" having done talks on "hides" and the cars that carried them.  Both the cars in Brian's NKP list are meat reefers.  I think the assumption of something maybe edible and needing refrigeration is possibly correct.  Note that the loads are 25-30% of capacity so these cars are not heavily loaded.  Sausage is squeezed into '"casings" and my dictionaries do not list "skins" as an alternative.  I have not seen skins as an alternative to hides loaded into now-otherwise-useless boxcars.  (They get pretty smelly in this service.)  BUT--for all references I ever saw, I assumed the hides were COW hides.  What about lamb, sheep, goats, and perhaps hogs?  We usually call their hides, skins.  Perhaps these reefers carried such skins to be tanned at Stoneham, Mass.  Did Stoneham have a B&M served tannery or a sausage factory in 1957?

 

Reefers also carried hides.  I have seen waybill evidence of this use for reefers but it was uncommon.

 

Mike Schleigh in Grove City, Penna. where the spring's initial growth of skunk cabbage has appeared.

 

On Tuesday, March 12, 2019, 8:50:25 PM EDT, William Hirt <whirt@...> wrote:

 

 

I showed the consist doc to several people today. One repeated question
was the cars that showed SKINS as their contents. One suggestion was the
load was to be used as sausage casings and another suggestion was to
make pork rinds (assuming the load was pork skins). Both cars were going
to Stoneham MA on the B&M. Anyone have more insight into this?

Bill Hirt

On 3/11/2019 11:55 AM, Brian Carlson via Groups.Io wrote:
> While going thru some NKP docs I found the attached NKP consist from
> 1957. A lot of meat as expected. Routings are shown too. All sort of
> neat stuff, including dog food in reefers. May the discussion commence.
>
> Brian J Carlson, P.E.
> Cheektowaga NY 14227
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