Re: Swift meat cars


thompson@...
 

Don Strack said:
This brings to mind a question I have had for quite some time. Swift had a
packing plant here in Utah, in Ogden. My research for my Ogden Rails book
found that it was Swift's largest (and possibly only) lamb processing
facility, until it closed in 1970. While doing the research, many people
told me about seeing numerous Swift steel reefers first stored, then
scrapped in Ogden in the early 1970s. This kind of makes sense, except that
I talked to a couple guys who worked at the plant and they both said that
all of the processed lamb was shipped out in PFE reefers.
What era would this be, regarding the PFE cars? Prior to the mid-1960s,
PFE had practically no meat cars, and internal correspondence explains why:
the packers had their own fleets, which they used preferentially,
relegating PFE's cars to stand-by status most of the time. But in later
years, as packers sold or scrapped their fleets, no doubt this changed.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2942 Linden Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 http://www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroads and on Western history

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