To amplify a bit on John Riddell’s comments, this group of twenty cars, 808 - 827, was purchased second-hand and received by the PGE in the 1947-48 time period.  While these cars, built in 11-22, are believed to be former Northern Refrigerator Line cars, no definitive information has been located.  While the ORERs show several series of NRC cars with dimensions that are close to those listed for the PGE cars, none are an exact match.  Between mid-1947 and early 1954 the total number of cars in the series had been reduced to ten, 810 - 819, through rebuilding, renumbering, conversion to other service, and scrapping in order to free up the 820+ number series for the arrival of all-steel overhead bunker refrigerators built in 10-54.  In August 1952 photos by Stan Styles, 820 & 822 were in FCR with no logo but placarded "For Company Service Only", and as late as July 1953, PGERy 821 was still in a patched out paint scheme as described by John.  The earliest photo I have seen is an Ernie Plant view of 812 in FCR with a caribou logo above the reporting marks weighed at Squamish in 6-47.  As the rebuilding - renumbering - scrapping program proceeded the cars were painted in the silver scheme with black lettering and the caribou logo in the more common location above the dimensional data.  810 and 812 had corner grab irons while the others had ladders and photographs show 812 to have a deeper centre sill than the others.  A few of the cars (811, 812 and at least one other, the number of which could not be read from a photo) received the 1962 (beyond the date range of this list) paint scheme of FCR with the “stacked” Pacific Great Eastern lettering in place of the caribou logo.

Cheers,
Greg Kennelly