--- On Mon, 1/5/09, adrian hundhausen <dnaldimodaroloc@...> wrote:

From: adrian hundhausen <dnaldimodaroloc@...>
Subject: [STMFC] Beef Trust
To: STMFC@...
Date: Monday, January 5, 2009, 1:25 PM






Fine, Anthony, thank you for the clarification. And perhaps you
could help me out here. I have been looking for a list of the
Private Car Lines run by Armour in the era just before the 1902-
onwards period that you are talking about, not least because a model
of a given Armour reefer (aka the Heinz cars) could possibly serve as
a model for cars lettered for numerous 'lines'. That would JUST
squeak into the time frame covered by this list, and until now I have
not been able to find a complete list, although I believe John White
mentioned the number 17 (of lines) along with maybe 12000 cars?

I know that Armour ran Kansas City Dressed Beef Line, and I believe
that they ran Fruit Growers' Express (TOC version) and I suspect they
also owned Continental Fruit Express. What other lines am I
missing? And by the way, I stole the term Beef Trust from White's
reefer book and I believe he used it to refer to Armour. Perhaps I
misunderstood him and he was only referring to the post-1902
situation. I would be happy for a further clarification.

Thanks in advance,
Adrian Hundhausen

--- In STMFC@yahoogroups. com, Anthony Thompson <thompson@.. .> wrote:

adrian hundhausen wrote:

If I could add to what Al said earlier: The Heinz cars were

leased

from the Beef Trust (=Armour) . . .

I think this is poor terminology. The "Beef Trust" was the
nickname given to the attempt, in 1902, by Swift, Armour and Morris

to

form the National Packing Company; it was soon dissolved by the

Supreme

Court. Serious refrigerator car operations for meat shipping were

begun

more than 20 years earlier by Swift, soon joined by Armour and

Hammond

(the Morris firm was the fourth of the "Big Four" meat packers). If
cars were leased from Armour, let's just say so.

In the mid-90s the beef trust started buying reefers . . .

Again, there was no "Beef Trust" until 1902, and in any

event the

"Big Four" bought somewhat different reefers for their own fleets.

I

believe Adrian is over-generalizing about meat reefers.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress. com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

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