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Mechanical Reefers

Bill Welch
 

I will doing a clinic on the "FGE/WFE/BRE Mechanicals: 1948-1957" at Cocoa Beach in January. FGE conducted trial w/9 systems beginning in 1948 to see which system could keep a load at 0 degrees and below and survive the riggers of being in a train. Four of these were "propelled" and the balance had no power source or were not propelled. None of the unpropelled systems made it past the trials either for economics or durability or both.

In 1951 FGE placed the first mechanical cars into revenue service using either diesel powered systems or gasoline powered systems. These were 40-ft cars followed fairly quickly w/50-ft. cars (diesel only). As initially conceived these were for frozen commodities only, but interest in "All Purpose" cars followed quickly. However demand kept even these cars in frozen food service.

More in January.

Bill Welch

--- In STMFC@..., RDG2124 <RDG2124@...> wrote:


If within the discussion period of this list, when did mechanical reefers enter service? Assume since passenger cars began using mechanical air conditioning in the late 30's that reefers would have been soon to follow or did they precede passenger cars?

The discussion of roses being shipped via reefers prompted questions, other than the obvious labor intensity and icing delays of the iced cars, what are the pros and cons of the ice versus the mechanical cars. As I know only of flowers being shipped in iced reefers, assume that humidity was a concern.

Thank you,

Evan Leisey
Bennett, CO










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