--- In STMFC@..., "Dave Evans" <devans1@...> wrote:
The other possibility is that perhaps this was simply a way to add general merchandise capacity by latching on to the two largest reefer fleets. One thing I plan to do is look at the WWII ICC reports and see if there was a significant drop in reefer carloads during the war - food for domestic consumption was being rationed, and I would think food shipments for overseas did not require reefers to the ports. Perhaps fresh food ton-miles dropped significantly during the war.
Update:
Hate to reply to myself, but I did a quick scan of the 1941 and 1944 ICC reports for cars loaded - the commodity's that would likely require produce reefers were nearly all higher in 1944 than 1941, and fresh meat carloads were also higher (as were stock car loads). So reefer utilization must have been higher in 1944, since I think a relatively small percentage of cars were added to the reefer fleet during the war.
