One other thing I may add to this string, (even though the title remains Ice refrigerators)
  in a recent read of Railway Age, it notes that there were only 152 Mechanical reefers in service in 1952.

And so as I am modeling 1953, I see no need to ever purchase a model of one.
        The phrase, rare as hen's teeth - comes readily to mind.                                Jim Dick - St. Paul

Hi List Members,


Can anyone identify the road name for the car whose end we see prominently in this photo? Reporting marks seem to end in RC, but
there might be one or more letters before that we cannot see.

http://clerk.seattle.gov/~scripts/nph-brs.exe?s1=49351.NUM.&Sect6=HITOFF&Sect5=PHOT5&Sect4=AND&d=PHO2&l=1&p=1&u=/~public/phot1.htm&r=1&f=G

Claus Schlund



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Posted by: "Claus Schlund HGM" <claus@...>
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Yahoo Groups Links

On Dec 31, 2015, at 12:48 PM, Tony Thompson tony@... [STMFC] <STMFC@...> wrote:

Steve Hoxie wrote:

 

Hi Jim--Thanks for replying. The list of cars reiced in Portland was from Oct 1945, at least 5 years before mechanical reefers began making a significant appearance. Loaded on a Rr-09 and a Rr-32 both with stage icing those turkeys wouldn't be frozen. Again, all the way to New York City? I know what happens to chicken left in my fridge for three days without cooking or freezing, and it isn't good.

   Steve, you assume that frozen food could not be shipped in ice reefers, which is not true. Addition of salt could reduce temperatures into the teens (Fahrenheit) and a mechanical reefer was not essential. I'm not saying that the turkey cargoes in question WERE frozen, but only that if they WERE frozen, they could be shipped in an ice car. Indeed frozen food was so shipped since the 1920s. Mechanical reefers were primarily important because they could attain lower temperatures than was possible with ice plus salt, such as zero Fahrenheit, essential for high-sugar things like frozen orange juice, rapidly growing in popularity after WW II.

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, tony@...

Publishers of books on railroad history

On Dec 31, 2015, at 3:48 PM, BRIAN PAUL  wrote:

The ones I’ve seen are “thick”; you can feel the raised print when you run your fingers across the page. The technology uses wax “plugs” you feed into the machine.

Thanks!
--

Brian Ehni

From: Mike Bauers...

What’s the reports on the suitability of the Xerox solid ink printers for decals???

I took them up on their offer of several sample printed pages, and the quality is a pure dream to behold.

I think that’s a no more than a $600 printer.

Best to ya,
Mike Bauers
Milwaukee, Wi

> On Dec 31, 2015, at 2:04 PM, 'John Hagen' wrote:
> 
> 
> 1a 
> Garth,
> The Testors system works fine IF you need black lettering. Of course if the car you are lettering happens to be white, then …...

On Dec 31, 2015, at 2:04 PM, 'John Hagen' wrote:


1a
Garth,
The Testors system works fine IF you need black lettering. Of course if the car you are lettering happens to be white, then anything works. So if you are doing certain tank cars or covered hoppers ………
As you noted you can use white decal paper and print things like signs, logos or anything that has straight edges that may be cut out easily. But that would make lettering an impossible chore.
The only affordable, home user type printer that works for decals is the Alps, now long out of production and working units are disappearing. There is a company in Japan that can repair them but the cost is prohibitive ($1500.00 + including shipping – a big part of the cost) and way too much for my pockets, especially with the ink supply dwindling as that is also out of production now.
I keep watching and hoping that something will turn up but the truth is no one is going to build a printer for the purpose of decal printing; the market is just too small. Such a printer must be able to print white both as a color and as a base layer under colors for opaqueness and be able to print multiple layers of color without losing registration. The Alps can do this. Finicky, touchy and a steep learning curve that required one to deal with challenge and everlasting frustration but they do the job.
Maybe in 2016 ……..
John Hagen

 

I don't think ammonia was a Linde product -- they concentrated on pure
gases as Tony says -- argon, oxygen, nitrogen... Ammonia is manufactured.

Tim O'Connor

I am wondering what was carried in the well known tank-in-a-boxcar operated by the Linde company.  Liquid oxygen and "other chemicals" have been mentioned on some web sites.  Might ammonia have been shipped to ice makers in such cars? 

   Liquid nitrogen shipments were extensive too.

Tony Thompson