|-----Original Message-----
|From: Richard Hendrickson [mailto:rhendrickson@...]
|Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2003 8:03 PM
|To: Douglas Harding
|Subject: RE: Fwd: Decker more visible
|
|
|>Richard thanks for your response. I appreciate any help on ID'ing
|>Decker reefers. Your information is very helpful and adds to
my cache
|>of knowledge.
|>>From the hi-res scan I have of the photo of the string of reefers
|>>#2588,
|>2587, etc I can read in the lower left corner of the first
|reefer "RPKD
|>E.C. 2-14-35 G.A.C.C." It shows a built date of 2-35 (just
|past the man
|>in the photo). Bob Katella says "could be RPKD for repacked; E.C. for
|>location of East Chicago (Indiana) where General American had
|a repair
|>and service facility; the date for date; and GACC for General
|American
|>Car Co." As the numbers are in sequential order I am assuming
|this is a
|>publicity shot of a new reefers being delivered. The photo certainly
|>has all appearances of late winter, ie late Feb/March which
|corresponds
|>with the build date.
|
|Doug, that information confirms that GATC built them at East
|Chicago, which was their house car construction plant, in
|mid-February of 1935
|
|>I have also learned that URTC had an agent in Mason City from before
|>WWII until 1967. And that General American owned a building with two
|>tracks and a gantry crane at the south end of Mason City, which they
|>sold to the M&StL in 1957. I don't know when they acquired the
|>property, perhaps when they purchased URTC. Or perhaps it was built
|>when Armour bought Deckers in Oct 1935. We do know that
Armour leased
|>reefers from GACC. Deckers had their own clean/repair tracks and a
|>nearby carpenter shop. But a major expansion and the
|subsequent sale to
|>Armour may have exceeded their capacity on site and prompted
|the Lease
|>holder to provide an offsite facility in Mason City.
|
|Ah ha! The fact that Armour acquired Decker in late 1935
|accounts for the disappearance of the Decker reporting marks
|(see below), as Armour owned and operated a sizeable fleet of
|RSM reefers and doubtless preferred to use their own cars
|rather than leasing from GATC. My guess is that they turned
|the cars back to GATC as soon as the lease was up and retired
|the reporting marks.
|
|>I have a Jan 41 ORER which lists DMRX cars 2800-2949 under General
|>American as RAM cars. IL 28' 9", IW 8' 2" IH 7' 1" OL 37'
Crushed ice
|>capacity 5600. The NMRA 43 ORER no longer lists them. Like
you, I can
|>not determine when the Decker reefers disappeared. Further I
|don't know
|>if Decker's owned or leased the cars that carried the DMRX and JEDX
|>reporting marks.
|
|With a little further research, I found those Decker cars
|listed under the General American entries in 10/38 and 1/40,
|and they obviously lasted until 1/41, but they were gone by
|10/41. So they would certainly have been GATC-owned and
|leased to Decker between 2/35 and early '41.
|
|>I have attached a hi-res image scanned from a Decker promotion piece.
|>It shows what appears to be a Mather reefer in the foreground with
|>questionable lettering, some feel the lettering was applied to the
|>photo. In the background, behind the Decker tankcar is
another Decker
|>reefer with what I believe is authentic Decker lettering. It appears
|>the tank car is has JEDX reporting marks. One question this
|photo does
|>raise: did Decker's lease Mather reefers?
|
|This is a very interesting photo, one of the few that clearly
|shows a Mather reefer roof. The photo was definitely
|retouched to add the "Deckers" lettering, because if you look
|very carefully at the end of the Mather car you can just make
|out the reporting marks and numbers HFPX 1415, establishing
|this car as a Mather 37' reefer leased to the Hygrade Food
|Products Co. in the HFPX 1400-1499 series. So it wasn't a
|Decker car at all, and as far as I know Decker never leased
|reefers from Mather.
|
|
|
|Richard H. Hendrickson
|Ashland, Oregon 97520