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Re: Meat reefers
Richard Townsend
No, not safe to say. Meat reefers ran just about everywhere. Maybe only one at a time on branches, but they ran.
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On Apr 8, 2020, at 8:46 AM, radiodial868 <radiodial57@...> wrote:
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Re: Meat reefers
radiodial868
So it is safe to say that meat reefers were not a west coast thing, say 1930's/1940's? I have not seen any in period pictures, but doesn't mean they didn't exist. I have a couple of Sylvan meat reefer kits I keep wondering if I should build to run on Western Pacific/Southern Pacific consists.
-- ------------------- RJ Dial Mendocino, CA
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Re: Meat reefers
The Nickle Plate handled a lot of meat because it was a fast route. Meat was time sensitive and the meat packers wanted their products delivered as quickly as possible. Out of Omaha, meat packers could choose between six different railroads to get to Omaha. All roads were given meat traffic, with each road having a specific day when they go the majority of traffic. As rates were regulated, this was how the packers kept the railroads on their toes with demands for speed. The Illinois Central was the preferred route as the IC moved the meat faster than others. The CBQ had the option of going to Peoria for eastern connections instead of Chicago. East out of Chicago, the NKP was the preferred routing for meat going to NYC or New England.
I am not as well versed in meat traffic east of Chicago. Attached is a spreadsheet prepared by John Greedy and Jim Singer, which shows the meat traffic east of Chicago on various roads in the 50s.
Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io [mailto:main@RealSTMFC.groups.io] On Behalf Of Schuyler Larrabee via groups.io
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 10:04 AM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
Thanks, Doug, very interesting. That routing reflects a close tie between the NKP and DL&W. In the early days of mergers, the DL&W wanted to merge with the NKP, who declined. I’ve never understood why – I would have thought the direct route into NYC would have been very tempting, but I also figure the NKP’s membership in the Van Sweringen-created AMC was a problem.
Schuyler
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Douglas Harding
Here is a slide from my meat trains clinic, showing the movement of a meat reefer from Omaha to Boston. It went CBQ, NKP, DL&W, L&HR, NH. This was the early 50s I believe.
Doug Harding
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Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
Gatwood, Elden J SAD
Gang;
It was amazing to me when doing research on my area how many community meat wholesale operations there were, literally all over the place. In my area, mostly Armour and Swift, but also others. They were where the reefers arrived with sides of beef, etc., and where they processed the large pieces into smaller cuts for trucking to local butchers. Look into this, and you may be astonished at what you find. I was!
Elden Gatwood
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io>
On Behalf Of Richard Townsend via groups.io
Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2020 9:30 PM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io Subject: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
Not necessarily lost or misdirected. Swift, for example, had hundreds of routes that it sent individual meat reefers up, as often as daily. They would go to a central distribution warehouse for larger towns, and might make stops at individual depots or team tracks for smaller towns, where grocers or butchers would pick up their orders. One car might serve an entire branch that way.
So, see? You now have dispensation to run meat reefers regularly on your Kansas branch line, prototypically. Richard Townsend Lincoln City, OR
-----Original Message----- The gift shop of the Kansas City Railroad Museum was housed in a Wilson meat reefer. It was my weekend “home” for several years. This part of my life has given me a fondness for meat reefers.
Unfortunately, I model a little known Santa Fe branch line that once operated in east central Kansas. Meat reefers on this 50 miles of track would have been a rare event. Most likely if one were to arrive on the line it most surely was a very lost or somehow mis-directed car.
Cheers, Bill Keene That’s the beauty of modeling part of the Erie Main through Pennsylvania. I can get most of them <grin>. Brian J. Carlson
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Re: Meat reefers
Ted Schnepf
Hello, My point is that geography does play a role in what cars you will see on the railroad you choose to model. If you are modeling Frankfort, Ind on the NKP, it would be rare to see a reefer from Hormel, Dubuque, Oscar Meyer and other packers in the northern region of the corn belt. Modeling Bellevue, Oh on the NKP those reefers would be plentiful. In my case modeling west of Mississippi, I need to carefully choose my reefers. Ted Schnepf
On Wednesday, April 8, 2020, 09:56:39 AM CDT, Douglas Harding <iowacentralrr@...> wrote:
Here is a slide from my meat trains clinic, showing the movement of a meat reefer from Omaha to Boston. It went CBQ, NKP, DL&W, L&HR, NH. This was the early 50s I believe.
Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org
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Re: Meat reefers
Schuyler Larrabee
Thanks, Doug, very interesting. That routing reflects a close tie between the NKP and DL&W. In the early days of mergers, the DL&W wanted to merge with the NKP, who declined. I’ve never understood why – I would have thought the direct route into NYC would have been very tempting, but I also figure the NKP’s membership in the Van Sweringen-created AMC was a problem.
Schuyler
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Douglas Harding
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2020 10:56 AM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
Here is a slide from my meat trains clinic, showing the movement of a meat reefer from Omaha to Boston. It went CBQ, NKP, DL&W, L&HR, NH. This was the early 50s I believe.
Doug Harding
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Re: Meat reefers
Here is a slide from my meat trains clinic, showing the movement of a meat reefer from Omaha to Boston. It went CBQ, NKP, DL&W, L&HR, NH. This was the early 50s I believe.
Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org
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Re: Meat reefers
Schuyler Larrabee
I’d like to interject here that from some ERIE consists I’ve documented (some of them are in the list files) a fair amount of traffic for New England was interchanged by the ERIE with the D&H in Binghamton. From there, IIRC (it’s been a while) some of that freight went on to D&H points (“Bridge Line to Canada” and all that) and also transferred to the B&M at Mechanicville. That’s another routing that didn’t involve the NH at all.
Does that include meat reefers? I’ve no idea, but I could review some of those consists and see . . .
Putting a consist in an excel spreadsheet will improve you sleep quite well!
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Donald B. Valentine via groups.io
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2020 10:05 AM To: main@realstmfc.groups.io Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
Hi Fran,
I'm well familiar with the interchange points of the Erie and New Haven and occasionally swing into Maybrook when traveling just to recall what the sorry sight there now used to look like. But I would NEVER suggest that the New Haven and Boston & Maine reached Worcester, Mass. via "branch lines" as Worcester was probably the largest interchange point between the two roads. Springfield, Mass., which you omit, would have been the second. There was still interchange in Boston via New Haven owned Union Fright (pun intended for those who have ever driven on Atlantic Ave. in Boston at night when Union Freight was operating)! The Lowell and Fitchburg interchange points were on B&M mains but definitely branches for the New Haven, primarily for traffic to or from New Haven points in Southeastern Mass. and Rhode Island. Whiting Milk Co., to whom my family shipped, milk used to reach the Whiting plant in Providence via Lowell in Central Vermont Rwy. can cars. I'm not certain if that route ever switched to milk tank cars. New Haven traffic to & from Lowell was usually heavy enough to require the use of an R-1 class 4-8-2 to handle it, often #3225 with a V-2 Vanderbilt tender given the number of photos I have of here there and the scarcity of photos of other R-1's there.
Cordially, Don Valentine
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Re: Meat reefers
Donald B. Valentine <riverman_vt@...>
Hi Fran, I'm well familiar with the interchange points of the Erie and New Haven and occasionally swing into Maybrook when traveling just to recall what the sorry sight there now used to look like. But I would NEVER suggest that the New Haven and Boston & Maine reached Worcester, Mass. via "branch lines" as Worcester was probably the largest interchange point between the two roads. Springfield, Mass., which you omit, would have been the second. There was still interchange in Boston via New Haven owned Union Fright (pun intended for those who have ever driven on Atlantic Ave. in Boston at night when Union Freight was operating)! The Lowell and Fitchburg interchange points were on B&M mains but definitely branches for the New Haven, primarily for traffic to or from New Haven points in Southeastern Mass. and Rhode Island. Whiting Milk Co., to whom my family shipped, milk used to reach the Whiting plant in Providence via Lowell in Central Vermont Rwy. can cars. I'm not certain if that route ever switched to milk tank cars. New Haven traffic to & from Lowell was usually heavy enough to require the use of an R-1 class 4-8-2 to handle it, often #3225 with a V-2 Vanderbilt tender given the number of photos I have of here there and the scarcity of photos of other R-1's there. Cordially, Don Valentine
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Re: Meat reefers
Donald B. Valentine <riverman_vt@...>
Not so fast Bill Keene. How many towns were there on your 50 mile long branch and how many of those towns had a market that sold fresh meat? Even into the earlier days of pre-cut and/or pre-packaged meat the packers shipped cars destined to several customers on a set routing. The car was dropped for the first customer who unloaded his goods that were separated from those of the next customer by wrapping paper and then the car was moved to the next customer. This continued until the car was empty. On occasion re-icing was required. Let's just say that in those years people were more honest as I doubt this would work today unless all unloading were done under the watchful eye of the local agent, if one could still be found, and the car was resealed. The times are not only "achanging" they have changed drastically in the lives of many of us on this list and I'm not convinced that the majority of those changes have been for the better! Cordially, Don Valentine
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Re: Meat reefers
Richard Townsend
Not necessarily lost or misdirected. Swift, for example, had hundreds of routes that it sent individual meat reefers up, as often as daily. They would go to a central distribution warehouse for larger towns, and might make stops at individual depots or team tracks for smaller towns, where grocers or butchers would pick up their orders. One car might serve an entire branch that way.
So, see? You now have dispensation to run meat reefers regularly on your Kansas branch line, prototypically. Richard Townsend
Lincoln City, OR
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Keene via groups.io <bill41@...> To: main@realstmfc.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> Sent: Tue, Apr 7, 2020 2:56 pm Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers The gift shop of the Kansas City Railroad Museum was housed in a Wilson meat reefer. It was my weekend “home” for several years. This part of my life has given me a fondness for meat reefers.
Unfortunately, I model a little known Santa Fe branch line that once operated in east central Kansas. Meat reefers on this 50 miles of track would have been a rare event. Most likely if one were to arrive on the line it most surely was a very lost or somehow mis-directed car.
Cheers,
Bill Keene
That’s the beauty of modeling part of the Erie Main through Pennsylvania. I can get most of them <grin>.
Brian J. Carlson
On Apr 7, 2020, at 5:13 PM, Ted Schnepf <railsunl@...> wrote:
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Delware, Lackawanna & Western 11502 automobile boxcar
Lester Breuer
I have completed the build of Yarmouth Model Works resin kit 115. It is Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, 11502, an all steel automobile rebuilt boxcar. If you are interested in the build of this car including addition of chain wells (tubes) not in the kit, photos and writeup of the build process including paint and weathering are now available on my blog I have to share photos and writeup of modeling projects on my Minneapolis & Northland Railroad Company. If you would like to take a look please do at the following link:
Lester Breuer
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Re: Photo: Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway Boxcar
1936 looks like a more likely date for the photo
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This later photo (attached) appears to show a Bettendorf I-beam underframe
On 4/7/2020 2:57 PM, Bob Chaparro via groups.io wrote:
--
*Tim O'Connor* *Sterling, Massachusetts*
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Re: Meat reefers
Fran Giacoma
Don,
The Erie interchanged with the New Haven Railroad at the large NH yard in Maybrook, NY. The New Haven interchanged with the B&M at Worcester, Fitchburg, and Lowell, MA. Both the NH and the B&M reached Worcester via branch lines. The NH reached Fitchburg and Lowell (both on the B&M main line) via branch lines out of Framingham, MA. Fran Giacoma
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Re: Meat reefers
Donald B. Valentine <riverman_vt@...>
Ted Schnepf wrote: "In the early 1950's before the meat packers expanded, by consolidating facilities. the only place to see some of these reefers together on one train was east of Chicago. NKP did have the line east out of Chicago. Dubuqe, Oscar Meyer, and Hormel. were one plant companies. Hygrade in the early 1950's had only one or two plants. Swift, Armour, and Wilson had multiple locations" To which I would add that east of the NKP the Erie seemed to carry more meat reefers going into New York or New England than any other road. They certainly carried the bulk of it going into New Haven territory. How it got to B&M territory I'd really like to know. The lesser amount of meat reefers coming into Northern New England came in over the CPR both to the MEC at St. Johnsbury, VT and the B&M by the same routing as well as into Maine via the "Shortline", the CPR's route through Maine rather than over it to get to the Maritimes. Likewise the B&O seems to have handled the bulk of the traffic into the mid-Atlantic states, especially for Morrell and Swift. Cordially, Don Valentine
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Re: Meat reefers
Bill Keene
The gift shop of the Kansas City Railroad Museum was housed in a Wilson meat reefer. It was my weekend “home” for several years. This part of my life has given me a fondness for meat reefers.
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
Unfortunately, I model a little known Santa Fe branch line that once operated in east central Kansas. Meat reefers on this 50 miles of track would have been a rare event. Most likely if one were to arrive on the line it most surely was a very lost or somehow mis-directed car. Cheers, Bill Keene Irvine, CA
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Re: Meat reefers
Tony Thompson
Ted Schnepf wrote:
Good point, Ted. But remember they all came back west empty. Lots of photos of westward trains in the steam era show quite a mix of meat cars, presumably empty. Tony Thompson
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Re: Meat reefers
That’s the beauty of modeling part of the Erie Main through Pennsylvania. I can get most of them <grin>.
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
Brian J. Carlson
On Apr 7, 2020, at 5:13 PM, Ted Schnepf <railsunl@...> wrote:
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Re: Meat reefers
Ted Schnepf
Hello, Always nice to see fine reefer models. In the early 1950's before the meat packers expanded, by consolidating facilities. the only place to see some of these reefers together on one train was east of Chicago. NKP did have the line east out of Chicago. Dubuqe, Oscar Meyer, and Hormel. were one plant companies. Hygrade in the early 1950's had only one or two plants. Swift, Armour, and Wilson had multiple locations. My point is that not all meat reefers would be regularly seen, on the same train, except east of Chicago. When picking reefers to model, be aware of the plant locations and likely routing over your railroad. Ted Schnepf
On Tuesday, April 7, 2020, 06:54:16 AM CDT, Eric Hansmann <eric@...> wrote: Frank Hodina shares photos and details on a few meat reefers in the latest Resin Car Works blog post. Eric Hansmann Be safe. Stay healthy. Build models!
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Fruit Growers & Western Fruit Overhead Bunker Reefers—was WFEX 1201-1202 freight reefers
Bill Welch
If Athearn has produced an accurate model of a Fruit Growers Express “Overhead Bunker” or “OB” car, it is one of the best-kept secrets in the history of the world. Likewise if they have lettered one of their existing models as a FGE “OB” car, it is one of the biggest FOOBIES in the history of the world. FGE built their first OB types in 1940 at the Indiana Harbor Car Shops. There were only ten of these all-steel cars built to load frozen foods, then still a relatively new product. These cars had ten ice bunkers under the roof—these were really trays—that were used to hold a mixture of salt and ice that could produce a temperature of 28° F. It is unclear whether FGE intended to build more of these only to be interrupted by WWII. These ten cars were heavily insulated and the door and safety hardware had to be inset into the steel side panel sheathing to allow them to meet clearance standards. In 1944 again at Indiana Harbor FGE began to build a very different looking Overhead Bunker refrigerator car with a heavy Fishbelly centersill, 4/5 Dreadnaught ends, and plywood sheathed sides with steel panels on the ends and doors to again permit their respective hardware to be inset. These were the first cars to be designated and stenciled “FOBX.” These cars used the same basic roof hatch design as the 1940 built OB cars. Their roof hatch covers were hinged perpendicular to the running board. They also had permanent Charcoal heaters slung under the floor. These were in the FOBX 4000 series. In 1946 FGE built more of these types in the FOBX 700 series with a new hatch cover design hinged parallel to the running board. These hatches had a much more pronounced rectangular shape then the previous design. These too had underslung charcoal heaters. Then in 1950 Indiana Harbor built 150 new all steel overhead bunker reefers, FOBX 600–699 and WOBX 501–550 for Western Fruit, their first and only such types. (The earlier 600 series had been previously scrapped.) The new cars used the same roof and roof hatch cover design from the 1944 group of cars. Because of the tray type brine storage, these OB types required much more care and thus time when re-icing so as not to breach the waterproof lining: This meant no pointed tools. Because brine could only achieve 28° F the shippers of frozen foods pressed for methods to get to 0° F. Truckers could get to Zero with the new Mechanical systems manufactured by Thermo-King, who perfected their innovative mobile refrigeration system on the battlefields of WWII. Fruit Growers especially felt the competition from truckers and thus FGE and their partners WFE and BRE began to research and test various powered and unpowered refrigeration systems capable of producing much colder temperatures and by 1949 had both one diesel and one gasoline powered 40-foot Mechanical reefer being tested shipping frozen foods. By 1957 the FGE-WFE-BRE System had some 1,200 40- and 50-foot Mechanicals in service. Despite the large number of Mechanical reefers available by 1957 the OB cars continued in-service into the 1960’s. By that time the plywood sheathed cars had their sheathing replaced with T&G boards. For anyone interested in modeling I am working on the End Pattern for the FOBX 4000 group as part of a collaborative effort to create model. Bill Welch
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