Norman+Laraine Larkin wrote:

I'd like to ask an additional question regarding the Swift reefers.
Does
anyone know of a source that could provide a brief history of the
Swift
reefers. I'm modeling the Boston and Albany's Grand Junction Branch in
Cambridge Mass which was home to a large Swift (was Squires ) meat
packing
plant (hogs in, pork out). I'd like to know what cars were appropriate
in
1953

Norm,

Within Swift's general scheme, what was the East Cambridge slaughter
house used for?

In 1953, it was probably used mainly to supply the New England retail
meat market. If so, then the hams, porks, bacon, etc. was shipped to
Swift's New England meat storage houses via trucks. Locations of these
Swift meat storage warehouses on the B&M included Boston, Fitchburg,
Greenfield, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Malden, Newburyport and Salem MA,
Dover, Laconia & Manchester NH, Biddeford ME and White River Junction
VT. To this list can be added locations served by the B&A, New Haven,
MEC and perhaps even the BAR.

Some of the by-products or waste in the slaughterhouse process may have
been shipped by rail - the pituitary gland was shipped to the drug
companies, but this would probably amount to a carload per year. The
hog's guts and bones were shipped in gondolas to Atlantic Gelatin in
Stoneham NH.

Hope this helps, Tim Gilbert

Quoting tim gilbert <tgilbert@...>:

Norman+Laraine Larkin wrote:

I'd like to ask an additional question regarding the Swift reefers.
Does
anyone know of a source that could provide a brief history of the
Swift
reefers. I'm modeling the Boston and Albany's Grand Junction Branch

in

Cambridge Mass which was home to a large Swift (was Squires ) meat
packing
plant (hogs in, pork out). I'd like to know what cars were

appropriate

in
1953

Norm,

Within Swift's general scheme, what was the East Cambridge slaughter
house used for?

In 1953, it was probably used mainly to supply the New England retail
meat market. If so, then the hams, porks, bacon, etc. was shipped to
Swift's New England meat storage houses via trucks. Locations of these
Swift meat storage warehouses on the B&M included Boston, Fitchburg,
Greenfield, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Malden, Newburyport and Salem MA,
Dover, Laconia & Manchester NH, Biddeford ME and White River Junction
VT. To this list can be added locations served by the B&A, New Haven,
MEC and perhaps even the BAR.

Some of the by-products or waste in the slaughterhouse process may have
been shipped by rail - the pituitary gland was shipped to the drug
companies, but this would probably amount to a carload per year. The
hog's guts and bones were shipped in gondolas to Atlantic Gelatin in
Stoneham NH.

Hope this helps, Tim Gilbert

I doubt that many of the outer points you mention were supplied from
Boston as early as 1953, Tim, and wish our fellow B & M enthusiast Bob
Nylander were still with us to espouse on this issue. Bob worked for Swift
for years and from what he related to me some years ago many points in
northern New England were still getting their own shipments direct from
western points into the 1960's. Even a city like Manchester, NH was large
enough to be supplied directly though it was only an hour or so from Boston.
Do you have something you believe indicates otherwise?

Take care, Don