[Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
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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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Eric Hansmann
Attached is part of a Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Fairmont, W. Va. There’s an Armour branch house in the building complex on the left side. This was located on the 1.25 mile Fairmont Belt Line branch of the B&O. The B&O main can be seen in the lower right corner and the connection was just to the right off the map. Fairmont had a population around 20,000 people when this 1927 Sanborn map was created.
Based upon tales of former B&O yard workers, service for the Armour customer was a high priority. When a meat reefer arrived in Fairmont for this branch house, it was immediately switched to the spur.
Eric Hansmann Murfreesboro, TN
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Gatwood, Elden J SAD
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 10:27 AM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
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
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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Eldon the major meat packers: Swift, Armour, Wilson, Cudahy all had branch houses scattered across the country. The Branch Houses would receive carcasses, ie swinging meat, from the slaughter houses, then “process” the carcass into various meat cuts. These cuts then went to grocery concerns, meat markets, restaurants, institutions ie hospitals, prisons, etc. where they might be further cut down into steaks, chops, roasts, ground meat, etc. Some slaughter operations were full processing plants, where cold cuts, sausage, etc was made. But branch houses could also have this responsibility.
Note a branch house would only receive reefers from their respective slaughter house. However a grocery warehouse or cold storage facility would have reefers from all the meat packers.
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io [mailto:main@RealSTMFC.groups.io] On Behalf Of Gatwood, Elden J SAD
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 10:27 AM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
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
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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Claus Schlund \(HGM\)
Hi Eric,
Thanks for your insightful reply. I notice that the ‘Armour Packing Co’
building is connected to the ‘Marion Ice Co’ by what appears to be an overhead
passageway, the inscription on the map appears to maybe read ‘Passage 2nd’.
Obviously ice was essential to both these commercial firms.
Having a railroad siding pass under an overhead passage connecting two
buildings would be a very model-genic scene, don’t you think?
I notice that the Armour Packing Co area has a portion of the building
labeled as ‘Ice Machs’ – this makes me wonder if Armour owned the ice making
equipment, and then used some portion of the ice for their own needs, and if
Armour then possibly sold excess ice on a wholesale basis to Marion Ice, who
perhaps in turn resold that ice on a retail basis.
Claus Schlund
From: Eric
Hansmann
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2020 12:15 PM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat
reefers Attached is part of a Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Fairmont, W. Va. There’s an Armour branch house in the building complex on the left side. This was located on the 1.25 mile Fairmont Belt Line branch of the B&O. The B&O main can be seen in the lower right corner and the connection was just to the right off the map. Fairmont had a population around 20,000 people when this 1927 Sanborn map was created.
Based upon tales of former B&O yard workers, service for the Armour customer was a high priority. When a meat reefer arrived in Fairmont for this branch house, it was immediately switched to the spur.
Eric Hansmann Murfreesboro, TN
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
<main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of 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
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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Gatwood, Elden J SAD
Eric and all;
The attached are from my historical research files I have worked a long time on, on the Mon Valley in and upstream of Pittsburgh. These are from the South Side across the Mon from downtown Pittsburgh. The first 3 are the track side of the combined retail store and wholesale Armour Meats operation. You can still see: the Supervisor’s cupola, office and residence, the unloading dock (although the unloading rail is missing), and retail store side. This was served by a facing switch in the middle of 21st Street on which I was standing.
The last shot is the similar Swift Meats operation, right across East Carson Street. By this time, the small triangular unloading dock had been demolished, although you can see the doorway. This was served by a facing switch in the middle of 21st Street.
Cars for both originated out of 30th Street Yard in the upper South Side, dropped off by transfers from other local Pgh yards. As Eric said, they were priority switching jobs.
Old timers told me about the switching of both plants, which tied up traffic to the annoyance of locals. Many recalled the colorful reefers hosted at each, and how often it occurred.
There were similar but smaller ops upstream at Brownsville, also, and at Fairmont, IIRC on the Monongahela Railway.
When shown photos of Armour and Swift reefers, folks’ faces would light up, and they’d go, “Yeah, just like that!”.
I don’t think many realize how prevalent this was in many locales.
Elden Gatwood
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io>
On Behalf Of Eric Hansmann
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 12:15 PM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
Attached is part of a Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Fairmont, W. Va. There’s an Armour branch house in the building complex on the left side. This was located on the 1.25 mile Fairmont Belt Line branch of the B&O. The B&O main can be seen in the lower right corner and the connection was just to the right off the map. Fairmont had a population around 20,000 people when this 1927 Sanborn map was created.
Based upon tales of former B&O yard workers, service for the Armour customer was a high priority. When a meat reefer arrived in Fairmont for this branch house, it was immediately switched to the spur.
Eric Hansmann Murfreesboro, TN
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io>
On Behalf Of 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
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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Eric Hansmann
Claus,
The building was originally a brewery. When Prohibition was enacted in January 1919, many brewers closed or changed their business plan. Many became cold storage facilities.
The details on the Sanborn map seem to indicate the spur ran under a portion of the structure that was a National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) garage.
Eric Hansmann Murfreesboro, TN
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Claus Schlund \(HGM\)
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 11:46 AM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
Hi Eric,
Thanks for your insightful reply. I notice that the ‘Armour Packing Co’ building is connected to the ‘Marion Ice Co’ by what appears to be an overhead passageway, the inscription on the map appears to maybe read ‘Passage 2nd’. Obviously ice was essential to both these commercial firms.
Having a railroad siding pass under an overhead passage connecting two buildings would be a very model-genic scene, don’t you think?
I notice that the Armour Packing Co area has a portion of the building labeled as ‘Ice Machs’ – this makes me wonder if Armour owned the ice making equipment, and then used some portion of the ice for their own needs, and if Armour then possibly sold excess ice on a wholesale basis to Marion Ice, who perhaps in turn resold that ice on a retail basis.
Claus Schlund
From: Eric Hansmann Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2020 12:15 PM Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
Attached is part of a Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Fairmont, W. Va. There’s an Armour branch house in the building complex on the left side. This was located on the 1.25 mile Fairmont Belt Line branch of the B&O. The B&O main can be seen in the lower right corner and the connection was just to the right off the map. Fairmont had a population around 20,000 people when this 1927 Sanborn map was created.
Based upon tales of former B&O yard workers, service for the Armour customer was a high priority. When a meat reefer arrived in Fairmont for this branch house, it was immediately switched to the spur.
Eric Hansmann Murfreesboro, TN
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of 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
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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Tony Thompson
Claus Schlund wrote: I notice that the Armour Packing Co area has a portion of the building labeled as ‘Ice Machs’ – this makes me wonder if Armour owned the ice making equipment, and then used some portion of the ice for their own needs, and if Armour then possibly sold excess ice on a wholesale basis to Marion Ice, who perhaps in turn resold that ice on a retail basis. Remember that "commercial ice" was frozen as quickly as possible and accordingly contained really a lot of trapped air bubbles, making it at best translucent and often opaque and white. The ice consumers prefer to buy is frozen slowly enough for it to be clear or nearly so. Of course some consumer ice, intended for (literal) ice boxes or making ice cream, etc. can be the cloudy ice, but people would prefer not to put that into a drinking glass. Tony Thompson |
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So right Tony, bourbon is 100 times better over clear ice Fenton On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 2:23 PM Tony Thompson <tony@...> wrote:
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The proportion on whisky to ice is important, too. Really fine whisky is delivered in barrels carried in a D/S trussrod boxcar. Carefully decanted and a bit of clear ice rubbed on the outside of the glass. Add three small cinders from a locomotive and it is ready to serve on an open observation platform. Chuck Peck On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 2:30 PM O Fenton Wells <srrfan1401@...> wrote:
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Eric Hansmann
Those are great shots, Eldon.
Here’s a link to a 1923 GM Hopkins plat map that shows the buildings Eldon mentions. There seems to be a Morris & Co. operation across 21st Street from the Armour building.
I was unaware the PRR Whitehall branch went down 21st Street. That has lots of layout potential, especially for a pre-1930s era.
BTW, if you zoom out to view more of that map, I cannot guarantee you will accomplish anything else today. Stay hydrated while you explore an earlier Pittsburgh.
Or, maybe “Have a Duke!” since the brewery was on the Whitehall branch.
Eric Hansmann Murfreesboro, TN
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Gatwood, Elden J SAD
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 12:06 PM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
Eric and all;
The attached are from my historical research files I have worked a long time on, on the Mon Valley in and upstream of Pittsburgh. These are from the South Side across the Mon from downtown Pittsburgh. The first 3 are the track side of the combined retail store and wholesale Armour Meats operation. You can still see: the Supervisor’s cupola, office and residence, the unloading dock (although the unloading rail is missing), and retail store side. This was served by a facing switch in the middle of 21st Street on which I was standing.
The last shot is the similar Swift Meats operation, right across East Carson Street. By this time, the small triangular unloading dock had been demolished, although you can see the doorway. This was served by a facing switch in the middle of 21st Street.
Cars for both originated out of 30th Street Yard in the upper South Side, dropped off by transfers from other local Pgh yards. As Eric said, they were priority switching jobs.
Old timers told me about the switching of both plants, which tied up traffic to the annoyance of locals. Many recalled the colorful reefers hosted at each, and how often it occurred.
There were similar but smaller ops upstream at Brownsville, also, and at Fairmont, IIRC on the Monongahela Railway.
When shown photos of Armour and Swift reefers, folks’ faces would light up, and they’d go, “Yeah, just like that!”.
I don’t think many realize how prevalent this was in many locales.
Elden Gatwood
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Eric Hansmann
Attached is part of a Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Fairmont, W. Va. There’s an Armour branch house in the building complex on the left side. This was located on the 1.25 mile Fairmont Belt Line branch of the B&O. The B&O main can be seen in the lower right corner and the connection was just to the right off the map. Fairmont had a population around 20,000 people when this 1927 Sanborn map was created.
Based upon tales of former B&O yard workers, service for the Armour customer was a high priority. When a meat reefer arrived in Fairmont for this branch house, it was immediately switched to the spur.
Eric Hansmann Murfreesboro, TN
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of 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
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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Truss rods, clear ice and bourbon, amen to that On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 2:59 PM Charles Peck <lnnrr152@...> wrote:
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np328
I will agree with much/all of the information Doug has posted. And as Eldon has stated, I find in my research, there were branch offices all over.
Here is a photo from 1926-1928 on the NP from Billings, MT. There are two of the smaller meat houses here and quite modelable examples. The Armour site can be clearly seen from the street side lettering, and the arrow pointing down on the right. The Swift house is a bit down the block at the Swift sign can be seen to the left below the arrow. For those interested, the camera is looking west and is a block or so west past the Billings depot. Jim Dick - Roseville, MN |
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vapeurchapelon
>>Add three small cinders from a locomotive and it is ready to serve on an open observation platform.<<
So true, Chuck! And in case of some not-so-fine whisky don't forget a small drop of steam engine bearing oil to help getting that stuff down the throat. ;-)
Johannes
Modeling the early post-war years up to about 1953
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 08. April 2020 um 20:59 Uhr
Von: "Charles Peck" <lnnrr152@...> An: main@realstmfc.groups.io Betreff: Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers The proportion on whisky to ice is important, too. Really fine whisky is delivered in barrels carried in a D/S trussrod boxcar. Carefully decanted and a bit of clear ice rubbed on the outside of the glass. Add three small cinders from a locomotive and it is ready to serve on an open observation platform.
Chuck Peck
On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 2:30 PM O Fenton Wells <srrfan1401@...> wrote:
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CJ Riley <cjriley42@...>
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Dave Nelson
Brach houses were pretty much the standard presence of name brand meats here on the west coast and AFAIK Doug’s description below is spot on.
There is one more business to note regarding meat traffic and that’s Cold Storage houses. They’d store anything needing refrigeration, including meats. One large facility that’s probably overlooked is the Naval Supply Center in Oakland. They shipped all the non-explosive needs into the Pacific theater for decades and they had a large cold storage house as well.
It’s plausible that large military bases regularly received meat reefers. I do not know who the military bought meat from but I would not be surprised if several packers sold to them – cured pork from one, sides of beef from others, pork or lamb sides from other companies.
Dave Nelson
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io [mailto:main@RealSTMFC.groups.io] On Behalf Of Douglas Harding
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2020 9:29 AM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
Eldon the major meat packers: Swift, Armour, Wilson, Cudahy all had branch houses scattered across the country. The Branch Houses would receive carcasses, ie swinging meat, from the slaughter houses, then “process” the carcass into various meat cuts. These cuts then went to grocery concerns, meat markets, restaurants, institutions ie hospitals, prisons, etc. where they might be further cut down into steaks, chops, roasts, ground meat, etc. Some slaughter operations were full processing plants, where cold cuts, sausage, etc was made. But branch houses could also have this responsibility.
Note a branch house would only receive reefers from their respective slaughter house. However a grocery warehouse or cold storage facility would have reefers from all the meat packers. ,_ |
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Dave yes I was thinking of military stores when I mentioned institutions. And yes they would receive reefers from every major packer. Like a cold storage or grocery warehouse you could see an Armour next to a Swift next to Cudahy, etc.
Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io [mailto:main@RealSTMFC.groups.io] On Behalf Of Dave Nelson
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 8:35 PM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
Brach houses were pretty much the standard presence of name brand meats here on the west coast and AFAIK Doug’s description below is spot on.
There is one more business to note regarding meat traffic and that’s Cold Storage houses. They’d store anything needing refrigeration, including meats. One large facility that’s probably overlooked is the Naval Supply Center in Oakland. They shipped all the non-explosive needs into the Pacific theater for decades and they had a large cold storage house as well.
It’s plausible that large military bases regularly received meat reefers. I do not know who the military bought meat from but I would not be surprised if several packers sold to them – cured pork from one, sides of beef from others, pork or lamb sides from other companies.
Dave Nelson
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io [mailto:main@RealSTMFC.groups.io] On Behalf Of Douglas Harding
Eldon the major meat packers: Swift, Armour, Wilson, Cudahy all had branch houses scattered across the country. The Branch Houses would receive carcasses, ie swinging meat, from the slaughter houses, then “process” the carcass into various meat cuts. These cuts then went to grocery concerns, meat markets, restaurants, institutions ie hospitals, prisons, etc. where they might be further cut down into steaks, chops, roasts, ground meat, etc. Some slaughter operations were full processing plants, where cold cuts, sausage, etc was made. But branch houses could also have this responsibility.
Note a branch house would only receive reefers from their respective slaughter house. However a grocery warehouse or cold storage facility would have reefers from all the meat packers. ,_ |
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Gatwood, Elden J SAD
Eric;
I have been exploring the Whitehall (or White Hall) Branch, since I was a boy when my Mom was playing Symphony gigs and took me along with her to the South Side. I still host tours every so often when I go to Pgh.
There was an unbelievable amount of freight car variety on the branch, and industry variety being served by same. Due to the tight radii of the trackage, it was generally served by a small group of SW-1’s, but they managed to get 65’ gons down there to serve a steel fabricator. Box cars, reefers, hoppers, flats, and lotsa gons.
In your timeframe, there was a great beer maker on 21st Street: Moerlein’s, who later moved on to Ohio. They had this fabulous building, later a plumbing supply company. Their spur went right into the building.
The only freight car type I never saw down there were tank cars, but I’ll bet I just missed them. There were several iron and steel works down there that would’ve received them.
I know several people that have attempted to model this area, but no one has pulled it off. Here are a small sample of photos…
Check out the variety of cars in the last photo of 30th Street Yard next to the Jones & Laughlin open hearth complex in 1953. At 21st Street Yard, note the URR gon lurking, and the Southern Automobile/Furniture car. I think it is carrying furniture to the Gimbel’s warehouse in back.
Elden Gatwood
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io>
On Behalf Of Eric Hansmann
Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2020 3:31 PM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
Those are great shots, Eldon.
Here’s a link to a 1923 GM Hopkins plat map that shows the buildings Eldon mentions. There seems to be a Morris & Co. operation across 21st Street from the Armour building. Blockedhttps://arcg.is/1CfrCq0
I was unaware the PRR Whitehall branch went down 21st Street. That has lots of layout potential, especially for a pre-1930s era.
BTW, if you zoom out to view more of that map, I cannot guarantee you will accomplish anything else today. Stay hydrated while you explore an earlier Pittsburgh.
Or, maybe “Have a Duke!” since the brewery was on the Whitehall branch.
Eric Hansmann Murfreesboro, TN
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io>
On Behalf Of Gatwood, Elden J SAD
Eric and all;
The attached are from my historical research files I have worked a long time on, on the Mon Valley in and upstream of Pittsburgh. These are from the South Side across the Mon from downtown Pittsburgh. The first 3 are the track side of the combined retail store and wholesale Armour Meats operation. You can still see: the Supervisor’s cupola, office and residence, the unloading dock (although the unloading rail is missing), and retail store side. This was served by a facing switch in the middle of 21st Street on which I was standing.
The last shot is the similar Swift Meats operation, right across East Carson Street. By this time, the small triangular unloading dock had been demolished, although you can see the doorway. This was served by a facing switch in the middle of 21st Street.
Cars for both originated out of 30th Street Yard in the upper South Side, dropped off by transfers from other local Pgh yards. As Eric said, they were priority switching jobs.
Old timers told me about the switching of both plants, which tied up traffic to the annoyance of locals. Many recalled the colorful reefers hosted at each, and how often it occurred.
There were similar but smaller ops upstream at Brownsville, also, and at Fairmont, IIRC on the Monongahela Railway.
When shown photos of Armour and Swift reefers, folks’ faces would light up, and they’d go, “Yeah, just like that!”.
I don’t think many realize how prevalent this was in many locales.
Elden Gatwood
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io>
On Behalf Of Eric Hansmann
Attached is part of a Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Fairmont, W. Va. There’s an Armour branch house in the building complex on the left side. This was located on the 1.25 mile Fairmont Belt Line branch of the B&O. The B&O main can be seen in the lower right corner and the connection was just to the right off the map. Fairmont had a population around 20,000 people when this 1927 Sanborn map was created.
Based upon tales of former B&O yard workers, service for the Armour customer was a high priority. When a meat reefer arrived in Fairmont for this branch house, it was immediately switched to the spur.
Eric Hansmann Murfreesboro, TN
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io>
On Behalf Of 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
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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Thanks for sharing the photos, I love the SR Auto/Furniture boxcar photo ( # 311006). Southern had 5000 of these and this is the car Sunshine Models made. Love that photo Thanks Fenton On Thu, Apr 9, 2020 at 9:26 AM Gatwood, Elden J SAD <elden.j.gatwood@...> wrote:
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CJ Riley <cjriley42@...>
I see the roof of Levenson Steel poking up. I worked there for a few weeks in the early 60s painting steel for I-7 in eastern Ohio. I was transferred there following 2months doing the same job at their McKees Rocks facility in the leased former Pressed Steel Car plant. Even got to load over length girders in mill gone for a bit.
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Gatwood, Elden J SAD
I love that photo, too, Fenton! And that car is even better!
Elden Gatwood
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io>
On Behalf Of O Fenton Wells
Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2020 9:36 AM To: main@realstmfc.groups.io Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Meat reefers
Thanks for sharing the photos, I love the SR Auto/Furniture boxcar photo ( # 311006). Southern had 5000 of these and this is the car Sunshine Models made. Love that photo Thanks Fenton
On Thu, Apr 9, 2020 at 9:26 AM Gatwood, Elden J SAD <elden.j.gatwood@...> wrote:
-- Fenton Wells Pinehurst NC 28374 |
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