Photo: Pickle Car

Photo from the Industrial History Blog:

https://tinyurl.com/5cfyuvsp

Description:

“Many farmers even in South Dakota where this photo was taken grew more than grain crops. Here small cucumbers are being loaded on a "pickle car" which will be hauled into Chicago by the C&NW to be made into pickles. The photo was made at the request of the C&NW publicity department sometime in the 1930s. "Squire Dingee" had pickling plants all over the Midwest in those days.”

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

On 06/23/2021 9:08 PM David Leider <sooauthor@...> wrote:

Sguire-Dingee was a Chicago company, but had salting stations all over the midwest as w3ell as subsidaries in other parts of the US. Pickle cars of this type were used all over to pick up salted pickles for further processing
David Leider

On 06/23/2021 9:08 PM David Leider <sooauthor@...> wrote:

 

 

Sguire-Dingee was a Chicago company, but had salting stations all over the midwest as w3ell as subsidaries in other parts of the US. Pickle cars of this type were used all over to pick up salted pickles for further processing
David Leider

Eric: do you have David J. Leider’s “Pickle and Vinegar Makers of the Midwest”? I don’t think it applies directly to your situation, but it has lots of info on plant layouts, photos of plants, cars, etc.

I’ll lend you my copy if you like.

On 06/23/2021 9:08 PM David Leider <sooauthor@...> wrote:

 

 

Sguire-Dingee was a Chicago company, but had salting stations all over the midwest as w3ell as subsidaries in other parts of the US. Pickle cars of this type were used all over to pick up salted pickles for further processing
David Leider

Eric: do you have David J. Leider’s “Pickle and Vinegar Makers of the Midwest”? I don’t think it applies directly to your situation, but it has lots of info on plant layouts, photos of plants, cars, etc.

I’ll lend you my copy if you like.

On 06/23/2021 9:08 PM David Leider <sooauthor@...> wrote:

 

 

Sguire-Dingee was a Chicago company, but had salting stations all over the midwest as w3ell as subsidaries in other parts of the US. Pickle cars of this type were used all over to pick up salted pickles for further processing
David Leider

Eric: do you have David J. Leider’s “Pickle and Vinegar Makers of the Midwest”? I don’t think it applies directly to your situation, but it has lots of info on plant layouts, photos of plants, cars, etc.

I’ll lend you my copy if you like.

On 06/23/2021 9:08 PM David Leider <sooauthor@...> wrote:

 

 

Sguire-Dingee was a Chicago company, but had salting stations all over the midwest as w3ell as subsidaries in other parts of the US. Pickle cars of this type were used all over to pick up salted pickles for further processing
David Leider

Eric: do you have David J. Leider’s “Pickle and Vinegar Makers of the Midwest”? I don’t think it applies directly to your situation, but it has lots of info on plant layouts, photos of plants, cars, etc.

I’ll lend you my copy if you like.

On 06/23/2021 9:08 PM David Leider <sooauthor@...> wrote:

 

 

Sguire-Dingee was a Chicago company, but had salting stations all over the midwest as w3ell as subsidaries in other parts of the US. Pickle cars of this type were used all over to pick up salted pickles for further processing
David Leider

Eric: do you have David J. Leider’s “Pickle and Vinegar Makers of the Midwest”? I don’t think it applies directly to your situation, but it has lots of info on plant layouts, photos of plants, cars, etc.

I’ll lend you my copy if you like.

On 06/23/2021 9:08 PM David Leider <sooauthor@...> wrote:

 

 

Sguire-Dingee was a Chicago company, but had salting stations all over the midwest as w3ell as subsidaries in other parts of the US. Pickle cars of this type were used all over to pick up salted pickles for further processing
David Leider

On Jun 25, 2021, at 12:07 AM, Kenneth Montero <va661midlo@...> wrote:

FWIW, Athearn made a pickle car that could be built with exposed tubs or enclosed tubs. They were lettered for H.J.Heinz. I don't know how close it was to any prototype.

Ken Montero 

-------- Original message --------

From: BRIAN PAUL EHNI <bpehni@...>

Date: 6/24/21 3:15 PM (GMT-05:00)

To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io

Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Photo: Pickle Car - further question

Correction. The Heinz cars were tubs, but this photo shows they may have been enclosed.

Thanks!
--

Brian Ehni

Eric: do you have David J. Leider’s “Pickle and Vinegar Makers of the Midwest”? I don’t think it applies directly to your situation, but it has lots of info on plant layouts, photos of plants, cars, etc.

I’ll lend you my copy if you like.

On 06/23/2021 9:08 PM David Leider <sooauthor@...> wrote:

 

 

Sguire-Dingee was a Chicago company, but had salting stations all over the midwest as w3ell as subsidaries in other parts of the US. Pickle cars of this type were used all over to pick up salted pickles for further processing
David Leider

My original follow-on question to the photo that started this thread was intended to suggest some other users of the circular tub variety of pickle cars that would have been seen in the northeast, PA, NY, and neighboring states..  I was, perhaps, a little to elliptical in my rather vague question.  Any suggestions now that I’m being more specific?

Schuyler

Eric: do you have David J. Leider’s “Pickle and Vinegar Makers of the Midwest”? I don’t think it applies directly to your situation, but it has lots of info on plant layouts, photos of plants, cars, etc.

I’ll lend you my copy if you like.

On 06/23/2021 9:08 PM David Leider <sooauthor@...> wrote:

 

 

Sguire-Dingee was a Chicago company, but had salting stations all over the midwest as w3ell as subsidaries in other parts of the US. Pickle cars of this type were used all over to pick up salted pickles for further processing
David Leider

>>It would seem odd, to me, for a Heinz or L&S pickle tank car to deliver product to Cruikshank. How did smaller operations >>receive their pickles?

>>Eric Hansmann

----- Original Message -----

From: Richard Townsend via groups.io

To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io

Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2021 1:22 PM

Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Photo: Pickle Car - further question

I went through the private car owners section of the January 1938 ORER looking for wooden tank cars (TW). These are the ones that specified the TW cars were pickle cars. There were many other TW cars that were not specified as pickle cars (though I know some were pickle cars) so I did not include them.

Fleischmann - 12 pickle cars

General American - possibly as many as 10 based on the numbering of the cars

H.J. Heinz - 28 pickle cars

E.J Balza - 2 pickle cars

Berger Foods - 1 pickle car

Bloch & Guggenheimer - 3 pickle cars

Budlong Pickle Co. - 8 pickle cars

California Conserving Co - 2 pickle cars

C.F. Clausen - 4 pickle cars

Cruikshank Bros - 2 pickle cars

Fleishman's Pickle - 1 pickle car (note different spelling from Fleischmann, above)

Glasser Crandell - 4 pickle cars

Libby, McNeill, Libby - 10 pickle cars

H.W Madison - 1 pickle car

Pepin Pickle Co - 2 pickle cars

Reid Murdoch - 6 pickle cars

Squire Dingee - 12 pickle cars

There were many TW cars called out as vinegar cars, including some that might have looked like the open sided pickle tub cars as they were specified as having four "tubs."

The California Dispatch Line had an unspecified number of TW cars in the number series CDLX 277-317 that were described as being "equipped with 6 wooden tanks." I associate CDLX cars with the wine industry and I wonder just what these cars looked like and how they were used. I immediately picture an extra-long tub car but can't imagine that would be right. Maybe the tanks were internal to a house car.

Richard Townsend

Lincoln City, OR

-----Original Message-----
From: Ray Breyer via groups.io <rtbsvrr69@...>
To: main@realstmfc.groups.io <main@realstmfc.groups.io>; main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io>
Sent: Sat, Jun 26, 2021 7:41 am
Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Photo: Pickle Car - further question

>>It would seem odd, to me, for a Heinz or L&S pickle tank car to deliver product to Cruikshank. How did smaller operations >>receive their pickles?

>>Eric Hansmann

 

Hi Eric, 

Believe it or not, cucumbers were the most popular "vegetable" in the 19th Century, and were grown everywhere, especially in hothouses and greenhouses for winter consumption (Cleveland had something like 68 acres of cucumber greenhouses in the 1890s). Because of this, and because pickling companies were so local, most of the produce was trucked into the plants (and generally, trucked out since it was only needed for local deliveries).

Only a very few companies were large regional or national, with Heinz, Squier Dingee, and Libby being three of the largest. They'd need pickle cars, but 99% of all other pickle producers would not.

I can only find three direct references to "pickle tank cars" in the 1917 ORER. Were there more? Maybe: private companies at that time were VERY sketchy about their car information, so a listed "tank car" might have been a "pickle tank". We'll never know, unless we get lucky and spot something in an early photograph.

Oh: here's ALL of the pickle cars in the ACF lot list. There aren't many:

1904 - lot 3161 - Hyman Pickle Co (4 cars)

1904 - lot 3277 - Hyman (1 car)

1908 - lot 5308 - Keokuk Canning Co (1 car)

1909 - lot 5552 - Libbys (2 cars)

1910 - lot 6012 - Libbys (2 cars)

1919 - lot 8782 - Hyman (1 car)

1920 - lot 9064 - Hyman (1 car)

1921 - lot 9206 - Hirsch Brothers Pickle Co (2 cars)

Ray Breyer

Elgin, IL