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Classic Freight Cars the Series Vol 3 John Henderson 40 ft refrigerator cars
Classic Freight Cars the Series Volume 3 by John Henderson 40 ft refrigerator cars
Soft Cover
Copyright 1993
64 pages
Contents
AMERICAN REFRIGERATOR TRANSIT 8
ARMOUR CAR LINES 19
ATCHISON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE 14
BANGOR AND AROOSTOOK 22
BURLINGTON REFRIGERATOR EXPRESS 32
CANADIAN NATIONAL 38
CANADIAN PACIFIC 59
CARTIER 64
CHICAGO FREIGHT CAR LEASING 13
CUDAHY CAR LINE 50
DANVILLE INDUSTRIES 20
FRUIT GROWERS EXPRESS 52
GENERAL AMERICAN TRANSPORTATION 9
GRAND TRUNK WESTERN 64
GREEN BAY AND WESTERN 64
MERCHANTS DISPATCH TRANSIT 44
NATIONAL CAR 33
NORTH AMERICAN CAR 54
NORTH WESTERN REFRIGERATOR LINE 60
NORTHERN PACIFIC 43
NORTHERN REFRIGERATOR LINE 21
PACIFIC FRUIT EXPRESS 16
PACKERS CAR LINE 18
SAINT LOUIS REFRIGERATOR CAR 36
SAN LUIS CENTRAL 62
UNION REFRIGERATOR TRANSIT 24
WEST INDIA FRUIT AND STEAMSHIP 50
WESTERN FRUIT EXPRESS 39
WESTERN REFRIGERATOR LINE 36
WILSON CAR LINE 15
Refrigerator cars (reefers for short) are usually the most colorful cars in any consist. The heavy use of the citrus colors, orange and yellow, for heat reflective purposes, psychologically makes our eyes gravitate to them, over the usually less-colorful, rectangular-shaped box, stock and hopper cars. (I know our eyes are naturally more sensitive to these electromagnetic frequencies, since they are the frequencies of light most transmitted by our sun.) I suspect we maintain a special respect for these cars because we subliminally understand they are most frequently hauling our food supply, which is certainly the most important commodity of all. Reefers haul anything that is perishable, when exposed to extremes of heat or cold.
Most of the approximately 40' long refrigerator cars featured in this work were cooled by ice or were insulated and bunkerless. Some were cooled by mechanical refrigeration. Ice, depending on the design of the car's bunker and the nature of the specific cargo, was used in either the crushed, course or chunk form. Mechanically refrigerated cars, which made up about 17% of all reefers in 1966, are usually powered by a diesel-electric motor. The refrigerant is cooled and circulated by means of a condenser, a compressor and an evaporator with a fan. Other fans move the chilled air around the cargo. Dehumidification is accomplished in the evaporator by means of electric coils. All this equipment is regulated by means of a thermostat. Today, reefers can move more easily in mixed manifest consists with no need for lengthy frequent stops for another load of ice. In the past, reefers moved in long blocks for easier handling at the long icing platforms.
According to the Yearbook of Railroad Facts for 1966, there were 36,922 reefers operated by the railroads and another 68,000 by private owners. Reefers made up 5.8% of the total freight car fleet.
It is noted in an article of Trains Magazine, published in 1949, that the specific origin of the refrigerator car cannot be ascertained with any certainty. It sort of evolved through the efforts of many individuals. The idea for a refrigerated car developed in the 1840's. The first documented refrigerated shipment, composed of butter, was made in 1851. Gustavis Swift, whose name became a household word in meat, developed cars to handle beef around the time of the Civil War. At one time, the car sides were used as rolling billboards for a variety of products. In order to promote fairness and honesty, the Interstate Commerce Commission, in the 1930's, required the cars to exclusively carry on the inside any specific product mentioned on the outside. This resulted in the development of the somewhat less colorful cars we have today. It's too bad those "billboard" reefers met their demise before the public's access to Kodachrome.
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