I have 7 Old Time wood billboard reefers
4 of them --Hershey’s–Cracker Jack–Land O Lakes --Heintz 57 do not have any build date etc info
Is this a oversight on the part of the manufacturer or did they actually come that way
mostly they came that way,
Thanks for the reply
If memory serves…
Most of the 36’ cars were built in the early 1900’s and the colorful “Billboards” were a bit later, maybe by the later teens and the twenties.
As I’ve stated “IF” and I’m not sure 100%. No matter though, they were a colorful addition to our railroading history!
The 3 with build dates ar are as follows :
PA Dairy Products —2-06
Hormel—1-36
Budweiser—5-12
Hormel seems awfully late but that is what is has
Generally 36’ cars were built between about 1890-1910, the biggest exception being cars used in meat service. Many meat packing plants were set up with freight doors spaced to serve a string of 36’ cars, so even when 40’ cars became standard in other uses, they still needed 36’ cars. That’s why you’ll see steel underframe 36’ Swift, Hormel etc. cars into the fifties or sixties when other 36’ cars had been retired.
“Billboard” reefers were around in the 1890’s to 1920’s, they were basically banned from interchange service in the mid/late 1930’s.
I’m not sure when the regulations came in requiring what data had to be on a car, and in what location it had to be in, but I would guess maybe around 1920 or so. Before that it was pretty much up to the railroad or car owner / leasee to determine what data they felt was needed.
It all depends, on several different factors.
First, and most importantly, what DATE are you modeling? Pick a single year and stick with it.
Before 1893, there were absolutely NO rules concening car lettering. In 1893, the Master Car Builder’s Association set a “recommended practice”, suggesting reporting marks, road numbers, herald placement, and loading capacity ONLY. In 1901, the MCBA set a “standard” which further suggested lettering placement, and which added a few lines of dimensional data. In 1920 the ARA set the first enforcable stencilling standard. The standard was revised in 1926 to the spencilling standard that we’re all used to, and which has been around for almost 85 years (with minor “tweaking” over the years).
In 1934, the ICC banned “billboard” paint schemes on freight cars. By 1935 no new cars were to be painted in billboard schemes, and by 1938 all billboard cars were banned from interchange.
Wood freight cars had an average service life of 20-25 years (AVERAGE; some certainly did last far longer). Before modern paint technology (late 1950s) freight cars were repainted on average of every 7-12 years.
So…assuming that the base paint scheme, as applied by the manufacturer, is generally correct (and I have doubts about several of them) then yes; the lack of most dimensional and loading data CAN be correct for those paint schemes, depending on which YEAR you’re modeling. If you’re modeling before 1901 you’re in the clear; if you’re modeling between 1901 and 1920 the lettering MIGHT be
Generally, 36 foot cars were built between 1870 and 1916.
One of the largest model railroading myths around, right after the whole “Roman road = 4’ 8-1/2” standard gauge" thing.
The on average 36 foot length had to do with insulating properties of the car, and the limitations of cooling of brined (salted) ice. A given amount of ice added to ice bunkers in a freight car could only drop the temperature of the air in the car by so many degrees for so long. Meat needs to be kept far cooler for longer than produce, which is why there were so many short reefers running for so long. Wood was used because at the time, it was a better insulator than anythign else available affordably. By the time mechanical refrigeration was being widely adopted for railroad use, the meat shipping industry was moving away from rails and towards mechanically-refrigerated trucks in a huge way. Why would car leasing companies invest in dying shipping mode when the “antique” cars would suffice? (note that there were some new, 40’ steel meat reefers being built in the 1950s and EARLY 1960s; the so-called “belt rail” cars being the most common)
Why would a destination point for a meat reefer care about 36’ cars? They all had to have ramps dropped wherever the cars were; it’s easy enough to move a dolly a little to the right or left when moving a side of beef. Moreover, take a look at the actual lengths of meat reefers: in 1930 they ranged anywhere from 29 feet to 44 feet in overall outside length, with no “standard” length a
I also have 9 looks like about 40 foot Billboard Reefers
Several have dates past 1935 including 51 and 42
As far as what year I model --I have a generic layout with no period buildings etc
It is my own line that originated right after WWI and I run from right after WWI till 70s
I run 2 trains at a time --the years depicted depend on what engines and consists I have loaded up at any given time
Most house cars (boxcars, reefers, stockcars) built between c. 1870-1890 would have been 34’ cars.
It’s been well documented (books, magazines etc.) that the reason cars shorter than 40’ continued in use in meat service long after the shorter cars were obsolete elsewhere was because the buildings (packing plants etc.) they served had been built with door spacings to accomodate the then (c.1900-1910) shorter standard car length. Yes, if you have two 40’ cars you could adjust things to allow both to be unloaded, but if you have a cut of 12 40’ cars, and a building spaced for 36’ cars, it doesn’t work.
True. But we weren’t talking about “most”. 36-footers were in production during the Civil War, and were common by 1870 (maybe not “typical”, but common enough to not be noticed any more. Remember the early 1990s after the “OMG it’s a Porsche!” craze died down?)
Well documented, and wrong. Read Dr. Hendrickson’s billboard reefer book, and his subsequent writings on reefer usage (as well as Thompson’s PFE reefer book). Length has nothing to do with building doors, but everything to do with the mechanics of cooling the air inside the reefer. Using the logic that freight car size was dictated by building door spacing, we’d have been building 36 foot long PS-1 boxcars in 1962…