In some used stuff I picked up is an old Trains-Miniature 40’ wood reefer. It is painted for North American Dispatch(NADX 3054) - With large ‘F R I G I C A R’ lettering and below that ‘Mechanical Transit Refrigeration’. This is a 40’ wood car with steel ends, ice bunkers, and is painted yellow with oxide roof/ends. I sort of wrote off the car as the usual ‘Foobie’ cars. A quick search on the Internet found a diagram of a wood reefer with the same lettering!
Both my 1949 & 1961 ORER’s list only 36’ meat reefers with that number range. Anybody have any additional info on these cars? I am starting to suspect they were a series of cars with various additional mechanical features like:
- Fans for ventilation service
- Extra insulation
- An early ammonia refrigeration system that replaced the brine tank system for sub zero meat cooling
Anybody have pictures of these cars?
Jim
From The Great Yellow Fleet by John H. White c1986 pg 112-113
Early mechanical reefeer “Frigicar” first car entered service in June 1925. By 1932 there were 40 more all operated by North American Dispatch Line.
Axel driven ammonia ice machine, large brine tank, roof mounted condensor. System worked, but car type a failure because initial cost made it non competitive with ice cars.
Thanks for the info. I did find some more info on the Steam freight Car List as well. Most of the cars were 40’ cars built/converted in 1929 and were gone by WWII. They were numbered in the 3000 range, which was later used by the 36’ meat reefers I did find in the 1949 ORER. So far I have found no good pictures of the ends of these cars to see what the ‘equipment’ looks like. One source mentions a lack of bunkers, but another is not too clear. There was even a variation proposed that could be lifted off of the chassis(eary container?). The technology was really not there yet, and with the depression - a lot of stored cars as well.
So, I guess this is another ‘foobie’ car to be stripped and repainted - or available for someone else to buy at the next swap meet!
Jim