I like the fine job Branchline did with their Northwestern Refrigerator Line Co. series of reefers. I also like the price of these kits. I would like to know if these cars, with their railroad-owned (?) logos, ever served in interchange with other RRs and would they have been seen on eastern RRs. I freelance an eastern RR and would like to have some of these cars in my reefer mix. Can anyone help me?
Yes they would interchange and yes they could be seen on eastern roads.
I would think they would be more likely to be mixed in a “regular” freight train and less likely to be in a solid reefer train. The CNW didn’t serve an area that would generate a train load of reefers so most of the cars would be traveling as onesy-twosey shipments, rather than a solid block like those out of California, Texas or Florida.
when i worked at E St Louis, the TRRA would deliver a cut of perishable loads to us late every night. most of these cars came from western connections but some were of local origin. the delivery came to us after the cars had been iced at the large Terminal Railroad ice house on the East side and would consist of a mixed gaggle of different ownership with PFE cars off the Cotton Belt being predominate.
since we held the outbound train until this traffic arrived it would by default wind up as two perishable blocks in train NY-6. dewitt’s on the head end of the train and everything else on top of the avon block. it would contain everything from fresh meat to dry loads of onions. there would be cars of many different owners with the only thing in common being that they were all perishable loads.
after the PC merger, we would often receive upwards of 50 cars of perishable traffic in this delivery from the TRRA. the bulk of these cars went out on the head end of NY-6 (selkirk) and SW-6 (enola) with the other classes just run mixed in with others cars in that particular block.
grizlump
I believe Pacific Fruit Express (PFE), a company owned jointly by the SP and UP, had the largest number of reefers for a long time, so you should acquire a few of them.
Mark
My supposedly-educated guess-- private owned reefers and reefers from western railroads would interchange to be delivered by eastern railroads. On the other hand, reefers from COMPETING AND PARALLEL Eastern lines would be less likely to appear on another eastern line, ie NYC reefer on PRR.
A little while back there was a link to some older railroad photos showing some of the yards. I remember one from the Boston area that had a few refrigerator cars. Some were Pacific Fruit Express and there was at least one Santa Fe car. There were other Eastern photos with Northern Pacific cars and probably others. So there was a lot of interchanging going on.
I appreciate the response. Thanks for the information. Looking forward to including them in my roster.
Not exactly…A NYC reefer could be on the Erie or PRR or the other way around.
A meat packer in Chicago loads a reefer on(say) the NYC for Romain’s Meat processors in Lancaster,Ohio on the PRR…NYC will interchange this car with PRR since Romains is located on PRR.Now let’s say the meat was loaded in PRR reefer for Charleston,W.Va for a customer on the NYC…PRR would hand that car to the NYC for final delivery.
Even if that car was going to New York City that car could be interchange if the customer was on the NYC or PRR…
Most likely the NW Refrigerator Line owned the car and leased it to the CNW. The US gov’t required (under T Roosevelt) that railroads had to divest themselves of their reefer lines, so they set up private companies which were in fact still connected to the railroad, but was legally an arm’s-length agreement.
Although a reefer would be more likely to be used in a regular operation from point A to point B, it wouldn’t be that unusual to see a reefer car anywhere. It could depend on the season and where the car was needed too…for example New York Central used to send reefers to the Northern Pacific during certain times of the year, and NP would send cars east for NYC to use in other times.
I’m thinking that reefers could end up anywhere, on any road at almost any time during the perishable season.
Out here on the West Coast, the two largest reefer companies were the SP/UP Pacific Fruit Express company (also leased to Western Pacific) and the Santa Fe. But it was not uncommon to see exchange cars from as far away as Maine (BAR), or as far north as Great Northern, Milwaukee or Northern Pacific. One could even see midwestern refrigerator cars from Burlington, ART (Missouri Pacific/Wabash), C&NW and MDT (New York Central). When the perishable season happened in California, generally from late spring to late fall, refrigerator cars from almost any railroad could be seen intermixed with solid blocks of PFE or SFRD cars heading to eastern markets.
As many as 10-12 ‘fruit blocks’ would move east over the Southern Pacific Donner Pass line per day at the height of the produce season, and not all of them were PFE reefers. Not by a long shot. In fact, as a kid, I enjoyed watching those reefer trains in the Sierra almost better than a mixed freight. You had NO idea whose railroad was going to be included in those long lines of reefers. [:P]
Tom [:)]
A less known contributor to preferance concerned door width, PFE used a 6 foot opening for the wood and early steel fleet long after wider door openings became standard, some shippers refused the narrow doors or vice versa depending on loading dock capacity and the extent of mechanical loading/unloading aka forklift or conveyors.
Dave
I did see one in Toronto, Ontario, back in 1971, so that is at least one sighting in the east. I only ever saw the one, but that might also be because I didn’t spend a lot of time beside that particular line. It was on a local transfer so I have no idea whether it was interchanged to CPR at Detroit or Buffalo (to be picky, Windsor or Hamilton). Stencilling stated It was built (or rebuilt) in 1931.
John
