What’s in the reefers? I already know the basics, like apples, potatoes, onions, canned goods, etc., but would they haul things like oranges, (water)melons, or bananas? How often do they haul meat by rail?
Sure! Apples, Bananas, Celery, Grapes, Oranges etc. Meat too. You want em swinging hook hanging cadavers or boxed? Now Watermelons tend to go by Covered wagon, easier to load or unload but we can take them in reefers on pallets too.
Anything you see in the food store that requires temperature protection goes in a reefer.
We even handled paint and other goods that need to be protected from freezing. There are even chemicals that need to stay below a temperature from time to time.
I dont know about you but it’s lunch time!
Here in Dallas, they have a place called cold storage, where MCDonalds brings in there boxes of fries and everything thing else, and they are in reeferes.
There are even certain Steels that have to be kept above a certain tempature so it will not rust. Medical supplies are huge for being hauled tempature controlled. Try caring a load that is Flammable if it gets above -10 that was fun. Was packed in DRY ICE and Reefer unit was set to -20 below.
You don’t see much meat being shipped by rail anymore, and I’m pretty sure the era of the swinging cadavers is over (you won’t find the reefers equipped with meat rails any more). The meat (fish is more common than other meats) is usually shipped frozen now.
Cheese is a biggie–and, as I’ve said before, I’ve seen more of it being shipped into Wisconsin than out. (I should check the waybills–maybe it goes to haberdasheries[;)].)
Orange juice–they do a lot of that out of Florida.
Bananas–haven’t seen those lately, but they were really big on the IC for a long time (we have a couple of Forum members who have told tales about that). As for watermelons, they used to be shipped in “ventilator” cars–no insulation, just openings in the doors to keep the interiors from overheating.
I see a bit of “frozen vegetables”–they’re not often specified, but just about anything that has to stay frozen is safe to take by rail. Frozen fruit is also seen, though not as much.
The biggest fresh commodities we see are apples, onions, and potatoes. But we’ve also seen oranges, lemons, limes, cherries, pears, broccoli, lettuce, and probably a few others.
We had to disguise the load of asparagus we took through Nebraska a couple of months ago.
Also lately (and I hope I’m not giving anything away), I’ve seen loads of “scions” going through. I had to check that out, and they’re live nursery plantings!
I think, with the current generation of mechanical reefers, temperature control is probably better than it has ever been–it can now be monitored and controlled remotely. Each commodity has to be kept at its specific temperature, and each one is different. I am pretty sure that a combination of ice, salt, and fans couldn’t do it as precisely.
You mentioned canned goods. They don’t need the refrigeration as much as they may need insula
We had one of those that got turned off down in Atlanta some years ago. Apparently the roar of the reefer in the high side cooling angered a sleepy next truck over and he flipped the unit off and went back to bed.
I didnt stay around to see what happened next, it was past time to get some miles away from there.
My company was smart they coded the units so only the drivers codechange or shut the units off. Of course the sad thing was the code was the trailer number but it was enough to make sure no one screwed with the loads.
Chuckle, chuckle!! Very clever reply CShaveRR. Even a native cheesehead got a laugh out of that one. I think most of the cheese gets shipped to Door County so that our beloved neighbors to the South have something to eat every weekend of the summer 
Back to the original topic: There used to be an Ore-Ida french fry factory (perhaps better stated Frozen Potato product factory) near Plover, WI (Wisc. Rapids area) on the Green Bay and Western, later WC, now CN. They grow a lot of potatoes on that part of the state. The shipped out frozen product by rail. It came though Green Bay in Mech Reefers. I’m not sure if they’re still running. Seems like Americold Corp was somehow involved too. In the GB&W era, We’d also see loads of fresh carrots and some other produce coming inbound into Green Bay for the local canning company. Most of the canned product shipped out in the summer, so they went in standard boxcars.
two loads of onions in the yard right now - these are last fall’s crop. This year’s crop is about 6 inches tall.
dd
Carl, I’m curious, why did you have to disguise the load of asparagus. Is it illegal to ship asparagus in Nebraska?
Dick
Texas Chief
There is a forum member in Nebraska that REALLY hates asparagus.
Around here, they ship “fresh frozen fruit products”, cheese, butter, carrots, carrot products, potatoes, oranges, orange products (perhaps juice), possibly canteloupes, and possibly other commodities I may have forgotten. I would say that carrots and potatoes are the biggest commodities.
I have heard that Smuckers ships some of their products by rail but I cannot confirm that. Some reefers will come into the area loaded (I think that RBLs coming in loaded with beer or leaving loaded with wine is ironic). I do not know what they are carrying, perhaps meat. The article in the July Trains about the local that switches the northern part of the San Francisco peninsula said that there are two companies there that receive meat by rail.
If you want to include RBLs as reefers (which is what they are classified as), then the list will grow.
Guess I should have put “winky” after that line, too!
She enjoyed it, by the way. (The line, not the load.)
Hopefully at an extremely high markup…got to have some compensation for all of the negative stuff they bring with them.
“beloved neighbors”…that was a good one! [(-D]
IT SHOULD BE!!!
I never knew that ASPARUGUS was considered hazmat![(-D]
On the major WSOR derailment in February: The news said that two of the derailed reefers were full of butter.
The diet police were ecstactic!
matt and i saw csx q91 this afternoon with empties going west(did contact carl as well).the maumee and western get alot of reefer cars from csx for cambells in napoleon.
stay safe
Joe
Is that the one where they take great pains to count every [censored] can in the facility? It seems to me that I had 3 pairs of eyes on me anywhere near those cans at all times.
Ohhhh, if you eat enough of it, you can definitely get to the haz-mat stage the next day… particularly of the airborne type though potentially hazardous to your porcelain as well.