Hello. I’m trying to get an idea of what refrigerator cars might be seen in Georgia, Alabama & South Carolina in the mid fifties. There seems to be little on the internet (or I’m looking in the wrong places). I did, of course look on this forum. The only cars that I know would have been seen were the West India Fruit ones that originated in Florida. Would reefers from other RR’s with large fleets be seen there? ATSF for example?
thank you
Steve
There were two major companies that would have been used Fruit Growers Express was one. Their cars were burnt orange. Don’t recall the other one. ATSF cars would be labeled return to sender when empty and would carry produce from the Imperial Valley in California
SFRD and PFE cars could be seen anyplace people ate fruit and vegetables from the Southwest.
FGE built cars here in Alexandria VA specifically because of the north-south traffic that ran on the east coast.
As far as I’m aware, the Fruit Growers Express cars were mostly yellow, with the roof and ends painted boxcar red…
And depending on the era, you might see any of these, too…
Wayne
Thank you all so much for the information. I thought I would be able to rely on this forum. I hadn’t heard of Fruit Growers Express before so will start looking for appropriate models. In the meantime it looks like my 2 SFRD reefers won’t be out of place
thank you
Steve
Steve,
Your SFRD cars would never be out of place in the mid 1950s southeastern U.S. Although Fruit Growers Express cars dominated the shipment of perishables from that region, to the northeast and midwest, the cars of the other large refrigerator car owners, were not strangers to the region.
Fruit Growers Express was closely allied with the Great Northern Railway’s refrigerator car arm, Western Fruit Express to the extent that the GN’s goat herald rode on cars built for WFE in FGE’s Alexandria, Virginia shops. Also a major player in southern perishable movement was the American Refrigerator Transit, a joint operation formed by the Missouri Pacific and, the Wabash Railroads. The MoPac had an extensive network of lines serving the produce growing Rio Grande valley south of San Antonio, Texas. MoPac was also a major player from New Orleans, Louisiana up through Arkansas to St. Louis and, Kansas City, Missouri. Spinach from Crystal City, Texas, probably rode ART cars to Atlanta.
You already have SFRD cars which blanketed the nation, often coupled to the cars of the jointly owned, Pacific Fruit Express. The orange cars with the Southern Pacific and , Union Pacific heralds carried west coast produce to the far reaches of both the United States and, Canada. A reefer from either Canadian National or, Canadian Pacific showing up in the American south is a “run get the camera” moment.
Other smaller players who did show up south of the Mason-Dixon line included the Illinois Central Railroad’s fleet of reefers that primarily hauled bananas from the piers of New Orleans to the upper midwest (Chicago). New York Central was the principal behind the Merchants Despatch Transit which built ice reefers in their East Rochester, New York, Despatch Shops and leased them to other eastern railroads including of course, the NYC
Thank you so much for this. Lots of really useful information there, should keep me busy for quite a while. I was already aware of the Trainlife magazine collection & have used it numerous times although I didn’t think to search for refrigerator lines.
The RMJ article on FGE/WFE reefers means I probably don’t need to look for further information about FGE, it seems to cover everything. I will be reading the other articles you referred to as well. RMJ articles are always worth reading. As it happens, I am more interested in the produce traffic than meat.
I hadn’t thought about FGE being outbound from the South & others inbound. Would FGE handle shipments within the Southeast? If so, based on what you wrote, would you see any available reefer?
regards
Steve
Steve,
Fruit Growers Express was a consortium of mostly eastern railroads that included the Pennsylvania, New Haven, Baltimore and Ohio, Norfolk and Western, Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line, Louisville and Nashville and, Southern Railway, among its member roads. Like Trailer Train and, Railbox, the member roads were considered “home” for FGE cars. In otherwords, they could use FGE cars freely, just like their own cars.
The region from Boston to Virginia was industrial and very densely populated in the mid 1950s. The agricultural base of the region could never provide the food required to provision the area. With its longer growing season, the agricultural south was the source of much of the produce consumed in the north. FGE members Southern, Atlantic Coast Line, and the Seaboard funneled this traffic to the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad via Potomac Yard in Alexandria Virginia. The Pennsy served the metro areas of Wilmington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark NJ, and New York. The New Haven completed the route to Boston and all of these roads were FGE members.
Because different crops require different soil compositions and climatic conditions, things that did not grow well in the southeast may come from other regions of the U.S. This would bring lettuce in PFE or Santa Fe reefers from California, or apples from Washington in Northern Pacific cars, or Idaho potatoes in Western Fruit Express cars, into the southeast. These “foreign” cars would usually go to produce houses in the cities and larger towns.
Due to the perishable nature of produce traffic, short hauls by rail were rare. Even on a 500 mile trip, a truck would handily beat the train, even in the mid '50s. Piggyback was in its infancy at this time and the boxcar was stiil king.
As far as the use of other t
Even more information! How do you find all this stuff? One point sticks out for me. I model a branch line in the mid fifties with a grocery wholesaler in town. So the question is, if SFRD, PFE & others went to produce houses in the cities & larger towns would the last leg of the journey “down the branch” be in a reefer at all? Or by truck? Would you see reefers on the branch & if so, whose reefers? Presumably not the SFRD or PFE ones that brought the suff from the other side of the country
regards
Steve
Keep in mind the products like citrus fruits from the Southwest were primarily going to the Midwest - Kansas City, Chicago, Twin Cities, etc. Eastern seaboard cities like Philadelphia, New York, Boston would be getting their citrus from Florida since it was a lot closer. Not saying Santa Fe cars wouldn’t be seen in the East, far from it. But they would be outnumbered by cars from the eastern/southeastern roads.
A lot of information is contained in books such as Kalmbach Publishing’s “Produce Traffic and Trains”. Another must have for one interested in refrigerator cars and the traffic they serve is; “The Great Yellow Fleet” by John H. White, Golden West Books, ISBN 0-87095-091-6. If those books don’t satisfy your interest in reefers, “Pacific Fruit Express” by Anthony W. Thompson, Robert J. Church, and Bruce H. Jones, Signature Press, ISBN 1930013-03-5 covers not only the cars but also the shops, icing facilities, the crops, the regions they were hauled from, where they went, everything-basically from field to table and PFE’s part in the journey. It is not a cheap book, it is an investment to be repeatedly referred to if you have any interest in produce reefer traffic. The Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society has addressed the Santa Fe Refrigerator Department with two definitive titles covering SFRD’s ice and mechanical cars. Check them out at www.sfrhms.org “American Refrigerator Transit” by Stuart T. Maher, G.J. Michaels Jr and Gene Semon, Signature Press, ISBN 9781930013377 and “Merchants Despatch Transit”, a now out of print title by Signature Press, provide in-depth insight into their title subjects.
The defunct magazines from what I feel was the apex of prototype information for the railroad modeler, provided knowledge and information of what, why, and how the prototype did what it did. One title not available at trainlfe.com is “Mainline Modeler” magazine by Hundman Publications. MM focused more on the prototype than someone else’s model railroad. Their articles ranged from in depth coverage of such diverse subjects as Greenville 86 foot auto parts boxcars to types of building windows, to different species of trees. Fortunately for modelers who missed out on the 1980-2006
Once again, thank you (& others who responded). I do like to find out about the “why” as well as the “what” of freight traffic in general. I’ve picked up quite a bit of information about different industries as part of the hobby, not just what they produce but where they produce it and find the research a rewarding part of model railroading. Looking at this forum it’s clear I’m not the only one
regards
Steve