I learned awhile back that when the Santa Fe transported onions out of Colorado in reefers (1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s), and if it was above freezing, they would open the roof hatches about halfway to circulate air. I thought it would be an interesting modeling note. I hope somebody find’s this useful.
Definately intereseting, but not my part of the country. Can you explain further why they did this?
All that was said is that they did this to keep air circulating through the car. I did not read anywhere as to if these cars were iced or not. I suppose if they weren’t, the air circulation would keep the little buggers cool.
They may have been concerned about midlew and rot. There would have been a lot of condensation inside those reefers due to the onions low in the pile being crushed and weeping juice. That would be my guess.
The Pere Marquette and C&O did the same thing when hauling onions and celery out of west and mid-Michigan in that era.
I’ve been planning to arrange my operating sessions to reflect the fruit and vegetable harvests at various times of the year in order to justify potentially large numbers of extra trains to support the produce traffic. A year or two ago, the Operations SIG published in its newsletter a list of the harvest seasons for various types of seasonal produce the railroads handled.