I model the PRR and have an ice platform and facility for PFE reefers. Question is did any west coast rail lines with their name on their engines (.Santa Fe, UP, WP etc.) ever come to the east coast or at least to Pennsylvania with their reefers?
Yes and no.
By the end of the PRR there were some run through moves where western engines may have operated on the PRR.
Having said that, an entire train of reefers running in tact with cars and power all the way from the west coast to the east coast would have been very rare. Most of the western roads would have interchanged with the PRR at Chicago and St Louis. The reefer trains weren’t necessarily “unit trains”, the cars all went to individual destinations so chances are many of the cars would have had to be switched and reblocked at the gateway. The chances that the ATSF in Los Angeles would build an entire train of cars going to the perishable market at Philadelphia is low.
Typically, pershables were sold and shipped on consignment, thus the ultimate destination could change mutliple times enroute, blocking & re-blocking were common outside the gateway as well with each road providing the power during the transion era , SP had packing districts in California named New York, St. Louis, KC, Phillidelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Brownsville, New Orleans to facaliate routing.
From what I know of PRR operations, it appears they did not move solid blocks of PFE reefers, choosing to block into smaller units, I speculate this was due to markets geographically close to each other.
Dave
PRR ran a solid PFE reefer train off the Logansport Sub to Columbus and on to the East coast…This was solid PRR power until the mid 60s and UP engines could be seen on occasions trailing a PRR GP30 or GP35…Some times a U25B would be the lead unit…
As a side note this train would be iced and refueled in Columbus as late as '63/64…
I can`t remember what kind of traffic was on these trains but I do remember that CB&Q engines were pooled with NYC engines on trains . They were on trains that ran into Boston on the Boston&Albany line of the NYC system. It seemed this was almost a daily event in the mid to late 1960s.
Ron High
the Q engines must have come out of Chicago. to my knowledge there was only one regular run through of foreign power through the St Louis gateway and that was SSW. after the merger we ran a train with Cotton Belt or SP power combined with ours. it operated between Avon (Indianapolis) and Pine Bluff Ark. To my knowledge, it carried no perishable.
the PRR and later PC got a perishable block termed the Cotton Belt Hot. it came of the TRRA around midnight and was forwarded primarily on SW-6 (Enola) and NY-6 (Selkirk) that delivery would often total 50 or more cars.
Prior to the merger in 68, the NYC got a cut called the Bridge Hot out of CD on the TRRA. it had perishable from western connections and also fresh meat from NS yds and occasionally draft beer from Anheuser Busch in St Louis. This cut was primarily East Coast traffic and ran on the head end of the Selkirk block on NY-6 around 1:30 am. anything in this delivery that was not classed Selkirk perishable ran in the Avon block (hump fodder for Indpls)
Perishable traffic ran on the head end of these hot trains as a matter of coincidence since it was the last traffic received in interchange before these trains were made up. It was also convenient to have all the reefers together for inspection and icing en route if necessary.
By the time perishable traffic gets far enough east, it is no longer feasable to run it all in a solid block because there are too many different destinations. Unlike the western roads who run it primarity from the producing regions to their eastern connections often over a thousand miles away.
Now for a little insight into some railroad lunacy. After the PC merger, the powers in the Holy City put out a directive in the form of a letter that read in essence as follows.
"Cotton Belt Hot due Rose Lake around midnight must forward on head end of NY-6 and SW-6 (1:30 and 2:30 am) without fail. Late arrival of