Or maybe the better question is “why don’t regular boxcars have such steps?”
Going from the 36ft wooden reefer of post WWI (and maybe earlier), up to the latest 21st century reefers from Trinity, it looks like some sort of stirrup step is located below the door on either side - some are/were simple “U” shapes, some were more involved like the inverted trapezoids with additional horizontal rung ala the old-school PFE R70-20 reefer; in any case, there is a step.
But as “house cars” (does anyone even use that term anymore?) go, why did/do reefers have them, and boxcars normally didn’t? If you’re going to say “in case the reefers are unloaded at a site with no high-level loading dock”, aren’t boxcars just as likely, if not more so, to be spotted at ground level team tracks/transfer yards for unloading?
I was thinking maybe the “complexity” of the plug doors (vs sliding door) needed a step for the crew to open the doors when unloading at ground level, but images of prototype plugdoor boxcars do not show any such steps - except for several 40ft boxcars with grain loading doors from the 1950s/1960s. Other than that, nothing really…
Regular boxcar doors can be opened and closed from ground level. In order to be sure they’re shut really tight, reefers had/have a latching mechanism partway up the car. Unless someone was unusually tall, I don’t think they could reach it easily from the ground.
I agree, that would certainly seem to be the case for the older wooden reefer styles, but as I mentioned post 1950s Mechanical Reefers seem to have been fitted with plug-doors from nearly the start , and they have door steps. However regular plug door boxcars, which seem to have similar types of latching mechanism, do not have such steps - and this is over a period of 50+ years I’m talking about.
I’m with you C, I have the newest Trinity Refers and they all have steps. Why is that? Especially since my ARMN cars travel in units from the West coast to Rotterdam NY and are off loaded as a unit in a big warehouse by forklifts. It seems like the cars are always at dock height and there would be no need for a step at the door.
Kyle and Frank are both right. Reefers tend to be regularly inspected en route for several reasons. Gov’t inspectors are one reason, but probably less so than others. Some loads are top-iced and the load needs to be seen to evaluate whether that needs renewed. Temperature checks are an even more common task. And many reefers are loaded at the packing plant and sent toward urban destinations with the contents unsold. Brokers and potential buyers both may need to inspect the load.
IIRC, the steps became a AAR or some other requirement at a certain point in the past, which is why the steps are ubiquitous on reefers.
OK, I see a consensus forming that people need to access the reefer for inspection during it’s journey, not just at the loading/unloading docks. I agree that door steps do facilitate such access.
I can certainly image this in the glorious days of long strings of orange wood PFE ice-reefers crossing the nation, but have problems believing there would be a need for a lot of such inspection in the era of Mechanical Reefers (say 1960 and later), let alone the modern era Mech Reefers like the TrinCools which probably transmit their status wireless for remote monitoring.
Even nowadays in the 21st century? What’s the need, Mech Reefers should be able to pre-cool the entire load nicely? Is that a hold-over from the 1980s, when Mech Reefers seemed on their way to becoming a sad after thought, like livestock cars?
For whatever reason, I always thought Mech Reefers had external thermometers (I certainly recall them on the Athern R70-20 models), and you know the the Mech Reefers built (or rebuilt) since the 1990s must have temperature sensors and the like. In other words, no reason for anyone to open the door.
OK, this one hadn’t occured to me, and makes the most sense of all reasons.
This one I can readily believe too.
Hmm, inspection for buyers and government agents, yes.
Existing regulation from back in the day, yes.
Top icing? Hmm
Temperature checks, I’m skeptical…
A couple of years back someone posted a link to a very old video of the rail yards in Chicago I believe. It followed inspectors and buyers going around the yard going in and out of these cars. It was quite interesting to watch. Maybe if that person is out there they could re-post the link.[~]
I have read on that wiki article (actually I’ve been on many rail-related wiki, and edited a few of them), but now that you mentioned it, I took another look and found two things mentioned that correspond to what I said in my previous meandering post above…
Still didn’t mention anything about the door steps, though
I’ve always found railroad refrigerator cars (especially Mechanical ones) interesting and have read much about them over the years. I came of age in the 1980s when rail refrigerator service was on the decline. Luckily, by the 1990s they were seriously building and rebuilding new refrigerator cars for new and revitalized traffic flows (still, reefers are a small percentage of the total N.A. railcar fleet, which is rather dominated by covered hoppers - and I see the wiki article did mention the experimental refrigerated covered hoppers…)
When I get a chance,I will do a little digging…I have a lot of,History Channel,DVD’s,with about 20 hrs,of,20,30,40’s in Chgo and other big cities,The problem,is they are too long to post on the Forums…Unless,I can take some 5 or ten minute copies…If I can I will surely post them…I’ll have to ask my PC Wizard son,when comes home tomorrow. [tup]
I remember the link took us to a web site that was kind of like a Shorpy site except it was for movies. I watched a bunch of other stuff on it as well. So interesting. I can’t believe I didn’t book mark it.[D)]
I’ll do some digging,I think I saw what you are talking about…As far as saving things go,and a new happening on my part,a year ago I put in my files,of how to completely rebuild a Athearn motor,I clicked on it the other day and received a message,the information saved,is no longer available,What??
My timeline stops in 1974, so I was primarily referring to iced reefers.
Knew about the top icing deal. last I remember (truck)loads with it is early 1980s. I’m pretty sure it was in use past the point when mech reefers dominated the fleet, so up to a certain point you would have mech reefer loads that were top iced. This wouldn’t be renewed enroute AFAIK after iced reefers went passe, but it would be something that might be checked if applied to a load.
Obviously, yeah, mech reefers have built in temp readouts. Sensor logs are a very recent development. At least until 1990 when I was no longer directly involved, large scale wholesale distributors generally placed small temp recorders in the load itself to monitor how well it was handled. These would be pulled on delivery and recycled. Not sure of the name of the outfit we used.
[2c] The high dollar loads,would not have any cheap,tin seals on them either,the ones you can cut with a pair of scissors, They would be the hardened steel cable seals,no way you can cut those with even,heavy duty side cutters,torch em,or a loop cable cutter…Not very many crooks carry those with them…
I can’t believe no one even mentioned the car cleaners! Reefers need cleaning after every load and not all clean out tracks have a platform. Any car that is to haul food for human consumption must be cleaned before it is loaded.
During seasonal operations reefers traveled in large blocks of cars. A few ladders would not due and crews needed access to many cars during a shift. Easier to have the ladders attached to the cars. Many clean out tracks were not conducive to holding a ladder vertical. Been there and done that. After a couple of weeks the knees were hurting and the shoulders were junk from climbing on them cars like a monkey. You would really be surprised at all the stuff you have to shovel out of them cars. This job had to be done quickly so the cars can be put off the road as fast as possible.