AY Honors/Model Railroad/Answer Key
A refrigerator car (or "reefer") is a refrigerated boxcar, a piece of railroad rolling stock designed to carry perishable freight at specific temperatures. Refrigerator cars differ from simple insulated boxcars and ventilated boxcars (commonly used for transporting fruit), neither of which are fitted with cooling apparati. Reefers can be ice-cooled, come equipped with any one of a variety of mechanical refrigeration systems, or utilize carbon dioxide (either as dry ice, or in liquid form) as a cooling agent. Milk cars (and other types of "express" reefers) may or may not include a cooling system, but are equipped with high-speed wheelsets and other modifications that allow them to travel with passenger trains.
History
Background
Following the end of the American Civil War, Chicago, Illinois emerged as a major railway center for the distribution of livestock raised on the Great Plains to Eastern markets. Getting the animals to market required herds to be driven distances of up to 1200 miles (2000 km) to railheads in Kansas City, Missouri, whereupon they were loaded into specialized stock cars and transported live ("on-the-hoof") to regional processing centers. Driving cattle across the plains also led to tremendous weight loss, and a number of animals were typically lost along the way.
Upon arrival at the local processing facility, livestock were either slaughtered by wholesalers and delivered fresh to nearby butcher shops for retail sale, smoked, or packed for shipment in barrels of salt. Certain costly inefficiencies were inherent in the process of transporting live animals by rail, particularly the fact that about sixty percent of the animal's mass is inedible. The death of animals weakened by the long drive further increased the per-unit shipping cost. Meat packer Gustavus Swift began looking for a way to ship dressed meats from his packing plant in Chicago to the East.
Early attempts at refrigerated transport
A number of attempts were made during the mid-1800s to ship [[agriculture| in ordinary boxcars ]] (GTR). The method proved to too limited to be practical.
[[Detroit, Michigan|
Swift's attempts to sell Chase's design to the major railroads were unanimously rebuffed, as the companies feared that they would jeopardize their considerable investments in stock cars, animal pens, and feedlots if refrigerated meat transport gained wide acceptance. In response, Swift financed the initial production run on his own, then — when the American roads refused his business — he contracted with the GTR (a railroad that derived little income from transporting live cattle) to haul the cars into Michigan and then eastward through Canada. In 1880, the Peninsular Car Company (subsequently purchased by ACF) delivered to Swift the first of these units, and the Swift Refrigerator Line (SRL) was created. Within a year the Line’s roster had risen to nearly 200 units, and Swift was transporting an average of 3,000 carcasses a week to Boston, Massachusetts. Competing firms such as Armour & Co. quickly followed suit. By 1920 the SRL owned and operated 7,000 of the ice-cooled rail cars; the General American Transportation Corporation would assume ownership of the line in 1930.
Live cattle and dressed beef deliveries to New York (tons):
| (Stock Cars) | (Refrigerator Cars) | |
| Year | Live Cattle | Dressed Beef |
| 1882 | 366,487 | 2,633 |
| 1883 | 392,095 | 16,365 |
| 1884 | 328,220 | 34,956 |
| 1885 | 337,820 | 53,344 |
| 1886 | 280,184 | 69,769 |
The subject cars travelled on the Erie, Lackawanna, New York Central, and Pennsylvania railroads.
Source: Railway Review, January 29, 1887, p. 62.
19th Century American Refrigerator Cars:
| Year | Private Lines | Railroads | Total |
| 1880 | 1,000 est. | 310 | 1,310 est. |
| 1885 | 5,010 est. | 990 | 6,000 est. |
| 1890 | 15,000 est. | 8,570 | 23,570 est. |
| 1895 | 21,000 est | 7,040 | 28,040 est. |
| 1900 | 54,000 est. | 14,500 | 68,500 est. |
Source: Poor's Manual of Railroads and ICC and U.S. Census reports.
Ice-cooled
A pre-1911 "shorty" reefer bears an advertisement for Anheuser-Busch's Malt Nutrine tonic. The use of similar "billboard" advertising on freight cars was banned by the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1937, and thereafter cars so decorated could no longer be accepted for interchange between roads.
- Pfe722.jpg
Pacific Fruit Express #722, an express-style refrigerator car designed to carry milk in stainless steel cans and other highly-perishable cargo at the head end of passenger train consists.
Mechanical refrigeration
In the latter half of the 20th century mechanical refrigeration began to replace ice-based systems. The mechanical refrigeration units proved their worth in replacing the "armies" of personnel that were no longer needed to re-ice the cars periodically.
- Cutaway PFE mechanical.jpg
A cutaway illustration of a conventional mechanical refrigerator car.
A modern refrigerator car: note the grill in the lower right where the mechanical refrigeration unit is housed.
- ARMN 110386 detail photo by JS Rybak @ Clarke Ontario Canada April 2005.jpg
State-of-the-art mechanical refrigerator car designs place the removable, end-mounted refrigeration unit outside of the freight compartment in order to facilitate access for servicing or replacement.
- Amtk74049.jpg
A modern mechanical refrigerator car, outfitted for high-speed service, bears the colors and markings of Amtrak Express, Amtrak's freight and shipping service.
Cryogenic refrigeration
During the 1990s, a few rail car manufacturers experimented with the use of liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) as a cooling agent. The move was in response to rising fuel costs, and was an attempt to eliminate the standard mechanical refrigeration systems that required periodic maintenance. Several hundred "cryogenic" refrigerator cars were placed into service transporting frozen foodstuffs, though they failed to gain wide acceptance.
Modern-day applications
Standard refrigerated transport is often utilized for good with less than 14 days of refrigerated "shelf life": avocados, cut flowers, green leafy vegetables, lettuce, mangos, meat products, mushrooms, peaches and nectarines, pineapples and papayas, sweet cherries, and tomatoes. "Express" reefers are typically employed in the transport of special perishables: commodities with a refrigerated shelf life of less than 7 days such as human blood, fish, green onions, milk, strawberries, and certain pharmaceuticals.
Tropicana "Juice Train"
In 1970, Tropicana orange juice was shipped in bulk via insulated boxcars in one weekly round-trip from Florida to Kearny, New Jersey. By the following year, the company was operating two 60-car unit trains a week, each carrying around 1 million gallons of juice. On June 7, 1971 the "Great White Juice Train" (the first unit train in the food industry, consisting of 150 100-ton insulated boxcars fabricated in the Alexandria, Virginia shops of Fruit Growers Express) commenced service over the 1,250-mile (2,012-kilometer) route. An additional 100 cars were soon incorporated into the fleet, and small mechanical refrigeration units were installed to keep temperatures constant on hot days. Tropicana saved $40 million in fuel costs alone during the first ten years in operation.
AAR classificatons
| Class | Description | Class | Description |
| RA | Brine-tank ice bunkers | RPB | Mechanical refrigerator with electro-mechanical axle drive |
| RAM | Brine-tank ice bunkers with beef rails | RPL | Mechanical refrigerator with loading devices |
| RAMH | Brine-tank with beef rails and heaters | RPM | Mechanical refrigerator with beef rails |
| RB | No ice bunkers — heavy insulation | RS | Bunker refrigerator — common ice bunker car |
| RBL | No ice bunkers and loading devices | RSB | Bunker refrigerator — air fans and loading devices |
| RBH | No ice bunkers — gas heaters | RSM | Bunker refrigerator with beef rails |
| RBLH | No ice bunkers — loading devices and heaters | RSMH | Bunker refrigerator with beef rails and heaters |
| RCD | Solid carbon-dioxide refrigerator | RSTC | Bunker refrigerator — electric air fans |
| RLO | Special car type — permanently-enclosed (covered hopper type) | RSTM | Bunker refrigerator — electric air fans and beef rails |
| RP | Mechanical refrigerator |
Source: The Great Yellow Fleet, p. 126.
References
- Boyle, Elizabeth and Rodolfo Estrada (1994) "Development of the U.S. Meat Industry" — Kansas State University Department of Animal Sciences and Industry.
- Kutner, Jon Jr "Swift and Company" — The Handbook of Texas Online.
- Swift & Company (1920) The Meat Packing Industry in America. Swift & Company, Chicago, Illinois.
- Thompson, Anthony W. et al. (1992). Pacific Fruit Express. Signature Press, Wilton, CA. ISBN 1-930013-03-5.
- White, John W. (1986). The Great Yellow Fleet. Golden West Books, San Marino, CA. ISBN 0-87095-091-6.
- White, Jr., John H. (1993). The American Railroad Freight Car. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland. ISBN 0-8018-5236-6.
See also
External links
- Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway #21335 — photo and short history of a steel-sheathed "billboard" car.
- "Coast to Coast" article by Richard Hendrickson at the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum official website.
- Fruit Growers Express Company #35832 — photos and short history of an example of the wooden ice-type "reefers" commonly placed in service between 1920 and 1940.
- Fruit Growers Express Company #56415 — photos and short history of an example of the wooden ice-type "reefers" used in the first half of the 20th century for shipping produce.
- Pacific Fruit Express Company #11207 — photo and short history of one of the last ice-type refrigerator cars built.
- Pacific Fruit Express Company #300010 — photo and short history of one of the first mechanical-type refrigerator cars built.
- Pacific Fruit Express photo gallery at the Union Pacific Railroad official website.
