Courtesy of Al Clemens, the photo below is from a Raton, New Mexico, wreck on the Santa Fe around 1910. Notice the additional structures on the refrigerator car's roof.

 

Steve Harvath said, "There were AT&SF refrigerator cars that had what were called Garland ventilators on the roof. The ventilators are off center on either side of the roof. These are Bohn Patent cars."

 

Steve is referring to Pages 55, 66 and 67 of the Santa Fe reefer book. According to the book the car is a Santa Fe Class Rr-P refrigerator car. These were in the series 6701-7200, built in 1909 by American Car & Foundry. They had truss rods and Bohn ice tanks. They were the last class of Santa Fe reefers to measure forty feet over the end sills. There is some uncertainty as to whether all 500 cars had the Garland ventilators. The last car saw revenue service in 1936.

 

Al Clemens also provided the Garland  patient and his additional diagram (adapted to a refrigerator car) of how it worked, below.

 

Bob Chaparro

Moderator

 

I just got an email from Model Railroader Magazine announcing a new book (available for pre-order now) "Produce Traffic & Trains".  Apparently it covers topics all aspects including refrigerator cars, produce terminals, harvesting, loading, shipping produce, icing cars, etc.

Not sure how much, if any, covers citrus specifically.  Was anyone on this group was involved in writing/editing of it.  Trying to decide if it is worth purchasing.

Bill

[Link: https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/book/12500 Note that this book estimated ship date is 08/31/2018.]

 

Here is a link to a photo from the Barriger Library of a rare Western Refrigerator Line reefer, car No. 7001:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/40844569651/in/album-72157649155982802/

 

I say the is "rare" because no refrigerator car branded as "Western Refrigerator Line" ever operated in revenue service.

 

In January 1923 Western Pacific established a subsidiary to operate the line's as yet to be built refrigerator cars. At the same time, Southern Pacific, acting through PFE, began negotiating with WP for a car hire agreement to operate the WP reefers as part of the PFE fleet.

 

One issue that needed to be settled was the branding of the WP reefers. PFE wanted "Pacific Fruit Express" but would agree to use of the WP herald. WP wanted "Western Refrigerator Line", the identity of its new subsidiary. The PFE preference was agreed to in mid-April, but not before American Car & Foundry had built 146 refrigerator cars with the "Western Refrigerator Line" branding.

 

After receiving these spanking new reefers from AC&F's shops in Missouri, the PFE shops in Roseville repainted them with the PFE brand before they ever entered revenue service.

 

This same photo appears in the PFE book and the book was the source for the above information.

 

Bob Chaparro

Moderator

 

An AC&F builder's photo from the Barriger Library collection:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/28745254694/in/dateposted/

 

This was an early design with overhead, rather than end, ice bunkers.

 

Advertisement from Railway Age Gazette of December 29, 1916:

http://tinyurl.com/y8oohsj7

 

Advertisement from Railway Age Gazette of June 22, 1917:

http://tinyurl.com/y76fu33v

 

Mouse over advertisement to zoom in.

 

I assume this refrigeration system was never widely adopted as it probably proved to be less efficient to re-ice, more costly to maintain or did not reduce perishable damage claims as compared to conventional refrigerator car designs. But I can only speculate.

 

Art Griffin noted that these cars went into service about 1910 and had six center hatches for overhead center ice compartments, and a heater. The Great Northern had problems of water condensation, but roads further north ( colder) did not.

 

Small but roof view photo:

http://www.copperrange.org/copr951.jpg

 

Patient: https://www.google.com/patents/US896313

 

I know the Canadian Pacific and the Canadian National had successful meat reefers using overhead ice bunkers. For cooling purposes placing the ice overhead worked better than ice in bunkers at the ends of the cars. One objection to such a design is that they could not be loaded with ice as fast as a reefer with end bunkers.

 

Bob Chaparro

Moderator

Here is an AC&F builder's photo of SFRD 13190, a Rr-W reefer:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/39446368272/in/album-72157649155982802/

 

The Rr-W class consisted of 2,500 cars built in 1920 (with as many as 30 cars arriving per day!) in the series 12951-15450. These cars were based on a USRA design, having a wood superstructure with a fish belly center sill. These were the last SFRD cars equipped with ventilator hoods and the first with the fish belly center sill. They were rebuilt as all steel cars in 1945.

 

Does anyone know what class or classes resulted from the 1945 rebuilding program?

 

Bob Chaparro

Moderator

 

Here is an AC&F builder's photo of a PFE Western Pacific reefer:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/26780968897/in/album-72157649155982802/

 

Bob Chaparro

Moderator

These are repaints of some old Concor and old Atlas N Scale reefers that I was going to trash but thought that it had potential if I removed the existing paint job and gave them new ones.

 

The material below is from the August 31, 1906, issue of Railway Age. This announcement predates by a few months the establishment of Pacific Fruit Express on December 7, 1906, as a joint venture between Harriman's Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads.

 

PFE began operations on October 1, 1907. The PFE book shows that 6,600 reefers (Classes R-30-1 and R-3-2) were built for the company by American Car & Foundry in 1906 and 1907. The additional 600 cars (not counted in the news article below) actually had been ordered late in 1905 in anticipation of the passage of the Hepburn Act.

 

Bob Chaparro

Moderator

++++

There is little doubt that the purchase by the Harriman lines of 6,000 refrigerator cars, expected to be consummated this week, means that the great fruit crop of California, which has amounted, roughly to 30,000 cars a year, will hereafter move to eastern destinations without much dependence upon the excellent, but heretofore more expensive, service of the private car lines. The Harriman lines and the Santa Fe have enjoyed a practical division of this traffic, the Harriman lines usually getting a reported 40 per cent and the Santa Fe the remainder. The Santa Fe has between 5,000 and 6,000 refrigerator cars available for handling its share of the traffic through the agency of the Santa Fe Refrigerator Despatch; but the Harriman lines have relied chiefly upon equipment of the independent private car lines.

 

With 6,000 new refrigerator cars of its own, the Harriman lines will have a total of nearly 7,500 refrigerator cars-— more cars of this class than are owned by any other railroad system and almost one-fourth as many refrigerator cars as are owned by all other roads combined. In the year ending June, 1904, the railroads, according to the Interstate Commerce Commission, owned 22,758 refrigerator cars. Since that time they have ordered about 9,600 refrigerator cars. not counting the proposed order of 6,000 by the Harriman lines. No accurate record is available of the refrigerator cars owned by the private companies, but it is of interest to note that since January 1, 1904, the companies have ordered more than 11,000 refrigerator cars. The fact that the Hepburn law makes railroad companies responsible for the reasonableness of the icing charges over their lines, together with the present spirit of antagonism toward private car lines, has induced railroad companies generally to consider the advisability of owning their own refrigerator equipment.

 

It is known that the Santa Fe Refrigerator Despatch has been working for a year or more to adjust its icing rates to a thoroughly consistent basis with the purpose of filing all its tariffs with the Interstate Commerce Commission. During the year important reductions have been made in the rates from California and in these reductions the Armour Lines have participated. But apparently the credit which the latter will receive on this score will be historical rather than practical, for, in ordering 6,000 refrigerator cars the Harriman Lines have plainly "taken the bull by the horns."

 

Here are some photos of I took yesterday at the Prototype Modelers Meet in San Bernardino. The white reefer is a model by Dave Pires. The others are models by Ed Martin. Notice the car with the open door, floor racks and load. Also notice the range of Ed's models, which go from an Rr-2 wood sheathed reefer to an Rr-56 mechanical reefer.

 

Ed authored several articles on building reefer models and other freight cars for Mainline Modeler in the 1990s.

 

Bob Chaparro

Moderator