Does Anybody Know the Ages of These Reefers?

The wood sheathed one on the left looks to be 1920's-30's while the one on the right with plug doors is more like 1950's to early 60's.

Thanks, Bob.  I wonder how long the wood sheathed reefers were in service?  I know I was still seeing them in the late '50's in northwest Iowa.

Art

For what it's worth Art, since I model in the lat 1940s thru the early/mid 1950s, I have NO "plug-door" reefers nor boxcars.

I think the one on the Left is CMP. Check the undercarriage for the initals.

We know that the 36 ft reefers operated by meat packers operated a long time probably driven by the need to conform with the overhead trolley infrastructure in older plants. These older cars were seen in the New York City in later years. I saw a photo of a Swifts 36 ft meat reefer which had a plug door. Its interesting that some of these cars were updated with the latest thinking on car design in their late years. 

Well, if they are scale prototypical cars and lettered appropriately, there should be a "New" or "Blt" date in the fine print on the side each car,

Art

Have a look at the O Scale Freight Car Guide to Wood Side and Express Reefers,

https://ogrforum.com/t...-and-express-reefers

and The O Scale Guide to Steel Reefers.

https://ogrforum.com/t...e-steel-side-reefers

For what it's worth Art, since I model in the lat 1940s thru the early/mid 1950s, I have NO "plug-door" reefers nor boxcars.

You should consider adding some to your car fleet.  Plug door ice bunker reefers were built in the late 40s and early 50s.  So were early RBLs.  They would fit right in with other transition era equipment.

From the Northwest Railway Museum:

This steel ice refrigerator car was built by Pacific Car and Foundry in Renton as Western Fruit Express WHIX 70325 in 1953. Western Fruit Express was operated by the Great Northern……This car has plug doors instead of the conventional hinged type.

MTH

and Lionel have both made models of cars numbered for this GN series as well as other road names.

Art,

Check out Protocraft Decals, they have a decal set for Morrell Reefers and some history for this car series, may be a good starting point for the the built dates of the Morrell woodside and steel side refrigerator cars. Within a day I will check the 1950's Car Builders Cyclopedia's that I have to see if this information is available for the Morrell or similar cars.

John

Art,

The oldist Car Builder's Cyclopedia I have is 1957, no Morrell car, but other plug door ice hatch, steel side reefer cars showing build dates early 1950's. Wickipedia, under a general search on the web, for wood side refrigerator cars, a sentence stated that the last ice hatch refrigerator car was built in 1957, mechanical refigerator cars replaced these cars in 1958, also confirmed by the 1958 Car Builders Cyclopedia. I have the Car Builder's Cyclopedia's for 1957,1958 and 1966.

Also check out steamerafreightcars.com, they show a plug door, wood side, ice hatch Morrell refrigerator car, I could not read the built date. My best guess is the wood side, ice hatch,plug door, 40 ft, 70 Ton cars were built post World War 2 (Late 1945) until around 1950, the steel sided, plug door, ice hatch, 40 ft, 70 Ton steel sided cars were built late 1940's through 1957. This information does not answer your question directly, but should be helpful.

John  

Ted - Thank you for the wealth of information.  I read your reefer threads when they were first posted, but had forgotten about them.

John - Great information and helps me get my mind around what was going on regarding these cars.

Art