How Did 40 foot Steel Reefers Work?

Art,

May I suggest you purchase a copy of the book "Pacific Fruit Express" by Anthony W. Thompson, Robert J. Church, and Bruce H. Jones. It has more technical information about ice reefers than any other publication.

Heres some video from the ATSF, this shows a more modern ice loading machine. Reefer detail starts at 3:50:

Art, search “railroad refrigerator cars” on Google. Lots of info, especially on the Wikipedia site. 

Art,

Here is a short video that explains the first Swift cars, just have to get past the commercial:

http://www.travelchannel.com/v...ted-rail-car-0211956

This link has extensive details:

http://www.sanjoaquinhistory.o.../HistorianNS10-4.pdf

Another links for info on early development:

http://www.slahs.org/history/b.../schlitz/reefers.htm

Hope these help.  Always enjoy your updates and the photo's !

Tom

Art, did you receive the PM I sent last week?

Jerry Williams posted:

Art, did you receive the PM I sent last week?

No, I did not Jerry.

Art

I sent it to your email address as displayed in your profile on the forum.

Art- I still can't reach you using your email address as shown in your profile on the forum.

Will you please send a PM to the address in my profile so I can reply? Thanks.

Jerry, I just sent you a PM and I also discovered the problem.  Your last email was in my spam folder.

Art

Art, the operation of reefers is a very interesting subject. The salt water running out the drains was always a corrosion headache for the railroads.

I remember being taught that in the older days they use to put sawdust on the ice to keep it from melting so fast.

I love Reefer(s)......no matter how they work....

BobbyD posted:

Art, the operation of reefers is a very interesting subject. The salt water running out the drains was always a corrosion headache for the railroads.

Yes it certainly was. It was such a problem for the CB&Q, who had to handle LOTS and LOTS of ice reefers from the west, to/through Chicago area, for transferring to the NKP for eastern customers, that the "Q" developed a tar coating spray train. The spray train would travel the double track main lines from either Denver or St Paul, and spray the "goop" onto the sides of the rails, the tie plates & spikes, and tops of the ties. The "goop" prevented the salt water from attacking the track components and structure.