How were watermelon cars loaded

I remember open top trucks hauling water melons using a lot of straw. Tarp over load when in transit. 

Absolutely no clue for your question.

First time I have ever heard of a watermelon car.

Not sure about back then when that model was in use, but these days they're put into old school buses that have the windows removed and sometimes the roofs chopped off.

Very Carefully

I have watched a lot of trucks being loaded with watermelons in my 65 years and it is done with "strong backs". Most of them belong to young guys!

I live in the watermelon capital of the USA.

Malcolm

Why would there be a problem with loading watermelons?

And without Gallagher and his Sledge O Matic anywhere near by. Seriously, when I see them in the grocery store, they are in cardboard boxes about the size of a skid cubed.

Don

Are those young guys the same ones that ride around at night hurling them, and pumpkins later, into the street?   Seriously, I admire those Yoder cars but could

not justify them, with their appropriate roadnames, cost, and truck and coupler

changes, to my modeled area.

That is how watermelons are shipped today. The Rich Yoder "watermelon car" in question is from back in the 1930s era and bares no resemblance to the above method of shipping now.

Just learned my one new thing today!

--Greg

Recent articles in the ACL/SAL Historical Society's quarterly magazine "LINES SOUTH" has just what you're looking for.  If I get time I can get more data for you, but basically it was done by a large group of laborers by hand, a very labor intensive job.  I can identify the monthly mags, they may still be available thru their website:

http://www.aclsal.org/

Download the pdf file of their "Newest Catalog", they have at least one listed (4th qtr 1012) and it seems there was maybe 2-3 more.

Also, some of the S-CL Modeler online mags may have articles too:

http://s-clmodeler.aclsal.org/

I figured I was going to be too late to say the required "carefully",  so I will offer up something more useful anyway........  a photo of a vintage ACL Watermelon boxcar in action on a siding awaiting pick up somewhere in North Carolina...........

I say watermelons should still go by train for safety reasons...................

The first watermelon cars were loaded by german immigrants by hand using a style called "Rienhold".  Stephen

Greg J. Turinetti: The Japanese watermelons you see are with the crates removed. The was invented Years ago by sliding a square crate over the young fruit. Usually they are just cut from the vine and shipped in the wood crate.   Stephen

Not with those roller bearing trucks!

"

"Watermelon" car -- which led to a question -- how were these cars loaded and what would a prototype setting look like ?"

I really have to do this,   One melon at a time

I do remember trucks coming from  the local fields to the warehouse before the cardboard tubs and unloading melons stacked a few feet high on straw and then we placed into our wire bins on pallets.   The whole old process was  very time and labor consuming. I was very happy that I didn't have to unload those singles as the drivers paid lumpers to do that job. Then came the  the paneled cardboard for making tubs and like the pictures above made the jobs a whole lot easier and faster. I only had to worry about selecting the tubs of melons for the store's order with all the other veggies going out to the stores. We built stacks 7' high with produce. Worst of all was the 100lb bags of potatoes and beans. which definitely had to go on the bottom and I would then have a fork sometimes place a pallet of melons on them. . Just wondering what the watermelon car did the rest of the year.? Not, It was a box car and i guess fill it with almost anything solid.  

I thought it was a pretty clever way to address a need. I also remember reading that they fit better into refrigerators.

Greg

How were watermelon cars loaded?

They went down to the corner bar like anyone else...