History Background
Illinois Central Railroad #14713, a ventilated ripened offspring automobile dating from 1893.
After a finish of a American Civil War, Chicago, Illinois emerged as a vital railway core for a placement of batch lifted upon a Great Plains to Eastern markets. Getting a animals to marketplace compulsory herds to be driven up to 1,200 miles (2,000 km) to railheads in Kansas City, Missouri, where they were commissioned in to specialized batch cars as great as ecstatic live (“on-the-hoof”) to informal estimate centers. Driving cattle opposite a plains additionally caused extensive weight loss, with a tiny animals failing in transit.
Upon attainment during a inner estimate facility, batch were presumably slaughtered by wholesalers as great as delivered uninformed to circuitously grocer shops for sell sale, smoked, or packaged for conveyance in barrels of salt. Costly inefficiencies were fundamental in transporting live animals by rail, quite a actuality which about sixty percent of a animal’s mass is inedible. The genocide of animals enervated by a prolonged expostulate offer increasing a per-unit shipping cost. Meat packer Gustavus Swift sought a approach to boat ready to go meats from his Chicago make-up plant to eastern markets. Early attempts during refrigerated transport
An announcement taken from a 1st book (1879) of a Car-Builders Dictionary for a Tiffany Refrigerator Car Company, a colonize in a pattern of refrigerated tyrannise cars.
Attempts were done during a mid-1800s to boat rural products by rail. As early as 1842, a Western Railroad of Massachusetts was reported in a Jun fifteen book of a Boston Traveler to be experimenting with innovative burden automobile designs able of carrying all sorts of perishable products yet spoilage. The primary refrigerated boxcar entered work in Jun 1851, upon a Northern Railroad of New York (or NRNY, which after became partial of a Rutland Railroad). This “icebox upon wheels” was a singular success given it was usually organic in cold weather. That same year, a Ogdensburg as great as Lake Champlain Railroad (O&LC) began shipping butter to Boston in purpose-built burden cars, utilizing ice for cooling.
The primary conveyance of ready to go beef left a Chicago batch yards in 1857 in customary boxcars retrofitted with bins filled with ice. Placing beef but delay opposite ice resulted in blemish as great as influenced a taste, as great as valid impractical. During a same duration Swift experimented by relocating cut beef regulating a fibre of 10 boxcars with their doors removed, as great as done a couple of exam shipments to New York during a winter months over a Grand Trunk Railway (GTR). The routine valid as great singular to be practical.
The interior of a customary ice-bunker reefer from a 1920s. The timber sheathing was transposed by plywood inside of twenty years. Vents in a fort during a finish of a car, along with slots in a timber building racks, authorised cold air to disseminate around a contents.
Detroit’s William Davis law a fridge automobile which in work steel racks to postpone a carcasses upon tip of a solidified reduction of ice as great as salt. He sole a pattern in 1868 to George H. Hammond, a Detroit beef packer, who built a set of cars to ride his products to Boston regulating ice from a Great Lakes for cooling. The bucket had a bent of overhanging to a singular side when a automobile entered a bend during tall speed, as great as work of a units was forsaken after multiform derailments. In 1878 Swift hired operative Andrew Chase to pattern a ventilated automobile which was great insulated, as great as positioned a ice in a cell during a tip of a car, permitting a cold air to upsurge of course downward. The beef was packaged firmly during a bottom of a automobile to keep a core of sobriety low as great as to forestall a bucket from shifting. Chase’s pattern valid to be a unsentimental resolution to upon condition which temperature-controlled carriage of ready to go meats, as great as authorised Swift as great as Company to boat their products opposite a United States as great as internationally.
Swift’s attempts to sell Chase’s pattern to vital railroads were rebuffed, as a companies feared which they would jeopardise their substantial investments in batch cars, animal pens, as great as feedlots if refrigerated beef ride gained far-reaching acceptance. In response, Swift financed a primary prolongation run upon his own, thereafter when a American roads refused his commercial operation he engaged with a GTR (a tyrannise which subsequent tiny income from transporting live cattle) to ride a cars in to Michigan as great as thereafter east by Canada. In 1880 a Peninsular Car Company (subsequently purchased by ACF) delivered a primary of these units to Swift, as great as a Swift Refrigerator Line (SRL) was created. Within a year a Line register had risen to scarcely 200 units, as great as Swift was transporting an normal of 3,000 carcasses a week to Boston, Massachusetts. Competing firms such as Armour as great as Company quick followed suit. By 1920 a SRL owned as great as operated 7,000 of a ice-cooled rail cars. The General American Transportation Corporation would pretence tenure of a line in 1930.
A builder’s print of a singular of a primary fridge cars to come out of a Detroit plant of a American Car as great as Foundry Company (ACF), built in 1899 for a Swift Refrigerator Line.
Live cattle as great as ready to go beef deliveries to New York (short 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 theme cars trafficked upon a Erie, Lackawanna, New York Central, as great as Pennsylvania railroads.
Source: Railway Review, Jan 29, 1887, p. 62.
A circa 1870 fridge automobile design. Hatches in a roof tiles tiles tiles supposing entrance to a ice armoured column during any end.
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 as great as ICC as great as U.S. Census reports. The “Ice Age”
The work of ice to cold as great as to illustrate safety food dates behind to antiquated times. Through a ages, a anniversary harvesting of sleet as great as ice was a unchanging work of most cultures. China, Greece, as great as Rome stored ice as great as sleet in caves or dugouts lined with straw or alternative insulating materials. Rationing of a ice authorised a refuge of dishes during prohibited periods, a work which was successfully in work for centuries. For most of a 1800s, healthy ice (harvested from ponds as great as lakes) was used to supply fridge cars. At tall altitudes or northern latitudes, a singular feet armoured column were mostly filled with H2O as great as authorised to freeze. Ice was typically cut in to blocks during a winter as great as stored in insulated warehouses for after use, with sawdust as great as grain packaged around a ice blocks to yield a singular some-more insulation. A late-19th century wood-bodied reefer compulsory reicing any 250 to 400 miles (640 km).
Top topping of bagged vegetables in a fridge car.
By a spin of a 20th century done ice became some-more common. The Pacific Fruit Express (PFE), for example, confirmed 7 healthy harvesting facilities, as great as operated eighteen synthetic ice plants. Their largest plant (located in Roseville, California) assembled 1,200 marked down tons of ice daily, as great as Roseville docks could house up to 254 cars. At a attention peak, thirteen million marked down tons of ice was assembled for fridge automobile work annually. “Top Icing”
Top topping is a work of fixation a 2 to 4-inch (100 mm) covering of dejected ice upon tip of rural products which have tall respiration rates, need tall relations humidity, as great as great from carrying a cooling representative lay but delay atop a bucket (or inside of particular boxes). Cars with pre-cooled uninformed furnish were tip iced usually prior to to shipment. Top topping combined substantial upheld weight to a load. Top-icing a 40-foot (12 m) reefer compulsory in over 10,000 pounds of ice. It had been presumed which as a ice melts, a ensuing cold H2O would drip down by a bucket to go upon a cooling process. It was found, however, which top-icing usually benefited a uppermost layers of a cargo, as great as which a H2O from a melting ice mostly upheld by spaces in in in in in between a cartons as great as pallets with tiny or no cooling effect. It was in conclusion dynamic which top-icing is utilitarian usually in preventing an enlarge in temperature, as great as was in a future discontinued.
Men pick up ice upon Michigan’s Lake Saint Clair, circa 1905. The ice was cut in to blocks as great as hauled by automobile to a cold storage warehouse, as great as hold until needed.
Ice blocks (also called “cakes”) have been manually placed in to reefers from a lonesome topping dock. Each retard weighed in in in in in between 200 as great as 400 pounds. Crushed ice was typically used for beef cars.
The “business end” of a automatic ice loading complement services a line of Pacific Fruit Express fridge cars. Each automobile will need we estimate 5 marked down tons (5 metric tons) of ice.
Workmen tip off a reefer’s top-mounted bunkers with dejected ice.
The customary work cycle for an ice-cooled furnish reefer (generally rubbed as a partial of a retard of cars):
The cars were spotless with prohibited H2O or steam.
Depending upon a cargo, a cars competence have undergone 4 hours of “pre-cooling” prior to to loading, which entailed floating in cold air by a singular ice induce as great as permitting a warmer air to be diminished by a alternative hatches. The practice, dating behind roughly to a pregnancy of a fridge car, saved ice as great as resulted in fresher cargo.
The cars’ ice bunkers were filled, presumably manually from an topping dock, around automatic loading equipment, or (in locations where direct for ice was sporadic) regulating specially-designed margin topping cars.
The cars were delivered to a shipper for loading, as great as a ice was topped-off.
Depending upon a bucket as great as destination, a cars might have been fumigated.
The sight would skip for a eastern markets.
The cars were reiced in movement we estimate once a day.
Upon reaching their destination, a cars were unloaded.
If in demand, a cars would be returned to their indicate of start empty. If not in demand, a cars would be spotless as great as presumably used for a dry shipment.
This cast of Tiffany strange “Summer as great as Winter Car” appeared in a Railroad Gazette usually prior to to Joel Tiffany perceived his fridge automobile obvious in July, 1877. Tiffany’s pattern mounted a ice tank in a clerestory atop a car’s roof, as great as relied upon a train’s suit to disseminate cold air around a bucket space.
A Pullman-built “shorty” reefer bears a Armour Packing Co.     Kansas City logo, circa 1885. The name of a “patentee” was displayed upon a car’s exterior, a work dictated to “…impress a shipper as great as dominate a competition…,” even yet most patents lonesome pardonable or already-established pattern concepts.
A singular double-door fridge automobile in work a “Hanrahan System of Automatic Refrigeration” as built by ACF, circa 1898. The automobile had a single, especially located ice fort which was pronounced to suggest improved cold air distribution. The dual segregated cold bedrooms were great matched for less-than-carload (LCL) shipments.
A pre-1911 “shorty” reefer bears an announcement for Anheuser-Busch’s Malt Nutrine tonic. The work of identical “billboard” promotion upon burden cars was criminialized by a Interstate Commerce Commission in 1937, as great as afterward cars so flashy could no longer be supposed for rotate in in in in in between roads.
Refrigerator cars compulsory in effect insulation to strengthen their essence from heat extremes. “Hairfelt” subsequent from dense cattle hair, sandwiched in to a building as great as walls of a car, was cheap yet injured over a three- to four-year work hold up it would decay, rotting out a car’s wooden partitions as great as tainting a bucket with a tainted odor. The aloft price of alternative materials such as “Linofelt” (woven from flax fibers) or bottle cap prevented their drawn out adoption. Synthetic materials such as fiberglass as great as polystyrene foam, both introduced after World War II, offering a most cost-effective as great as unsentimental solution. Mechanical refrigeration
In a latter half of a 20th century automatic refrigeration began to reinstate ice-based systems. In time, automatic refrigeration units transposed a “armies” of crew compulsory to re-ice a cars. The “plug” doorway was introduced experimentally by P.F.E. (Pacific Fruit Express) in Apr 1947, when a singular of their R-40-10 array cars, #42626, was versed with one. P.F.E.’s R-40-26 array reefers, created in 1949 as great as built in 1951, were a primary prolongation array cars to be so equipped. In addition, a Santa Fe Railroad primary used block doors upon their SFRD RR-47 array cars, which were additionally built in 1951. This sort of door, supposing a incomparable 6 feet opening, to foster automobile loading as great as unloading. These tight-fitting doors were improved insulated as great as could say a some-more even heat inside a car. By a mid-1970s a couple of superfluous ice fort cars were relegated to “top-ice” service, where dejected ice was unsentimental atop a commodity.
A cutaway painting of a compulsory automatic fridge car, which typically contains in a single some-more of 800 relocating parts.
A complicated fridge car: note a griddle during a reduce right (the car’s “A” end) where a automatic refrigeration section is housed.
State-of-the-art automatic fridge automobile designs place a removable, end-mounted refrigeration section outward of a burden cell in sequence to foster entrance for servicing or replacement.
A complicated automatic fridge car, given for high-speed service, bears a colors as great as markings of Amtrak Express, Amtrak’s burden as great as shipping service. Cryogenic refrigeration
Cryogenic fridge cars, such as those owned as great as operated by Cryo-Trans, Inc., have been used currently to ride solidified food products, together with french fries. Today, Cryo-Trans operates a swift in a single some-more of 515 cryogenic railcars.
The Topeka, Kansas shops of a Santa Fe Railway built 5 primary fridge cars contracting glass nitrogen as a cooling representative in 1965. A obscurity prompted by liquified nitrogen was expelled around a automobile if a heat rose upon tip of a pre-determined level. Each automobile carried 3,000 pounds (1,360 kg) of refrigerant as great as could say a heat of reduction twenty degrees Fahrenheit (30 C). During a 1990s, a couple of railcar manufacturers experimented with a work of glass CO dioxide (CO2) as a cooling agent. The pierce was in reply to taking flight fuel costs, as great as was an try to liberate a customary automatic refrigeration systems which compulsory continual maintenance. The CO2 complement can keep a bucket solidified plain as prolonged as fourteen to sixteen days.
Several hundred “cryogenic” fridge cars were placed in work transporting solidified foodstuffs, yet they unsuccessful to benefit far-reaching acceptance (due, in part, to a taking flight price of glass CO dioxide). Since cryogenic refrigeration is a proven record as great as environmentally friendly, a taking flight price of fuel as great as a increasing accessibility of CO dioxide from Kyoto Protocol-induced capturing techniques might lead to a resurgence in cryogenic railcar usage. Experimentation Aluminum as great as immaculate steel
In 1946, a Pacific Fruit Express procured from a Consolidated Steel Corporation of Wilmington, California dual 40-foot (12 m) aluminum-bodied ventilator fridge cars, to review a continuance of a lightweight amalgamate contra which of steel. It was hoped which weight assets (the units weighed roughly 10,000 pounds reduction than a like-sized all-steel car) as great as improved gnawing insurgency would equivalent a aloft primary cost. One of a aluminum automobile bodies was done by Alcoa (PFE #44739), whilst a alternative was built by a Reynolds Aluminum Company (PFE #45698).
The cars (outfitted with state-of-the-art fiberglass insulation as great as axle-driven fans for inner air circulation) trafficked around a Southern Pacific as great as Union Pacific systems, where they were displayed to foster PFE’s post-World War II modernization. Though both units remained in work over fifteen years (#45698 was broken in a mutilate in May 1962, whilst #44739 was scrapped in 1966), no a singular some-more aluminum reefers were constructed, price being a expected reason. Also in 1946 a Consolidated Steel delivered a world’s usually reefer to have a immaculate steel physique to a Santa Fe Refrigerator Despatch. The 40-foot (12 m) automobile was versed with automobile ice bunkers, side movement ducts, as great as axle-driven dissemination fans. It was suspicion which immaculate steel would improved conflict a erosive decrease ensuing from salting a ice. The one-of-a-kind section entered work as #13000, yet was subsequently redesignated as #1300, as great as after given #4150 in 1955.
#4150 outlayed most of a hold up in demonstrate service. Cost was cited as a reason no a singular some-more units were ordered. The automobile was distant during Clovis, New Mexico in February, 1964. “Depression Baby”
During a 1930s, a North American Car Company assembled a one-of-a-kind, four-wheeled ice fort reefer dictated to offer a needs of specialized shippers who did not beget enough product to fill a full-sized fridge car. NADX #10000 was a 22-foot-long, all-steel automobile which resembled a forty-and-eights used in Europe during World War I. The antecedent weighed in during thirteen tons as great as was given with a 1,500-pound ice fort during any end. The automobile was leased to Hormel as great as saw work in in in in in between Chicago, Illinois as great as a southern United States. The judgment unsuccessful to benefit acceptance with a large eastern railroads as great as no a singular some-more units were built. Dry ice
The Santa Fe Refrigerator Despatch (SFRD) quickly experimented with dry ice as a cooling representative in 1931. The devalue was readily-available as great as seemed similar to an preferred deputy for solidified water. Dry ice melts during -109 F / -78.33 C (versus 32 F / 0 C for compulsory ice) as great as was twice as in effect thermodynamically. Overall weight was marked down as a need for high seas as great as H2O was eliminated. While a aloft price of dry ice was positively a drawback, logistical issues in loading prolonged lines of cars great prevented it from gaining acceptance over compulsory ice. Worst of all, it was found which dry ice can adversely start a tone as great as season of sure dishes if placed as great tighten to them. Hopper cars
In 1969, a Burlington Northern Railroad systematic a series of mutated lonesome hopper cars from American Car as great as Foundry for transporting perishable food in bulk. The 55-foot (16.76 m)-long cars were blanketed with a covering of insulation, versed with roof tiles tiles tiles hatches for loading, as great as had centerflow openings along a bottom for quick discharge. A automatic refrigeration section was commissioned during any finish of a car, where piece steel ducting forced cold air in to a bucket compartments.
The units, rated during 100 marked down tons (90.718 t) genius (more than twice which of a largest compulsory fridge automobile of a day) were careful to bucket as great as unload, as no delegate wrapping was required. Apples, carrots, onions, as great as potatoes were ecstatic in this demeanour with a tiny success. Oranges, upon a alternative hand, tended to detonate underneath their own weight, even after wooden baffles were commissioned to improved discharge a load. The Santa Fe Railway leased 100 of a hoppers from ACF, as great as in April, 1972 purchased 100 latest units. The cars’ irregular, orange-colored outdoor aspect (though darker than a customary AT&SF yellow-orange used upon reefers) tended to pick up mud easily, as great as valid formidable to clean. Santa Fe in a future relegated a cars to some-more typical, non-refrigerated applications. Refrigerator cars in Japan
The primary refrigerated cars in Japan entered work in 1908 for fish transport. Many of these cars were versed with ice bunkers, however a bunkers were not used generally. Fish were packaged in wooden or froth polystyrene boxes with dejected ice.
Fruit as great as beef ride in refrigerated rail cars was not usual in Japan. For fruits as great as vegetables, ventilator cars were enough due to a marked down distances concerned in transportation. Meat compulsory low heat storage, thus ride was by ship, given most vital Japanese cities have been located along a coast.
Refrigerator cars suffered complicated repairs in World War II, thereafter a function forces confiscated most cars for their own use, utilizing a ice bunkers as creatively intended. Supplies were landed essentially during Yokohama, as great as reefer trains ran from a pier to US bases around Japan.
In 1966, JNR grown “resa 10000″ as great as “remufu 10000″ sort refrigerated cars which could ride during 62 mph (this was really quick in a clarity of Japanese burden trains). They were used in fish burden demonstrate trains. “Tobiuo”(Flying fish) sight from Shimonoseki to Tokyo, as great as “Ginrin”(Silver scale) sight from Hakata to Tokyo, were operated.
By a 1960s, fridge trucks had proposed to excommunicate railcars. Strikes in a 1970s resulted in a detriment of trustworthiness as great as punctuality, critical to fish transportation. In 1986, a final refrigerated cars were transposed by reefer containers.
Most Japanese reefers were four-wheeled due to a tiny trade demands. There were really couple of bogie wagons in late years. The sum series of Japanese reefers numbered we estimate 8,100. At their peak, about 5,000 refrigerated cars were operated in a late 1960s. Mechanical refrigerators were tested, yet did not see drawn out use.
There were no privately-owned reefers in Japan, as compared to a US. This is given fish ride were stable by inhabitant policies as great as rates were kept low, as great as there was tiny distinction in refrigerated automobile ownership. Preservation
Examples of most styles of fridge as great as ice cars can be found during tyrannise museums around a world.
The Western Pacific Railroad Museum during Portola, California facilities a really finish register of 20th century cars, together with timber bodied ice cars, steel bodied ice cars, a singular of a beginning automatic fridge cars, after automatic fridge cars as great as a cryogenic reefer, as great as multiform “insulated” boxcars additionally used for food transport. Timeline
Further information: Timeline of low-temperature technology
1842: The Western Railroad of Massachusetts experimented with innovative burden automobile designs able of carrying all sorts of perishable products yet spoilage.
1851: The primary refrigerated boxcar entered work upon a Northern Railroad of New York.
1857: The primary conveyance of refrigerated, ready to go beef trafficked from Chicago to a East Coast in customary box cars packaged with ice.
1866: Horticulturist Parker Earle shipped strawberries in iced boxes by rail from southern Illinois to Chicago upon a Illinois Central Railroad.
1868: William Davis of Detroit, Michigan grown a fridge automobile cooled by a solidified ice-salt mixture, as great as law it in a US. The obvious was subsequently sole to George Hammond, a inner beef packer who thick with a happening in refrigerated shipping.
1876: German operative Carl von Linde grown a singular of a primary automatic refrigeration systems.
1878: Gustavus Swift (along with operative Andrew Chase) grown a primary unsentimental ice-cooled railcar. Soon Swift shaped a Swift Refrigerator Line (SRL), a world’s first.
1880: The primary obvious for a mechanically-refrigerated railcar released in a United States was postulated to Charles William Cooper.
1884: The Santa Fe Refrigerator Despatch (SFRD) was determined as a auxiliary of a Atchison, Topeka as great as Santa Fe Railway to lift perishable commodities.
1885: Berries from Norfolk, Virginia were shipped by fridge automobile to New York.
1887 Parker Earle assimilated F.A. Thomas of Chicago in a ripened offspring shipping business. The association owned 60 ice-cooled railcars by 1888, as great as 600 by 1891.
1888: Armour & Co. shipped beef from Chicago to Florida in a automobile cooled by ethyl chloride-compression machinery. Florida oranges were shipped to New York underneath refrigeration for a primary time.
1889: The primary cooled conveyance of ripened offspring from California was sole upon a New York market.
1898: Russia’s primary fridge cars entered service. The country’s register w reached 1,900 by 1908, as great as 3,000 dual years later, as great as appearance during we estimate 5,900 by 1916. The cars were in work especially for transporting butter from Siberia to a Baltic Sea, a twelve day journey.
1899: Refrigerated ripened offspring trade inside of a US reached 90,000 marked down tons per year; Transport from California to NY averaged twelve days in 1900.
1901: Carl von Linde versed a Russian sight with a mobile, executive automatic refrigeration plant to discharge cooling to cars carrying perishable goods. Similar systems were used in Russia as late as 1975.
1905: U.S. trade in refrigerated ripened offspring reacheed 430,000 marked down tons. As fridge automobile designs turn standardized, a work of indicating a “patentee” upon a sides was discontinued.
1907: The Pacific Fruit Express began operations with some-more than 6,000 refrigerated cars, transporting ripened offspring as great as vegetables from Western producers to Eastern consumers. US trade in refrigerated ripened offspring strike 600,000 marked down tons.
1908: Japan’s primary fridge cars entered service. The cars were for seafood transportation, in a same demeanour as most alternative Japanese reefers.
1913: The series of thermally-insulated railcars (most of which were cooled by ice) in a U.S. surfaced 100,000.
1920: The Fruit Growers Express (or FGE, a former auxiliary of a Armour Refrigerator Line) was shaped regulating 4,280 reefers acquired from Armour & Co.
1923: FGE as great as a Great Northern Railway for a Western Fruit Express (WFE) in sequence to contest with a Pacific Fruit Express as great as Santa Fe Refrigerator Despatch in a West.
19251930: Mechanically-refrigerated trucks come in work as great as benefit open acceptance, quite for a smoothness of divert as great as ice cream.
1926: The FGE stretched a work in to a Pacific Northwest as great as a Midwest by a WFE as great as a Burlington Refrigerator Express Company (BREX), a alternative partly-owned subsidiary. FGE purchased 2,676 reefers from a Pennsylvania Railroad.
1928: The FGE shaped a National Car Company as a auxiliary to work a beef ride market. Customers embody Kahns, Oscar Mayer, as great as Rath.
1930: The series of fridge cars in a United States reached a limit of we estimate 183,000.
1931: The SFRD reconfigured 7 reefers to implement dry ice as a cooling agent.
1932: Japanese Government Railways built vehicles specifically done for dry ice coolant.
1936: The primary all-steel reefers entered service.
1937: The Interstate Commerce Commission criminialized “billboard” sort advertisements upon tyrannise cars.
1946: Two primary aluminum-body fridge cars entered work upon a PFE; an primary reefer with a stainless-steel physique was built for a SFRD.
1950: The U.S. fridge automobile register forsaken to 127,200.
1957: The final ice fort fridge cars were built.
1958: The primary automatic reefers (utilizing diesel-powered refrigeration units) entered income service.
1960s: The flush, “plug” character shifting doorway was introduced as an option, upon condition which a incomparable doorway to palliate loading as great as unloading. The tight-fitting doors were improved insulated as great as authorised a automobile to be confirmed during a some-more even temperature.
1966: Japanese National Railways proposed operation of fish burden demonstrate trains by newly built “resa 10000″ sort refers.
1969: ACF assembled multiform primary core upsurge hopper cars incorporating automatic cooling systems as great as insulated bucket cells. The units were dictated for conveyance of bulk perishables.
1971: The final ice-cooled reefers were retired.
1980: The US fridge automobile register forsaken to 80,000.
1986: The final reefers in Japan were transposed by reefer containers.
1990s: The primary cryogenically-cooled reefers entered service.
2001: The series of fridge cars in a United States bottomed out during we estimate 8,000.
2005: The series of reefers in a United States climbs to we estimate 25,000, due to poignant latest fridge automobile orders. Specialized applications Express service
An REA demonstrate reefer is positioned during a conduct finish of Santa Fe sight No.8, a Fast Mail Express, in 1965.
Standard refrigerated ride is mostly in work for great with reduction than fourteen days of refrigerated “shelf life”: avocados, cut flowers, immature shaggy vegetables, lettuce, mangos, beef products, mushrooms, peaches as great as nectarines, pineapples as great as papayas, honeyed cherries, as great as tomatoes. “Express” reefers have been typically in work in a ride of special perishables: line with a refrigerated shelf hold up of reduction than 7 days such as tellurian blood, fish, immature onions, milk, strawberries, as great as sure pharmaceuticals.
The beginning express-service fridge cars entered work around 1890, before long after a primary demonstrate sight routes were determined in North America. The cars did not come in to ubiquitous work until a early 20th century. Most units created for demonstrate work have been incomparable than their customary counterparts, as great as have been typically assembled some-more along a lines of enclosure cars than burden equipment. Cars contingency be versed with speed-rated trucks as great as brakes, as great as if they have been to be run forward of a newcomer automobile include contingency additionally soak up an air line for pneumatic braking, a information exchnage vigilance air line, as great as a steam line for sight heating. Express units were typically embellished in newcomer automobile colors, such as Pullman green.
The primary purpose-built demonstrate reefer emerged from a Erie Railroad’s Susquehanna Shops upon Aug 1, 1886. By 1927 a tiny 2,218 demonstrate cars trafficked America’s rails, as great as 3 years after which series was 3,264. In 1940 in isolation rail lines began to set up as great as work their own reefers, a Railway Express Agency (REA) being by distant a largest. In 1948 a REA register (which would go upon to enhance in to a 1950s) numbered we estimate 1,800 cars, most of which were World War II “troop sleepers” mutated for demonstrate refrigerated transport. By 1965, due to a decrease in refrigerated traffic, most demonstrate reefers were leased to railroads for work as bulk mail carriers.
Pacific Fruit Express #722, an ice-cooled, express-style fridge automobile created to lift divert in immaculate steel cans as great as alternative highly-perishable bucket during a conduct finish of newcomer sight consists.
Railway Express Agency fridge automobile #6687, a converted World War II “troop sleeper.” Note a block panels along a sides which cover a window openings. Intermodal
An intermodal sight containing mechanically-cooled main road trailers in “piggyback” work passes by a Cajon Pass in February, 1995.
For most years, probably all of a perishable trade in a United States was carried by a railroads. While railroads were theme to supervision law per shipping rates, trucking companies could set their own rate for hauling rural products, giving them a rival edge. In Mar 1979 a ICC exempted rail ride of uninformed fruits as great as vegetables from all mercantile regulation. Once a “Agricultural Exemption Clause” was in isolation from a Interstate Commerce Act, railroads began aggressively posterior trailer-on-flatcar (TOFC) commercial operation (a form of intermodal burden transport) for refrigerated trailers. Taking this a singular step further, a series of carriers (including a PFE as great as SFRD) purchased their own refrigerated trailers to contest with widespread trucks.
The final section has not, as most have predicted, been created for a fridge automobile in America. The emergence of a 21st century has seen a primary poignant reefer orders given a early 1970s. Tropicana “Juice Train”
Main article: Juice Train
Former Tropicana fridge car, before long after being donated to a Florida Gulf Coast Railroad Museum — Palmetto, Florida.
In 1970 Tropicana orange extract was shipped in bulk around insulated boxcars in a singular weekly round-trip from Bradenton, Florida to Kearny, New Jersey. By a following year, a association was handling dual 60-car section trains a week, any carrying around 1 million U.S. gallons (4 million liters) of juice. On Jun 7, 1971 a “Great White Juice Train” (the primary section sight in a food industry, consisting of 150 a singular hundred marked down ton insulated boxcars built in a Alexandria, Virginia shops of Fruit Growers Express) commenced work over a 1,250-mile (2,000-kilometer) route. An a singular some-more 100 cars were shortly added, as great as tiny automatic refrigeration units were commissioned to keep temperatures constant. Tropicana saved $40 million in fuel costs during a primary 10 years in operation. AAR classifications
AAR classifications of fridge automobile types
Class
Description
Class
Description
  RA
Brine-tank ice bunkers
  RPB
Mechanical fridge with electro-mechanical spindle expostulate  
  RAM
Brine-tank ice bunkers with beef rails
  RPL
Mechanical fridge with loading devices
  RAMH  
Brine-tank with beef rails as great as heaters
  RPM
Mechanical fridge with beef rails
  RB
No ice bunkers complicated insulation
  RS
Bunker fridge usual ice fort car
  RBL
No ice bunkers as great as loading devices
  RSB
Bunker fridge air fans as great as loading devices
  RBH
No ice bunkers gas heaters
  RSM
Bunker fridge with beef rails
  RBLH
No ice bunkers loading inclination as great as heaters
  RSMH  
Bunker fridge with beef rails as great as heaters
  RCD
Solid carbon-dioxide refrigerator
  RSTC
Bunker fridge electric air fans
  RLO
Special automobile sort permanently-enclosed (covered hopper type)    
  RSTM
Bunker fridge electric air fans as great as beef rails
  RP
Mechanical refrigerator
  Note: Class B fridge cars have been those created for newcomer service; insulated boxcars have been directed towards Class L. See also
Cold chain
Reefer (container)
Reefer (ship)
Refrigerated ride Dewar
Refrigeration
Refrigerator lorry Notes
^ Boyle as great as Estrada
^ White, p. 31
^ White, p. 33
^ White, p. 45
^ Hendrickson as great as Scholz, p. 8
^ The Great Yellow Fleet, p 126. References
Boyle, Elizabeth as great as Rodolfo Estrada. (1994) “Development of a U.S. Meat Industry” Kansas State University Department of Animal Sciences as great as Industry.
Hendrickson, Richard as great as Richard E. Scholz. (1986). “Reefer automobile 13000: a postmortem.” The Santa F Route IV (2) 8.
Hendrickson, Richard H. (1998). Santa Fe Railway Painting as great as Lettering Guide for Model Railroaders, Volume 1: Rolling Stock. Highlands Ranch, CO: The Santa Fe Railway Historical as great as Modeling Society, Inc.. 
Pearce, Bill. (2005). “Express Reefer from couple sleeper in N.” Model Railroader 72 (12) 6265.
Reefer Operations upon Model Railroads with an importance upon a ATSF Apr 15, 2005 essay during The Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society central website accessed upon Nov 7, 2005.
Thompson, Anthony W. et al. (1992). Pacific Fruit Express. Signature Press, Wilton, CA. ISBN 1-930013-03-5.
White, John H. (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. External links
Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway #21335 print as great as marked down story of a steel-sheathed “billboard” car.
“Coast to Coast” essay by Richard Hendrickson during a Pacific Southwest Railway Museum central website.
Fruit Growers Express Company #35832 photos as great as marked down story of an e.g. of a wooden ice-type “reefers” ordinarily placed in work in in in in in between 1920 as great as 1940.
Fruit Growers Express Company #56415 photos as great as marked down story of an e.g. of a wooden ice-type “reefers” used in a primary half of a 20th century for shipping produce.
Pacific Fruit Express Company #11207 print as great as marked down story of a singular of a final ice-type fridge cars built.
Pacific Fruit Express Company #300010 print as great as marked down story of a singular of a primary mechanical-type fridge cars built.
Pacific Fruit Express print art studio during a Union Pacific Railroad central website.
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Major in isolation fridge automobile lines of a United States
American Refrigerator Transit Co. Armour Refrigerator Line Burlington Refrigerator Express Fruit Growers Express General American Transportation Corporation Hormel as great as Co. Merchants Despatch North Western Refrigerator Line Pacific Fruit Express Railway Express Agency Santa Fe Refrigerator Despatch St. Louis Refrigerator Car Co. Swift Refrigerator Line Tropicana Products Union Refrigerator Transit Line Western Fruit Express Western Refrigerator Line
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Rail ride burden equipment
Enclosed equipment
Autorack  Boxcar (US)  Coil car  Container   Covered hopper  Covered wagon  Refrigerator car (US)  Refrigerated van (EU)  Roadrailer  Stock car  Tank car
Open equipment
Flatcar  Gondola (US)  Hopper car  Open wagon (EU)  Schnabel car  Double-stack car
Non-revenue equipment
Caboose (US)  Brake outpost (EU)   Maintenance of approach cars  Scale exam car  Clearance car  Crane (railroad) Categories: Cooling record | Food refuge | Freight equipmentHidden categories: Articles with singular geographic range