Varney "Wooden" Ice Reefer ~ Swift Refrigerator Line ~ Rd# SRLX 1200

Description: We try to be Friendly to our international customers especially with our: UPS Standard to Canada,Swift and Company, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas was a major branch of the nation's leading nineteenth-century meat-packing firm and one of the nation's Big Four meatpackers of the early 1900s. The company was founded in Chicago in the 1880s by Gustavus Franklin Swift, inventor of the refrigerated railway car. Ice-cooled reefer cars were some of the longest lasting freight cars in service on the railroads. Not because of their expense or any technological advantage but simply because the infrastructure around them had been built expressly for their efficient usage. Construction of new 36' cars lasted from about 1890 to the 1910's. By the early 1920's most new boxcars were 40' long, although like the earlier 36' cars they were normally 8-1/2' high. The 40' long - 10' high "standard" boxcar didn't come along until 1936 or so.Freight cars with arch-bar trucks and without steel underframes (that is, having wood substructures and truss-rods) were banned from interchange service in the 1930's. Many 36' boxcars at that time were old enough that it wasn't worthwhile to add steel underframes and new trucks, so many were scrapped at that time. As for reefers, however meat packing plants had been built 100+ years ago with door openings in the walls spaced to serve several reefers at the same time. Because of that, shorter than 40' reefers continued to be used in meat service into the1960's.Usually, 36' reefers are called that because of their internal dimensions, actually they have the same external length as a 40' boxcar. The practice of painting advertisements on the freight cars of shippers and car owners dates well back into the 19th century. But in the 1920s, leasing companies realized they could contract with shippers to pass back usage payments beyond some agreed minimum.This led to an explosion of car leasing and, a corresponding explosion of billboard decoration of refrigerator cars. Railroad objections, especially to the usage payment rebates, led to hearings before the Interstate Commerce Commission, which, taking effect in 1937, banned most of the leasing practices which had generated the car leasing bonanza. After World War II, a restrained billboard style made a modest comeback.Car-side advertising was only a detail of that ICC decision. But because it was the basis for a remarkable diversity of refrigerator car paint schemes in the era, the photographs of these cars have long held the interest of historians, railfans, and Model Railroader's.The use of "billboard" advertising on freight cars was banned by the Federal Governments Interstate Commerce Commission in 1937, and thereafter cars so decorated could no longer be accepted for interchange between roads. All freight cars whose designation letters end in X are privately owned {non-railroad ownership}in this case Reefer or refrigerated / ventilated cars for processed meat products. Refrigerator cars, also commonly referred to by their shortened name as "reefers" were a revolutionary design that allowed for the widespread shipment of perishable food products such as dairy, meat, and vegetables. Realizing the need for refrigerator cars private shippers, particularly meatpackers, decided to build their own fleets. By doing so, reefers were some of the first privately-owned cars to be used on railroads (known today as private-car lines). As such, names like Armor in their classic yellow, and Swift began to appear on the sides of many refrigerator cars. It was not uncommon to see large cuts of these cars leaving Chicago and bound for the east coast all of the way through the 1950s. By just the 1880s refrigerator cars had become quite advanced built with very heavy insulation and a standard size of about 36-feet in length since loading doors at packing plants were based on 36-foot centers. Additionally, private shippers had developed large and sophisticated icing stations, which were usually located along major railroad division points. While trains were being reclassified, engines maintained, and crews replaced the refrigerator cars would be transferred to these icing stations to restock their ice supplies. Reefer users could be divided into at least four broad groups.Meat reefers had special meat rails for handling sides of meat and brine-tank refrigeration to enable lower temperatures. Most meat reefers were owned or leased by meat packers.Dairy and poultry producers required refrigeration and special interior racks.Fruit and vegetable reefers were generally used for long distance shipping. This need tended to be seasonal and included FGEX, PFE, WFEX and SRDF reefers.Manufactured foods such as canned goods and candy as well as beer and wine that did not require ice but did need protection of an insulated car. Remember that no beer and wine was produced between 1920 and 1933. The AAR classified non-refrigerated insulated boxcars as reefers.In addition, there were both freight and passenger express versions of many of these cars.Santa Fe offered 9 different forms of ice service to fruit and vegetable shippers. Services varied as to who was responsible for precooling, icing, and re-icing the cars. Also, the cars had various combinations of air circulating fans, steel floor racks, dry floor racks, cubic capacities, bunker sizes, collapsible bunkers or sliding doors. Many shippers would not accept substitutes. Some examples:Wine - 50' carsCitrus fruits required standard 40' cars with 9,000-pound bunker capacity. About 70% of cars for oranges must be fan-equipped.Dry wood and steel floor rack were required for cardboard carton shipments.Certain fruits, such as grapes, tree fruits and melons required fan cars but with 10,000-pound bunkers. Grape shippers generally requested steel floor racks and sliding doors to help with the use of a forklift truck.Potatoes and onions did not require fan cars and could use lower bunker capacity, though some shippers did request fan cars.The 1950 AAR codes list 11 types of reefers:BR - Passenger express reefer.LRC - Special car type: heavily insulated, designed primarily for the transportation of Solid Carbon Dioxide.RA - brine tank refrigerator, primarily for meat.RAM - RA equipped with beef (Meat) rails.RB - Beverage, Ice, Water or Vinegar refrigeration. Much like RS but without ice bunkers.RCD - solid Carbon Dioxide refrigerator.RP - mechanical reefers with independent power.RPA - mechanical reefer powered by mechanical drive from car axle.RPB - mechanical reefer powered by generator from car axle.RS - ice bunker reefers.RSM - RS with beef (meat) rails.The 1941 edition of SFRD Circular 2-J, Rules and Regulations Governing the Handling of Perishable Freight, lists 15 types of reefers.Prior to 1940, most reefers had wood bodies, wood sides, steel ends and roofs. This was partly because wood was such a good insulator. All steel cars began in 1936 but did not take off until after WWII. Ice reefers continued in service until the early 70s.Mechanical reefers were developed around 1950, but they cost twice as much to build. Railroads were slow to make that change. At the same time they were being developed, the frozen food industry was blossoming requiring lower temperatures for reefers and more precise control of temperatures. The same technology that made mechanical reefers possible, made mechanically refrigerated highway trucks possible, thus leading to a massive decline in rail reefers.The predominate use of reefers were for moving produce. Most railway owned reefers were in produce service. Meat packers primarily owned their own reefers, predominately 36' reefers. Most slaughterhouses were in the Midwestern states and shipped their meat to the large metropolitan areas east of the Mississippi. In the 70s, many packing plants and railroads teamed up so that meat was loaded into refrigerated highway trailers and loaded on TOFC flats at the packing plan for initial movement to distribution points.In 1930, reefers reached their peak with 181,000 in service. That dropped to 127,200 in 1950 and 80,000 by 1980. Another interesting statistic compares the private ownership to railroad ownership. In 1930, 78% were privately owned, 85% in 1950, but only 16% by 1980. Armour, one of the major players early on, had 12,000 reefers in 1900 - 20% of the national fleet at that time. In 1950, 70% of the cars were owned by 5 companies:Pacific Fruit Express (UP/SP controlled) - 38,840 carsSanta Fe Refrigerator Dispatch - 14,514 carsFruit Growers Express - 12,063 carsAmerican Refrigerator Transit (Wabash & MP primarily) - 11,457 carsMerchants Dispatch (NYC controlled) - 9,690 carsBillboard reefers were outlawed by the ICC in 1934. There is a very informative article on this in the October 2002 To see all of our listings, visit: Ika's Train Store Note #1: I will combine shipping for multiple items. Please purchase the items but do *NOT* pay. I will review and calculate shipping as close as to what I have to pay. I will then forward an invoice with the adjusted shipping. If you do pay ahead of this recalculation, I will refund the shipping difference as part of preparing the items for shipment. Note #2: I want you to be happy with your purchase and would appreciate you leaving positive feedback. In the event you are not, please contact me immediately before leaving feedback so we may resolve it. Thank you. Note #3: If not previously stated item(s) come from a smoke-free environment with cats. Note #4: This is a Grandma & Grandpa shop. We have a 4-business day shipping window (this means that if you pay for your order on a Friday, it may not get shipping until the following Thursday). We do combine shipping especially when we are asked about it.If you want combined shipping, please purchase all your items in one order. If you purchase items in more than one order, send us a message so that we know about the additional items and box the orders together. (When items are bought in multiple orders, we do not always notice they were bought by the same person unless we are notified by the buyer.) We refund extra shipping charges when combined shipping is requested. If we ship items separately, we do not issue a shipping refund.For our international customers: YES!! we do combine shipping. The most economical way for you to buy multiple items from us is for you to send us a list of the items you want to buy. Do not purchase them as they are listed!! (This leads to higher than necessary fees & shipping.) Send us a complete list of all the items you want. Then we will cancel the listings for the items and turn them into a special listing just for you (We'll send you the listing named before making it active). It will have your full purchase with the correct shipping box size and weight. This saves you on the international fees & shipping.

Price: 12.08 USD

Location: London, Ohio

End Time: 2024-12-11T13:19:51.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD