Refrigerator car

dragoon car designed to carry perishable freight at specific temperatures
This article is about refrigerated railroad track cars in the U.S.. For European practice, see Refrigerated van. For the Spin Doctors song, see Pocket Full of Kryptonite A modern refrigerator car. The mechanical refrigeration unit is housed behind the grill at the lower right, the car ‘s “ A ” end . Anheuser-Busch was one of the first companies to transport beer nationwide using railroad refrigerator cars. A refrigerator car ( or “reefer” ) is a refrigerate boxcar ( U.S. ), a objet d’art of dragoon rolling stock designed to carry perishable freight at particular temperatures. Refrigerator cars differ from elementary isolate boxcars and ventilate boxcars ( normally used for transporting fruit ), neither of which are fitted with cooling apparatus. Reefers can be ice rink – cooled, come equipped with any one of a assortment of mechanical refrigeration systems, or use carbon dioxide ( either as dry ice, or in liquid class ) as a cooling system agent. milk cars ( and other types of “ express ” reefers ) may or may not include a cool organization, but are equipped with high-speed trucks and other modifications that allow them to travel with passenger trains.

history [edit ]

background : North America [edit ]

After the end of the American Civil War, Chicago, Illinois emerged as a major railroad track center for the distribution of livestock raised on the Great Plains to Eastern markets. [ 1 ] Transporting the animals to market required herds to be driven up to 1,200 miles ( 1,900 kilometer ) to railheads in Kansas City, Missouri or early locations in the midwest, such as Abilene and Dodge City, Kansas, where they were loaded into specialize stock certificate cars and transmit alive ( “ on-the-hoof ” ) to regional process centers. Driving cattle across the plains besides caused fantastic slant loss, with some animals dying in theodolite. Upon arrival at the local serve facility, livestock were slaughtered by wholesalers and delivered fresh to nearby butch shops for retail sale, smoked, or packed for cargo in barrels of salt. Costly inefficiencies were implicit in in transporting live animals by rail, particularly the fact that approximately 60 % of the animal ‘s mass is inedible. The death of animals weakened by the long drive further increased the per-unit ship cost. Meat processors sought a method to ship dress meats from their Chicago pack plants to eastern markets .

early attempts at refrigerated transport [edit ]

Car-Builders Dictionary for the Tiffany Refrigerator Car Company, a pioneer in the design of refrigerated railroad cars An ad taken from the 1st edition ( 1879 ) of thefor the, a initiate in the design of refrigerate railroad track cars During the mid-19th century, attempts were made to ship agrarian products by rail. angstrom early as 1842, the western Railroad of Massachusetts was reported in the June 15 edition of the Boston Traveler to be experimenting with advanced freight cable car designs capable of carrying all types of perishable goods without spoilage. [ 2 ] The first refrigerate boxcar entered service in June 1851, on the Northern Railroad ( New York ) ( or NRNY, which former became part of the Rutland Railroad ). This “ refrigerator on wheels ” was a specify achiever since it was alone functional in coldness weather. That lapp year, the Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroad ( O & LC ) began shipping butter to Boston in purpose-built freight cars, utilize ice rink for cool .

meat [edit ]

The first cargo of dress beef left the Chicago stock yards in 1857 in ordinary boxcars retrofitted with bins filled with ice. Placing kernel directly against ice resulted in stain and affected the taste, proving to be airy. During the like period Gustavas Swift experimented by moving write out kernel using a chain of ten boxcars with their doors removed, and made a few test shipments to New York during the winter months over the Grand Trunk Railway ( GTR ). The method acting proved besides limited to be practical. Detroit ‘s William Davis patented a refrigerator car that employed alloy racks to suspend the carcasses above a freeze mix of ice and strategic arms limitation talks. In 1868, he sold the design to George H. Hammond, a Detroit meat meat packer, who built a set of cars to transport his products to Boston using ice from the Great Lakes for cooling. [ 3 ] The load had the tendency of swinging to one slope when the car entered a wind at high speed, and use of the units was discontinued after several derailments. In 1878 Swift hired engineer Andrew Chase to design a ventilate car that was well insulated, and positioned the ice in a compartment at the lead of the car, allowing the cool air to flow naturally down. [ 4 ] The kernel was packed tightly at the bottom of the cable car to keep the center of graveness low and to prevent the cargo from shifting. Chase ‘s design proved to be a hardheaded solution, providing temperature-controlled carriage of preen meats, This allowed Swift and Company to ship their products across the United States and internationally. Swift ‘s attempts to sell Chase ‘s design to major railroads were rebuffed, as the companies feared that they would jeopardize their considerable investments in stock cars, animal pens, and feedlots if refrigerated kernel transport gained wide credence. In response, Swift financed the initial production footrace on his own, then — when the American roads refused his clientele — he contracted with the GTR ( a railroad that derived little income from transporting live cattle ) to haul the cars into Michigan and then east through Canada. In 1880 the peninsular Car Company ( subsequently purchased by ACF ) delivered the foremost of these units to Swift, and the Swift Refrigerator Line ( SRL ) was created. Within a year, the Line ‘s roll had risen to about 200 units, and Swift was transporting an average of 3,000 carcasses a week to Boston, Massachusetts. Competing firms such as Armour and Company promptly followed lawsuit. By 1920, the SRL owned and operated 7,000 of the ice-cooled rail cars. The general american Transportation Corporation would assume ownership of the pipeline in 1930 .
Live cattle and dressed 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 capable cars travelled on the Erie, Lackawanna, New York Central, and Pennsylvania railroads. reference : Railway Review, January 29, 1887, p. 62 .
circa 1870 refrigerator car design. Hatches in the roof provided access to the ice tanks at each end 1870 refrigerator car plan. Hatches in the roof provided access to the ice tanks at each 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.
reference : Poor’s Manual of Railroads and ICC and U.S. Census reports .

Fruit & Fresh Produce [edit ]

In the 1870s, the lack of a practical entail to refrigerate peaches limited the markets open to Samuel Rumph, a Georgia yellowish pink agriculturist. In 1875, he invented a refrigerated car and crates that allowed him to grow peaches on a identical big scale and ship them to distant markets. He was the first to achieve this. His innovations created Georgia ‘s fame for peaches, a craw now eclipsed economically by blueberries. [ 5 ] [ 6 ] Edwin Tobias Earl was born on a fruit ranch near Red Bluff, California on May 30, 1858. His father was Joseph Earl, his mother Adelia Chaffee, and his brother was Guy Chaffee Earl. He started his career in the shipping of fruits. By 1886, he was President of the Earl Fruit Company. In 1890, he invented the refrigerator car to transport fruits to the East Coast of the United States. He established the Continental Fruit Express and invested US $ 2,000,000 in refrigerator cars. In 1901, he sold his refrigerator cars to Armour and Company of Chicago and became a millionaire. By the turn of the twentieth hundred, manufactured ice became more common. The Pacific Fruit Express ( PFE ) – a joint speculation between the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads, with a fleet of 6,600 refrigerator cars built by the american english Car and Foundry Company ( ACF ) [ 7 ] – maintained seven natural harvesting facilities, and operated 18 artificial ice plants. Their largest plant ( located in Roseville, California ) produced 1,200 short tons ( 1,100 deoxythymidine monophosphate ) of internal-combustion engine daily, and Roseville ‘s docks could accommodate up to 254 cars. At the diligence ‘s bill, 1,300,000 short tons ( 1,200,000 t ) of ice was produced for refrigerator car function annually .

ice [edit ]

The use of ice to refrigerate and preserve food dates back to prehistoric times. Through the ages, the seasonal harvest of coke and internal-combustion engine was a regular practice of many cultures. China, Greece, and Rome stored ice and snow in caves, dugouts or ice houses lined with strew or other isolate materials. Rationing of the ice rink allowed the preservation of foods during blistering periods, a exercise that was successfully employed for centuries. For most of the nineteenth century, natural ice ( harvested from ponds and lakes ) was used to supply refrigerator cars. At high altitudes or northern latitudes, one foot tanks were much filled with body of water and allowed to freeze. Ice was typically cut into blocks during the winter and stored in isolate warehouses for belated use, with sawdust and hay packed around the methamphetamine blocks to provide extra insulation. A late-19th century wood-bodied joint required re-icing every 250 miles ( 400 kilometer ) to 400 miles ( 640 kilometer ). lead ice is the rehearse of placing a 2-inch ( 51 millimeter ) to 4-inch ( 100 millimeter ) layer of crush ice rink on crown of agrarian products that have eminent respiration rates, need high relative humidity, and profit from having the cool agent sit directly atop the load ( or within individual boxes ). Cars with pre-cooled clean produce were top iced just ahead dispatch. top frost added considerable dead weight to the load. Top-icing a 40-foot ( 12 megabyte ) joint required in overindulgence of 10,000 pounds ( 4,500 kilogram ) of ice. It had been postulated that as the ice rink melts, the resulting chill water would trickle down through the load to continue the cooling work. It was found, however, that top-icing alone benefited the uppermost layers of the cargo, and that the water from the melting methamphetamine much passed through spaces between the cartons and pallets with little or no cooling effect. It was ultimately determined that top-icing is utilitarian only in preventing an increase in temperature, and was finally discontinued .

• serviceman harvest ice on Michigan ‘s Lake Saint Clair, circa 1905. The ice was cut into blocks and hauled by wagon to a cold repositing warehouse, and held until needed
• ice blocks ( besides called “ cakes ” ) are manually placed into reefers from a cover ice pier. Each jam weighed between 200 pounds ( 91 kilogram ) to 400 pounds ( 180 kilogram ). Crushed ice was typically used for kernel cars

The typical service cycle for an ice-cooled produce joint ( by and large handled as a character of a bice was sporadic ) using particularly designed field icing cars .

1. The cars were delivered to the shipper for loading, and the ice was topped-off.
2. Depending on the cargo and destination, the cars may have been fumigated.
3. The train would depart for the eastern markets.
4. The cars were re-iced in transit approximately once a day.
5. Upon reaching their destination, the cars were unloaded.
6. If in demand, the cars would be returned to their point of origin empty. If not in demand, the cars would be cleaned and possibly used for a dry shipment.

• This engraving of Tiffany ‘s original “ Summer and Winter Car ” appeared in the Railroad Gazette fair earlier Joel Tiffany received his refrigerator cable car apparent in July, 1877. Tiffany ‘s design mounted the methamphetamine tank in a clerestory atop the car ‘s roof, and relied on a train ‘s gesture to circulate cool publicize throughout the cargo quad
• A rare double-door refrigerator cable car utilized the “ Hanrahan System of Automatic Refrigeration ” as built by ACF, circa 1898. The car had a individual, centrally located ice bunker which was said to offer better cold publicize distribution. The two segregated cold rooms were well suited for less-than-carload ( LCL ) shipments
• A pre-1911 “ shorty ” joint bears an ad for Anheuser-Busch ‘s Malt Nutrine tonic. The use of exchangeable “ billboard ” advertising on freight cars was banned by the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1937, and thereafter cars so decorated could nobelium retentive be accepted for interchange between roads

Refrigerator cars required effective insulation to protect their contents from temperature extremes. “ Hairfelt “ derived from compressed cattle hair, sandwiched into the floor and walls of the car, was cheap, even flawed over its three- to four-year service life it would decay, rotting out the car ‘s wooden partitions and tainting the cargo with a foul olfactory property. The higher price of other materials such as “ Linofelt ” ( woven from flax fibers ) or phellem prevented their far-flung adoption. man-made materials such as fiberglass and polystyrene foam, both introduced after World War II, offered the most cost-efficient and practical solution. The United States Office of Defense Transportation implemented compulsory pool of class RS produce refrigerator cars from 1941 through 1948. World War II feel found the cars spending 60 percentage of their time traveling loaded, 30 percentage traveling empty, and 10 percentage dead ; and indicated the average 14 loads each car carried per year included 5 requiring bunker ice, 1 requiring heating, and 8 using public discussion or top ice. [ 8 ] Following experience with classify cable car specifications, the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association ( UFF & VA ) listed what they considered the best features of ice refrigerator cars in 1948 : [ 9 ]

• Steel cars (vs wood) for better insulation protection and greater rigidity resulting in reduced leakage around doors
• A minimum of 4 inches (10 cm) insulation thickness with all insulation protected from moisture
• Cushioned trucks and draft gear to minimize jarring and bruising of produce
• Standardized interior dimensions to allow improved loading methods with standardized containers
• Adjustable ice bunker bulkheads to allow greater floor space for shippers using top icing alone
• Vertically adjustable grates within the ice bunkers to allow half-stage icing to reduce icing charges where appropriate
• Forced air circulation within the car
• An additional lining to allow side wall flues circulating air around all cargo preventing contact with exterior car walls
• Perforated floor racks providing similar protection and air circulation under the cargo
• Provisions for pre-cooling the cars with a portable unit at the loading platforms.

mechanical refrigeration [edit ]

In the latter half of the twentieth century, mechanical refrigeration began to replace ice-based systems. soon after, mechanical refrigeration units replaced the “ armies ” of personnel required to re-ice the cars. The sliding ballyhoo doorway was introduced experimentally by P.F.E. ( Pacific Fruit Express ) in April 1947, when one of their R-40-10 series cars, # 42626, was equipped with one. P.F.E. ‘s R-40-26 serial reefers, designed in 1949 and built in 1951, were the beginning product series cars to be indeed furnished. In addition, the Santa Fe Railroad beginning used ballyhoo doors on their SFRD RR-47 series cars, which were besides built in 1951. This character of door provided a larger six infantry opening to facilitate cable car load and drop. These tight-fitting doors were well insulated and could maintain an even temperature inside the car. By the mid-1970s, the few remaining ice bunker cars were relegated to “ top-ice ” serve, where crushed ice was applied atop the commodity .

cryogenic refrigeration [edit ]

The Topeka, Kansas shops of the Santa Fe Railway built five experimental refrigerator cars employing liquid nitrogen as the cooling agent in 1965. A mist induced by liquefy nitrogen was released throughout the car if the temperature rose above a pre-determined level. Each car carried 3,000 pounds ( 1,400 kilogram ) of refrigerant and could maintain a temperature of minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit ( −30 °C ). During the 1990s, a few car manufacturers experimented with the practice of liquid carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) as a cool agent. The motivate was in response to rising fuel costs, and was an attack to eliminate the standard mechanical refrigeration systems that required periodic alimony. The CO2 system can keep the cargo frozen solid a retentive as 14 to 16 days. several hundred “ cryogenic “ refrigerator cars were placed in service transporting frozen foodstuffs, though they failed to gain wide-eyed acceptance ( due, in part, to the rising cost of fluent carbon paper dioxide ). Because cryogenic refrigeration is a proved technology and environmentally friendly, the rising price of fuel and the increase handiness of carbon paper dioxide from Kyoto Protocol -induced capturing techniques may lead to a revival in cryogenic car custom.

experiment [edit ]

Aluminum and stainless sword [edit ]

respective experimental cars were built when wartime production restrictions were relaxed in 1946 :
During the 1930s, the north american Car Company produced a one-of-a-kind, four-wheel ice bunker joint intended to serve the needs of specify shippers who did not generate sufficient product to fill a full-sized refrigerator car. NADX # 10000 was a 22-foot ( 6.71 thousand ) -long, all-steel car that resembled the forty-and-eights used in Europe during World War I. The prototype weighed 13.5 short tons ( 12.2 metric ton ; 12.1 farseeing tons ) and was outfitted with a 1,500 pound ( 680 kilogram ) ice bunker at each end. The car was leased to Hormel and saw service between Chicago, Illinois and the southern United States. The concept failed to gain toleration with eastern railroads and no extra units were built .

Dry frost [edit ]

The Santa Fe Refrigerator Despatch ( SFRD ) concisely experimented with dry ice as a cooling agent in 1931. The compound was promptly available and seemed like an ideal surrogate for freeze body of water. Dry frost melts at −109 °F or −78.33 °C ( versus 32 °F or 0 °C for conventional ice ) and was doubly equally effective thermodynamically. overall burden was reduced as the indigence for brine and water was eliminated. While the higher cost of dry frost was surely a drawback, logistic issues in loading long lines of cars efficiently prevented it from gaining toleration over conventional methamphetamine. Worst of all, it was found that dry ice can adversely affect the color and flavor of certain foods if placed excessively closely to them .

Hopper cars [edit ]

In 1969, the Northern Pacific Railroad ordered a issue of modify breed hop-picker cars from american english Car and Foundry for transporting perishable food in bulk. The 55-foot ( 16.76 molarity ) -long cars were blanketed with a layer of insulating material, equipped with roof hatches for load, and had centerflow openings along the bottom for fast release. A mechanical refrigeration unit of measurement was installed at each end of the car, where sheet metallic element ducting forced cool publicize into the cargo compartments. The units, rated at 100 short tons ( 91 metric ton ; 89 farseeing tons ) capacity ( more than doubly that of the largest conventional refrigerator car of the sidereal day ) were economical to load and unload, as no secondary box was required. Apples, carrots, onions, and potatoes were transported in this manner with moderate success. Oranges, on the other handwriting, tended to burst under their own weight, even after wooden baffles were installed to better distribute the load. The Santa Fe Railway leased 100 of the hoppers from ACF, and in April 1972 purchased 100 new units, known as “ Conditionaire ” cars. [ 12 ] The cars ‘ irregular, orange-colored extinct airfoil ( though colored than the standard AT & SF yellow-orange used on reefers ) tended to collect crap easily, and proved unmanageable to clean. Santa Fe finally relegated the cars to more distinctive, non-refrigerated applications .

preservation [edit ]

Examples of many styles of refrigerator and ice cars can be found at railway museums around the global. The Western Pacific Railroad Museum at Portola, California features a very complete roll of twentieth century cars, including wood bodied ice cars, steel bodied ice cars, one of the earliest mechanical refrigerator cars, late mechanical refrigerator cars and a cryogenic joint, angstrom well as respective “ insulated ” boxcars besides used for food transport .

refrigerator cars in Japan [edit ]

The first refrigerate cars in Japan entered service in 1908 for pisces tape drive. many of these cars were equipped with ice bunkers, however the bunkers were not used by and large. fish were packed in wooden or foam polystyrene boxes with jam ice. yield and kernel transportation system in refrigerated rail cars was not common in Japan. For fruits and vegetables, ventilator cars were sufficient due to the brusque distances involved in transportation system. meat required abject temperature storehouse, transported by ship, since most major japanese cities are located along the coast. Refrigerator cars suffered heavy damage in World War II. After the war, the occupation forces confiscated many cars for their own use, utilizing the ice bunkers as primitively intended. Supplies were landed chiefly at Yokohama, and reefer trains ran from the port to U.S. bases around Japan. In 1966, JNR developed “ resa 10000 ” and “ remufu 10000 ” type refrigerated cars that could travel at 62 miles per hour ( 100 kilometers per hour ) They were used in fish freight express trains. “ Tobiuo ” ( Flying fish ) train from Shimonoseki to Tokyo, and “ Ginrin ” ( Silver scale ) train from Hakata to Tokyo, were operated. By the 1960s, refrigerator trucks had begun to displace railcars. Strikes in the 1970s resulted in the personnel casualty of dependability and punctuality, important to fish department of transportation. In 1986, the last refrigerated cars were replaced by joint containers. Most japanese reefers were four-wheel due to small traffic demands. There were very few bogey wagons in late years. The total phone number of japanese reefers numbered approximately 8,100. At their point, approximately 5,000 refrigerate cars operated in the late 1960s. mechanical refrigerators were tested, but did not see far-flung use. There were no privately owned reefers in Japan. This is because fish transportation was protected by national policies and rates were kept low, and there was little profit in refrigerate car ownership .

Refrigerated trains in the United Kingdom [edit ]

1925 GWR Mica A ice-chilled van as preserved at Didcot Railway Centre. Preserved as a Tevan used for non-refrigerated perishable traffic such as dry tea ascribable to the shorter distance to be travelled in the United Kingdom, the need for refrigeration was limited to specialised goods, which could in express-train format – by and large run nightlong to avoid delays from passenger traffic – be transported in suitable timescales of less than a day from the area of product to process, or onwards to the degree of consumer consumption. Hence whilst like cattle, fish, yield and farm-fresh produce ship requirements existed, the indigence to refrigerate was frequently minimised by the habit of non-stop express caravan avail to the want destination. In model, the London Midland and Scottish Railway ran specialised express trains from kernel manufacturer hub in Scotland and the North of England to the Smithfield Meat Market in London, with a dedicate goods station located below ground level directly into the market ‘s slaughtering house. The LMS and the LNER besides ran press out fish trains from Fleetwood and Grimsby to Broad Street to access Billingsgate Fish Market. [ 13 ] The big four railroad track companies standardised within their own networks their own ice-chilled wagons, which being built with more insulation again minimised the need for onboard mechanical refrigeration. The big westerly Railway designed and built their own Mica A ( ventilated ) and Mica B ( Non-ventilated ) vans for such express produce trains, with ice supplied by the master product producer from their own plant. One specialize shape of fresh produce educate which existed in the UK was the milk train, which through habit of specialize chilled glass-lined wagons remained in service until 1981. Like many railways around the world, modern UK railways do ship specialised refrigerate containers on intermodal trains, with such trains nowadays taking-over the roll again from long-distance truck on hub-to-hub routes to reduce carbon foot print. DB Cargo UK runs Europe ‘s longest-distance single-operator handled train from Valencia, Spain to Barking in East London twice weekly, in partnership with Eddie Stobart Logistics and retailer Tesco ‘s, shipping fresh fruit and produce 1,800 km in refrigerated ISO containers. [ 14 ]

timeline [edit ]

specify applications [edit ]

Express service [edit ]

Standard refrigerated transport is frequently utilize for goods with less than 14 days of refrigerate “ ledge life ” — avocado, cut flowers, green leafy vegetables, boodle, mangoes, meat products, mushrooms, peaches and nectarines, pineapples and papaya, fresh cherries, and tomatoes. “ Express ” reefers are typically employed in the tape drive of special perishables : commodities with a refrigerated shelf life of less than seven days, such as human rake, fish, park onions, milk, strawberries, and certain pharmaceuticals. The earliest express-service refrigerator cars entered servicing around 1890, concisely after the first express prepare routes were established in North America. The cars did not come into general consumption until the early twentieth hundred. Most units designed for press out service are larger than their standard counterparts, and are typically constructed more along the lines of baggage cars than freight equipment. Cars must be equipped with speed-rated trucks and brakes, and — if they are to be run ahead of the passenger car, must besides incorporate an air line for pneumatic brake, a communication bespeak air travel line, and a steam line for prepare heat. Express units were typically painted in passenger car colors, such as Pullman green. The beginning purpose-built express joint emerged from the Erie Railroad Susquehanna Shops on August 1, 1886. By 1927, some 2,218 express cars traveled America ‘s rails, and three years late that number rose to 3,264. In 1940, private train lines began to build and operate their own reefers, the Railway Express Agency ( REA ) being by far the largest. In 1948, the REA roll ( which would continue to expand into the 1950s ) numbered approximately 1,800 cars, many of which were World War II ” troop sleepers “ modified for express refrigerated transport. By 1965, due to a decline in refrigerate dealings, many express reefers were leased to railroads for use as bulk chain mail carriers .

Intermodal [edit ]

For many years, virtually all of the perishable traffic in the United States was carried by the railroads. While railroads were subject to government regulation regarding ship rates, hauling companies could set their own rate for hauling agrarian products, giving them a competitive advantage. In March 1979, the ICC exempted rail transportation of clean fruits and vegetables from all economic regulation. Once the “ agrarian exemption Clause ” was removed from the Interstate Commerce Act, railroads began aggressively pursuing trailer-on-flatcar ( TOFC ) commercial enterprise ( a form of intermodal freight tape drive ) for refrigerated trailers. Taking this one step foster, a total of carriers ( including the PFE and SFRD ) purchased their own refrigerated trailers to compete with interstate trucks .

Tropicana “ Juice Train ” [edit ]

Former Tropicana refrigerator car In 1970, Tropicana orange juice was shipped in bulk via isolate boxcars in one weekly round-trip from Bradenton, Florida, to Kearny, New Jersey. By the pursuit year, the company was operating two 60-car unit of measurement trains a workweek, each carrying about 1,000,000 US gallons ( 3,800,000 L ; 830,000 elf gal ) of juice. On June 7, 1971, the “ Great White Juice Train ” ( the first unit train in the food industry, consisting of 150 100-short-ton ( 91 thyroxine ; 89-long-ton ) insulated boxcars fabricated in the Alexandria, Virginia, shops of Fruit Growers Express ) commenced service over the 1,250 miles ( 2,010 kilometer ) route. An extra 100 cars were soon added, and little mechanical refrigeration units were installed to keep temperatures constant. Tropicana saved $ 40 million in fuel costs during the first ten-spot years in operation .

Railex and other unit of measurement trains [edit ]

In 2006 Railex LLC launched service in partnership with the Union Pacific Railroad and CSX between Wallula, Washington, and Rotterdam, New York, followed in 2008 by a Delano, California, to NY line, and Jacksonville, Florida service from the west seashore in 2014. Railex runs unit trains of 55 boastfully, “ plate F ” refrigerated cars. [ 16 ] Two extra refrigerated unit-train services were announced in 2013, the Green Express, from Tampa, Florida to Kingsbury, Indiana, operated by CSX and the Tampa Port Authority, [ 17 ] and the TransCold Express operated by McKay Transcold, LLC and BNSF, connecting the California Central Valley with the midwest. [ 18 ]

AAR classifications [edit ]

AAR classifications of refrigerator car types[19]

Class

Description

Class

Description

  RA

Brine-tank ice bunkers

  RPB

Mechanical refrigerator with electro-mechanical axle drive  

  RAM

Brine-tank ice bunkers with beef rails

  RPL

Mechanical refrigerator with loading devices

  RAMH  

Brine-tank with beef rails and heaters

  RPM

Mechanical refrigerator with beef rails

  RB

No ice bunkers — heavy insulation

  RS

Bunker refrigerator — common ice bunker car

  RBL

No ice bunkers and loading devices

  RSB

Bunker refrigerator — air fans and loading devices

  RBH

No ice bunkers — gas heaters

  RSM

Bunker refrigerator with beef rails

  RBLH

No ice bunkers — loading devices and heaters

  RSMH  

Bunker refrigerator with beef rails and heaters

  RCD

Solid carbon-dioxide refrigerator

  RSTC

Bunker refrigerator — electric air fans

  RLO

Special car type — permanently enclosed (covered hopper type)    

  RSTM

Bunker refrigerator — electric air fans and beef rails

  RP

Mechanical refrigerator

• Note: Class B refrigerator cars are those designed for passenger service; insulated boxcars are designated Class L.

See besides [edit ]

References [edit ]

Notes

biography

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