The Reefer Orange Christmas Story
When I was growing up, there was no shortage of Christmas presents for the kids. Big toys were set up unwrapped and near the Christmas tree. This was true for the HO train set I got when I was 6 and the stereo my sister and I asked for (and peacefully shared) when I was 14 and she was 10. Most medium sized toys and clothes were wrapped in holiday wrapping paper that would quickly litter the living room floor on Christmas morning. Very small toys were placed in special Christmas stockings for us to reach inside and pull out.
One year when I was in early grade school I reached into the stocking and pulled out some oranges, among other things. My maternal grandfather was rather pleased with himself. Now we were never lacking for food, especially fresh fruit and vegetables, so I was puzzled about the appearance of oranges in my Christmas stocking. However, I was perceptive enough to see that my grandfather thought it was a big deal, so I politely thanked him. He explained that when he was a child, getting oranges in their Christmas stockings was a special treat for him and his brothers and sisters. It really was a big deal, but that took years to find out.
My maternal grandfather along with his father and all four of his brothers worked for the Santa Fe Railway at some point in their lives as did some of their sons. In the case of my grandfather and two of his brothers, they were lifelong railroaders. It turned out that the Santa Fe Railway was responsible more than any other company for the citrus industry in the United States. The Spanish missionaries planted orange and lemon trees on the grounds of their missions in California. Many of the Spanish people in California planted orange trees in their yard, and there were small citrus farms to supply fruit for city dwellers that didn’t have their own fruit trees. This situation continued from Spanish colony to Mexican state to US territory and statehood. Visitors and newly arrived American settlers enjoyed oranges, but the ripe fruit does not keep well after a few days at room temperature.
In 1869 the local railways of California were connected to the rest of the rapidly growing American rail system by the first Transcontinental Railway; however, fresh farm produce grown in California didn’t fare very well on a slow 3000 mile rail journey across frozen, snowy mountain ranges and hot deserts to the populous East Coast. In those days a passenger might make the trip in as little as a week to ten days, but freight could take a month or more. Improvements in freight cars, locomotives, track, and signals gradually reduced the travel time, but the real breakthrough for shipping fresh farm produce was the insulated, ice-cooled refrigerator car, also known to railroaders as a reefer. Reefers had roof hatches at each corner so blocks of ice could be added, and air blown by fans kept the fruit cool. The Santa Fe Railway started shipping oranges out of California in ice reefers as early as the 1880’s and did so into the 1970’s.
It was the advent of the ice reefer that made it practical and profitable for growers in California to supply massive quantities of citrus fruit to cities in the Midwest and on the East Coast. Without the railways, farmers would have continued growing only enough to supply their local market, and oranges would have remained almost unknown outside their local growing areas. By the time my grandfather was born in 1907, the Santa Fe Railway shipped about half the citrus fruit grown in the US, and that market was rapidly expanding. So it was ORANGES that stimulated the need for higher capacity freight cars, more powerful steam locomotives, stronger track to support the heavier trains, and automatic block signal systems to keep the traffic moving. Besides eastbound produce, the Santa Fe also moved manufactured goods west, cattle from the Southwest to the Midwest slaughterhouses, grain from the Midwest, and passengers and mail in both directions. What coal and steel were to the eastern railroads, ORANGES were to the Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, and Union Pacific. The really explosive growth in produce traffic from California happened during my grandfather’s railroading career from the mid 1920’s to the late ‘60’s. Midway through his career, he saw the steam to diesel locomotive transition. Of course, his job was to keep the track well-maintained for high speeds and heavy tonnage.
In this photo you see a Santa Fe steel refrigerator car from Atlas painted orange and a Santa Fe wooden reefer from Micro Trains painted yellow. I custom mixed the orange car based on a paint formula that is more accurate for the 1960’s than earlier years. The yellow car was factory painted and more accurate for earlier paint mixes. There are so-called “standard” Reefer Orange and Reefer Yellow paints available and many mixes that were used by individual railroads and may be similar or quite a bit different from “standard” model railroad colors. Railroads also changed their color mixes over the years, and their freight car suppliers sometimes deviated from their customers’ specifications. Color photos now available clearly show color variations that I didn’t know about when I first started serious modeling. To further complicate things, my favorite paint supplier, Floquil and Polly S were bought out by Testors who decided to discontinue those excellent brands. The Polly S paints shown above are store remnants. Which supplier will I use when these run out or will my painting days be over?
The Reefer Orange Christmas Story
When I was growing up, there was no shortage of Christmas presents for the kids. Big toys were set up unwrapped and near the Christmas tree. This was true for the HO train set I got when I was 6 and the stereo my sister and I asked for (and peacefully shared) when I was 14 and she was 10. Most medium sized toys and clothes were wrapped in holiday wrapping paper that would quickly litter the living room floor on Christmas morning. Very small toys were placed in special Christmas stockings for us to reach inside and pull out.
One year when I was in early grade school I reached into the stocking and pulled out some oranges, among other things. My maternal grandfather was rather pleased with himself. Now we were never lacking for food, especially fresh fruit and vegetables, so I was puzzled about the appearance of oranges in my Christmas stocking. However, I was perceptive enough to see that my grandfather thought it was a big deal, so I politely thanked him. He explained that when he was a child, getting oranges in their Christmas stockings was a special treat for him and his brothers and sisters. It really was a big deal, but that took years to find out.
My maternal grandfather along with his father and all four of his brothers worked for the Santa Fe Railway at some point in their lives as did some of their sons. In the case of my grandfather and two of his brothers, they were lifelong railroaders. It turned out that the Santa Fe Railway was responsible more than any other company for the citrus industry in the United States. The Spanish missionaries planted orange and lemon trees on the grounds of their missions in California. Many of the Spanish people in California planted orange trees in their yard, and there were small citrus farms to supply fruit for city dwellers that didn’t have their own fruit trees. This situation continued from Spanish colony to Mexican state to US territory and statehood. Visitors and newly arrived American settlers enjoyed oranges, but the ripe fruit does not keep well after a few days at room temperature.
In 1869 the local railways of California were connected to the rest of the rapidly growing American rail system by the first Transcontinental Railway; however, fresh farm produce grown in California didn’t fare very well on a slow 3000 mile rail journey across frozen, snowy mountain ranges and hot deserts to the populous East Coast. In those days a passenger might make the trip in as little as a week to ten days, but freight could take a month or more. Improvements in freight cars, locomotives, track, and signals gradually reduced the travel time, but the real breakthrough for shipping fresh farm produce was the insulated, ice-cooled refrigerator car, also known to railroaders as a reefer. Reefers had roof hatches at each corner so blocks of ice could be added, and air blown by fans kept the fruit cool. The Santa Fe Railway started shipping oranges out of California in ice reefers as early as the 1880’s and did so into the 1970’s.
It was the advent of the ice reefer that made it practical and profitable for growers in California to supply massive quantities of citrus fruit to cities in the Midwest and on the East Coast. Without the railways, farmers would have continued growing only enough to supply their local market, and oranges would have remained almost unknown outside their local growing areas. By the time my grandfather was born in 1907, the Santa Fe Railway shipped about half the citrus fruit grown in the US, and that market was rapidly expanding. So it was ORANGES that stimulated the need for higher capacity freight cars, more powerful steam locomotives, stronger track to support the heavier trains, and automatic block signal systems to keep the traffic moving. Besides eastbound produce, the Santa Fe also moved manufactured goods west, cattle from the Southwest to the Midwest slaughterhouses, grain from the Midwest, and passengers and mail in both directions. What coal and steel were to the eastern railroads, ORANGES were to the Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, and Union Pacific. The really explosive growth in produce traffic from California happened during my grandfather’s railroading career from the mid 1920’s to the late ‘60’s. Midway through his career, he saw the steam to diesel locomotive transition. Of course, his job was to keep the track well-maintained for high speeds and heavy tonnage.
In this photo you see a Santa Fe steel refrigerator car from Atlas painted orange and a Santa Fe wooden reefer from Micro Trains painted yellow. I custom mixed the orange car based on a paint formula that is more accurate for the 1960’s than earlier years. The yellow car was factory painted and more accurate for earlier paint mixes. There are so-called “standard” Reefer Orange and Reefer Yellow paints available and many mixes that were used by individual railroads and may be similar or quite a bit different from “standard” model railroad colors. Railroads also changed their color mixes over the years, and their freight car suppliers sometimes deviated from their customers’ specifications. Color photos now available clearly show color variations that I didn’t know about when I first started serious modeling. To further complicate things, my favorite paint supplier, Floquil and Polly S were bought out by Testors who decided to discontinue those excellent brands. The Polly S paints shown above are store remnants. Which supplier will I use when these run out or will my painting days be over?