View allAll Photos Tagged Reefer
"...if you're humming P's without slurring..."
"...then you know you're groovin' with the Reefer Man"
Here's SP Class AC-8 4185 going well at the west end of Callender, Calif. with an empty reefer block
Wednesday 28 April 1954.
This car started from an Accurail undecorated kit. The underframe and trucks are painted black using Stynylrez primer black. The silver paint is Stynylrez SNR-212 METAL. I think the silver turned out to be the best looking silver color for reefers painted like this.
Trucks are 40 ton from Tahoe Model Works. Couplers are Kadee whisker scale head with the uncoupling pin removed.
Decals are my own design printed by Precision Design Co.
After the car was painted silver, It received an Alclad Aqua Gloss clear gloss coat. The truck frames got the same clear coat treatment as the car. This gloss coat dries VERY fast, but cures fully after about 6 hours. I waited the 6+ hours and then applied the decals. An hour after applying the decals, I shot the car again with Aqua Gloss and then with my Tamiya satin finish mixture including the truck frames. Wheels and couplers were weathered with pigments.
Bergen, Norway on June 2017.
Name:Silver River
IMO:9359650
Flag:Antigua & Barbuda
MMSI:304135000
Callsign:V2PI
Vessel type:Reefer
Gross tonnage:3,538 tons
Summer DWT:2,500 tons
Length:83 m, Beam:16 m,
Draught:5.9 m
Home port:Saint John's
Build year:2007
Before air freight and the highways took control, the railroads moved premium perishable shipments in refrigerator cars or express reefers.
ARGENTINEAN REEFER
...ex TAVEUNI
DNK
OWNERS: Rederiet Ocean A/S
Port of Registry: DNK Esbjerg
IDNo:5023239
Year:1941
Name:ARGENTINEAN REEFER
Keel:
Type:Cargo ship (ref)
Launch Date:20.4.40
Flag:DNK
Date of completion:8.1.41
Tons:2826
Link:1004
DWT:3355
Yard No:67
Length overall:114.0
Ship Design:
LPP:107.3
Country of build:DNK
Beam:15.7
Builder:Aalborg Vaerft
Material of build:
Location of yard:Aalborg
Number of
screws/Mchy/
Speed(kn):2D-15.5
Naval or paramilitary marking :
A:*
End:1973
Subsequent History:
[commissioned 7.45] - 68 TAVEUNI - 72 WAN LEE
Disposal Data:
BU Kaohsiung 23.4.73 [Chow's Iron & Steel Corp]
Details: Mirimar Ship Index
Photo Credits: With many thanks to the late Walter E. Frost and families
Refrigerator cars, or “reefers,” had an enormous impact on California’s agricultural history. Before refrigerator cars were perfected, most of California’s perishable produce could only be sold locally, thereby limiting the state’s agricultural potential. Experiments with refrigerator cars began in the 1860s and by 1872, meat was being shipped successfully within the Eastern states. By 1887, wholesale meat shipping was reliable enough to allow Midwestern cities such as Chicago and Kansas City to become national meat packing centers.
The idea of shipping fruit and vegetables as well quickly caught on. In 1887, there were 2,200 shipments of citrus from California and, by 1893, that number had more than doubled. California growers were no longer restricted to local markets and as a result, the agricultural industry expanded until California became the number one farm state in America. In 1924, when this refrigerator car was built, more than 150,000 similar cars were in service.
Refrigerator cars could not operate efficiently without an elaborate support system. Icing stations had to be located at regular intervals, railroad scheduling had to be reliable so that trains would reach the icing stations before the ice melted, and a dependable marketing system had to be in operation so that the most perishable produce would not rot on the loading docks. Most railroads were slow to recognize the significant profit to be made with refrigerator cars. Initially, private companies owned the reefers and contracted with the railroads to haul them, operating “fruit blocks,” special trains consisting entirely of refrigerator cars carrying perishables. These trains were given priority over most other traffic. Eventually most railroads purchased their own refrigerator cars or formed refrigerator car subsidiaries with other railroads.
The most successful private refrigerator car company was the Armour Car Lines, including its subsidiary, the Fruit Growers Express. Though their success led to their downfall as, in 1919, the Federal Trade Commission ordered the sale of the produce hauling subsidiary for antitrust reasons. A group of eastern and southern railroads formed a new Fruit Growers Express Company in 1920 to take over the operations. By 1926, FGE had expanded service into the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest through its partly owned cooperating subsidiaries, Western Fruit Express and Burlington Fruit Express. FGE refrigerator car No. 35832 was built in the Company’s Indiana Harbor shops in 1924. It was designated a type RS car which is the Association of American Railroads’ abbreviation for a refrigerator car using ice, or ice and salt in combination to cool the load space. The steel-framed wood-sheathed car operated for thirty-eight years in general railroad service until its retirement in 1962.
The car was sold to the Rainier Ice and Cold Storage Company of Seattle, Washington and subsequently purchased by the Pacific Coast Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society for $1,500 in 1973. The Chapter reconditioned the car at a cost of $14,367.51 and donated it to the California State Railroad Museum in 1974. The Museum restored the reefer to its 1938 appearance to represent a typical refrigerator car of the 1920s to 1940s.
Fruit Growers Express Company refrigerator car No. 35832 is displayed in the Museum’s Great Hall beside an icing platform. Museum visitors may enter the car, where an audio-visual program tells the story of refrigerator cars and their influence on the development of California’s agriculture.
The Reefer TENO (1987 10298gt IMO 8616312) is pictured in the Port of Sheerness on September 1st 2012.