Prototype Operations

In the blocking of a train, loaded stock usually ran directly behind the engine, followed by loaded ice reefers. Reefers were usually kept in a block and at the head end to expedite re-icing along the way. ATSF #42 which ran from Denver to Kansas City was an exception, where reefers were placed as a block on the rear from Dodge City to Newton to expedite switching in Newton.

In the 1950s, the ATSF ran several express trains which would have a high percentage of reefers. These could appear in a number of sections.

From anywhere ATSF served in California, delivery to Chicago was scheduled for the 6th morning. Bakersfield gathered cars from branch lines as far away as San Francisco (341 miles) and San Bernardio served as far as National City (154 miles).

The Indiana Harbor Belt delivered cars for the continuation of their journey eastward. The Erie carried Santa Fe's reefers to New York and Boston and to New England through the New Haven RR. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia shipments traveled via the Pennsylvania RR. The B&O picked up most Washington traffic.

Tom Casey reported, "I can attest to seeing frequent large blocks of Santa Fe reefers going through on the GTW out of Chicago in the late '50's and early '60's. These reefers appears in groups of a few cars and as many as a few dozen interspersed in an Eastbound fast freight. That implies there would be plenty of these reefer blocks were destined for points in Michigan and, most likely into Canada, towards the Quebec & Toronto areas. Since GTW's connection to the Santa Fe was direct, end-to-end rather than PFE/UP interchange partners in the Chicago area; MILW Rd & C&NW (both connect to ATSF and GTW via IHB) I'm led to wonder if this led to a higher ratio of SFRD reefers over PFE cars in GTW trains. "

The cycle for a produce reefer would general be as follows:

One headache for Railroads was the opportunity for a shipper to divert a load. In practice, this made the reefer into a rolling warehouse. The unsold produce was loaded in California and headed east. At any time it could be sold, and that car would be redirected. These cars of unsold produce were known as rollers. Historically, 25% of the cars leaving California were rollers. The record for diversions for a single car was 29 times! Santa Fe subsequently changed the rules allowing for 3 free diversions before substantial charges were added. The major diversion points were Belen, Kansas City, and Chicago, but it could happen at nearly any location.

Bill Messecar provided a quote from the ATSF at a 1956 ICC hearing "In 1954 we accomplished a total of 43,581 diversions on perishables originating in Mountain-Pacific territory, approximately one-third of them at Belen, New Mexico. Aside from the telegraphing and clerical work involved in handling these 43,581 diversions, considerable additional switching was required."

Tim Gilbert reported: "Due to the number of days it took to get the produce to the auction block, shippers usually loaded and dispatched a car unsold. Page 379 of Pacific Fruit Express notes that 85% of the cars (in the Northwest) left the fields unsold. Tony Thompson wrote that the routing for most of these unsold loads was Chicago. Somewhere en route, the car would be sold to a broker. The car could be rerouted (diverted), held for a day to wait for a better market, or resold. Indeed, there was no extra charge for three of such changes. "

"Where cars were diverted could be determined by looking at a map. Any junction could be a diversion point. Belen, for instance, was the diversion point where reefers could be pulled from the Santa Fe's Chicago Green Fruit Express (GFX) trains to go to Denver; Clovis for Texas and the southeast; Kansas City for the St. Louis and beyond. Generally, however, most of the produce for the northeast from both the SFRD and PFE were delivered east of Chicago by the ERIE. At Huntington, IN, the ERIE's Train 98 picked up produce from ART; at Marion OH, cars for Detroit, Toledo, and Cincinnati could be dropped from the 98. At Akron, cars could be diverted to Cleveland and Pittsburgh; at Hornell NY, for Philadelphia via the RDG at Newberry Jct. PA; at Binghamton NY for northern New England including Boston; at Port Jervis NY, for southern New England via the New Haven. Finally, the residue of cars would be floated across the Hudson River to ERIE's Duane Street Market in the wee hours of the morning."

"At auction houses like Duane Street, samples would be shown to buyers, and, then the auction would begin. Patsy Totaro, the green grocer from New Canaan, CT (where Tim grew up) would drive his van into Lower Manhattan every morning to pick and choose the produce which he would sell to the ladies of New Canaan the next morning. Patsy was somewhat typical of most green grocers in the area. Some super market chains like A&P, Gristedes, and Grand Union would likewise buy at the market. These chains, however, were somewhat at a disadvantage to green grocers like Patsy because they could only deliver produce via truck; hence, that produce would arrive much
later in the day. Buying at auction houses provided the purchaser an opportunity to examine the quality of the goods before he bought."

"That's the way it was before the supermarket chains got their produce directly, and not through auction houses. Gherke's commented about the market preferring rail over truck because there was better intelligence of when produce would arrive. There was no such intelligence about the arrival of trucks which could distort the market. So the decline of reefer traffic and green grocers could be attributed partially to super markets being able to circumvent the auction markets by getting their produce directly via trucks."

Yet another reefer operation through the 50s involved "Meat Peddler Cars," LCL meat delivery on local trains. Meat packers would take orders from butchers along a line and run a weekly route reefer to service them. This car was usually placed next to the combine or caboose and would stop at depots along the line to be met by the butcher. Such runs could be circuitous and could require up to 3 days to complete their deliveries.

When asked about the mix of non ATSF and ATSF reefers on ATSF trains in California, Andy Sperandeo replied, "The SFRD cars dominate on the ATSF, of course, but many others could and did show up occasionally. I've spotted Fruit Growers Express, Western Fruit Express, Illinois Central, North Western Refrigerator Line, Northern Pacific, and Milwaukee Road (URTX) cars in Santa Fe trains or yards. That's in addition to the ART cars you mentioned, and of course the most common non-SFRD reefers on the Santa Fe were PFEs. And that's not counting the various meat packers' cars that brought loads into southern California - most of the major Midwestern packers had branch houses in California."

Stan Wilson, curator of the Shafter Depot Museum near Bakersfield, CA, reported that at the beginning of the potato season, virtually all cars would be SFRD cars. However, when the stockpile of cars were exhausted, the railroad would use any empty it could get its hands on including WFEX, FGEX, ART, MDT, BREX, BAR, REX, and even a meat reefer. He does not remember seeing any PFE provided by the ATSF in Bakersfield. Potato cars were often sent to the field clean, but not iced. They would be loaded, then fumigated, before being iced back in Bakersfield. Up to 700 loads would depart Bakersfield for the east in a single day.

Richard Hendrickson has written a most informative report tracing one SFRD reefer from Escondidto, CA, to New York. Click here to view this pdf file.

John More has transcribed a fascinating bit of testimony from D. A. Baumgartner before the ICC of September 5, 1956, which details the vast fluctuation between car needs at various times of the year, the need for extra locomotives and crews to handle that need, and the variations in the equipment required for various types of loads. You can find this on Jim Lancaster's Southern California Packing House website.

Baumgartner illustrated the variations with figures from 1955. Bakersfield shipped 507 reefers in January but 11,583 in June. At an average of 77 cars per train, that is a difference of 144 trains per month, with engines and crews. Glendale, Arizona, shipped 5 cars in September but 5,940 in November. At an aveage of 69 cars per train, this amounted to 86 trains per month. West of Belen, the Santa Fe loaded 2,168 cars in February but 17,033 in June. These cars had to be preped and stored in anticipation of the rush. Of course the need for local switch crews and way freights also varied to match this seasonal need.

The SFRD Rule book makes allowances for caretakers who might accompany a shipment via reefers. For sensitive perishables, they would be in charge of the heaters or icing and were to ride in the caboose. Caretaker's instructions supersede anything on the waybill but must be in writing.