Fruit Growers Express

[Dave V]

Henry, thanks!  I also found this handy reference on Jerry's Keystone Crossings site:

http://kc.pennsyrr.com/model/reefer.php

[Bob Bufkin]

FGE is till a corporation owned by CSX and it's headquarters are in Jacksonville, FL.  Don't know if they still build and repairs cars as I can't find any info.

Here's a photo from early 70's taken just outside the Alexandria, VA facility which was also building cabooses at the time.  Never could get near enough to check out the facility as security was tight.  Today all the land is high rises and office buildings.

[sirenwerks]

Red Caboose once offered an FGE release on the old Precision Masters plug door reefer, but the scheme was not prototypical.

I don't remember this car and would be interested to see one. N scale's sorely lacking a steel horizontal seam 40' car, in regular and plug versions. Many of IMRC's paint schemes are on blatantly the wrong design car side and it's a shame too, since no decal manufacturer's keen on making steel billboard reefer sets (several versions of Armour car decals did just get released though). In terms of steel cars, aside from the IMRC and MT cars (both PFE designs), the Model Power car (of unknown origin), and the Con-Cor car (a plug door of unknown origin) anyone modeling the meat packing industry or traffic has little choice in N scale, since meat packers limited themselves to 40' cars. We could use that PM plug door car back in production.

[jmlaboda]

"You 'Sleep depraved'Huh???  That's funny!"

Glad someone thinks so... I don't.

[bbussey]

Not to hijack a thread, but since there seems to be very real knowledge here regarding reefers...  In 1956, what would you have seen on Pennsy mainline in blocks?  It's always hard to read the sides in the photos because back then everyone was shooting the power.  My guess would be iced PFE and primarily steel side...  can anyone smart confirm?

California produce definitely traveled east of course, but overall you'd still see more FGE cars than PFE cars in Pennsy freight consists.

[Mark5]

There were 19 railroads that made up Fruit Growers Express, including PRR, B&O, ACL, SAL, SOUTHERN, CB&Q, GN, N&W, NH, NYO&W.

You surely would see tons of them on PRR.

Some good reading here:

http://therailwire.net/forum/index.php/topic,23215.0.html

Mark

[bbussey]

I don't remember this car and would be interested to see one. N scale's sorely lacking a steel horizontal seam 40' car, in regular and plug versions. Many of IMRC's paint schemes are on blatantly the wrong design car side and it's a shame too, since no decal manufacturer's keen on making steel billboard reefer sets (several versions of Armour car decals did just get released though). In terms of steel cars, aside from the IMRC and MT cars (both PFE designs), the Model Power car (of unknown origin), and the Con-Cor car (a plug door of unknown origin) anyone modeling the meat packing industry or traffic has little choice in N scale, since meat packers limited themselves to 40' cars. We could use that PM plug door car back in production.

Here's a pic from Mark "Spookshow" Peterson's site:
http://www.visi.com/~spookshow/freight/rc40steelreefer.html

Not anywhere close to the horizontal belt rail cars unfortunately, and lacking in many details.  The FGE release on the model is totally off from a deco standpoint as well (incomplete dimi data, incorrect reporting marks, incorrect font).  The fact that I spent a lot of time and effort procuring two of the PM FGE models only to discover they weren't passable as stand-ins is what prompted me to build the IMRC/MTL plug door kitbash.  Efforts would be better spent trying to persuade one of the mfrs to tool a new steel plug door reefer instead of asking IMRC/RC to resurrect the old PM model.

Weren't/aren't both Wilson and Swift meat packing companies?  While both had steel 40' reefers, they both ran 36' wood reefers into the 1960s.  I've seen pics of 36' wood reefers for both companies in Alpert-era New Haven consists, which is why I have models of each for my 1956 era.

[jmlaboda]

"Weren't/aren't both Wilson and Swift meat packing companies?  While both had steel 40' reefers, they both ran 36' wood reefers into the 1960s.  I've seen pics of 36' wood reefers for both companies in Alpert-era New Haven consists, which is why I have models of each for my 1956 era."

There was also steel 36' reefers used, like what MT has manufactured.  There still are a lot of reefer types not readily available in N but hopefully we will see more yet coming out.

The article on FGE wood reefers referred to in another post is an excellent resource and I have had my copy for a while now.  It gives more than just a general overview of the cars operated by the various affiliates and is likely the best resource available on the web.  But you better get it while you can... some of the other sources that formerly had it posted have now removed it from their sites, adding them, instead, to the CDs that they sell of past issues...
http://s-clmodeler.aclsal.org/currentissue/fgexwoodencars.pdf

Looking for pix of steel 40-footers... will post what I find in a little while...

[Bob Bufkin]

According to Russ, Swift trucking  and Swift meat packing are somehow connected by name.  He explained it once but forgot the details. 

[sirenwerks]

Weren't/aren't both Wilson and Swift meat packing companies?  While both had steel 40' reefers, they both ran 36' wood reefers into the 1960s.  I've seen pics of 36' wood reefers for both companies in Alpert-era New Haven consists, which is why I have models of each for my 1956 era.

Yes, they both were and the smaller, older cars lasting so long makes sense in the broad scope of things. Wilson and Swift were older companies, with older smaller facilities spread out across the country, and also shipped whole meat products primarily. They needed the smaller cars to fit their loading docks and to pack and move smaller quantities quicker before they spoiled. Whereas companies like Armour and Hormel had fewer, larger plants and were focusing significantly on packaged meat products which had higher tolerance for transit time. Wislon and Swift both moved to trucking as quickly as possible because it made sense in so many ways in terms of physical plant access, car load capacity, and transit time. The meat packing industry was a stalwart in the development of intermodal traffic - for instance, the vast majority of the CGW's trailer fleet were refrigerated units used to travel meat product. Perfect timing for transition from one technology to another because the majority of small ice reefers across the roads were aging considerably as refrigerated intermodal trailers became readily available and pushed the adoption of the newer technology and the rise of dedicated service intermodal trains.

[jmlaboda]

In discussing Fruit Growers Express one thing that has to be remembered is that not all cars we think of as reefers were in fact reefers.  In fact, there were a number of cars rostered by this operater that were simply Insulated boxcars without ice bunkers or mechanical equipment, in both the traditional hinged door and plug door designs that were a part of their fleet.

Here is a selection of images that I have been able to dig up in a bit of a hurry.  Would love to hear what folks might suggest in regards to modeling these cars with a reasonable amount of work to give them a somewhat proper appearance...

40' ice-bunker reefers.
FGEX 38915 40' hinged door reefer
BREX 74637 40' hinged door reefer (formerly wood sheathed???)
WFEX 55932 40' hinged door reefer
WFEX 67899 40' hinged door reefer
WFEX 68295 40' hinged door reefer
WFEX 68307 40' hinged door reefer
WFEX 68310 40' hinged door reefer (great detail photos)
WFEX 68310
WFEX 68310
WFEX 704029 40' hinged door reefer (ex-NP) - note enlarged door
WFEX 704503 40' hinged door reefer (ex-NP)
WFEX 704574 40' hinged door reefer (ex-NP)
WFEX 704627 40' hinged door reefer (ex-NP)
WFEX 705131 40' hinged door reefer (ex-NP) - note enlarged door
WFEX 706170 40' hinged door reefer
FHIX 41183 40' plug door reefer
FHIX 41193 40' plug door reefer
FGEX 57936 40' plug-door reefer
BREX 76012 40' plug-door reefer
BREX 76102 40' plug-door reefer
BREX 76133 40' plug-door reefer
BREX 76314 40' plug-door reefer

40' Insulated boxcars.
FHIX 1228 40' Insulated plug-door boxcar
RBNX 80455 40' Insulated plug-door boxcar
RBNX 82204 40' Insulated plug-door boxcar
RBWX 60065 40' Insulated plug-door boxcar
RBWX 60267 40' Insulated plug-door boxcar
RBWX 60287 40' Insulated plug-door boxcar
RBWX 60322 40' Insulated plug-door boxcar
RBWX 60405 40' Insulated plug-door boxcar
RBWX 60515 40' Insulated plug-door boxcar
RBWX 60531 40' Insulated plug-door boxcar

50' reefers.
FGEX 38703 50' hinged door reefer
WFEX 705369 50' hinged door reefer
WFEX 705343 50' hinged door reefer
WFEX 2238 2238 50' plug-door reefer (a lá Micro-Trains???)

I was surprised by some of the 40' car shots, which showed welded sidies instead of a more typical rivetted construction that was so common on FGE-built boxcars later on (FGEX 38915, WFEX 68295, WFEX 68307 and WFEX 68310)... some of the WFEX cars actually have a rivet pattern similar to later 50' cars but it is the welded side cars that caught my eye.

InterMountain's R-40-23 reefer could be a reasonable starting point for the WFEX ex-NP cars with the original door pattern, possibly with Archer rivets used to dress the car up to be closer to the prototype (while it would look good viewed up close I am not sure that such would really be necessary if it was viewed on a layout... unless it is being viewed with someone who has 20/5 or 20/10 vision, and, yes, there are folks out there with such good vision, one being a very good friend).

The 50' hinged door reefers were a real surprise and there were other examples I found references to though not with any good pix.  One source said that a group built for Chicago Great Western were built in 1945 (IIRC) which was a surprise... just wish I could find more on these cars.

The last link for WFEX 2238 reminds me of the Micro-Trains 52' express car except for the undersill, which could be cut off the model and replaced with strip styrene.  This car is formerly a Great Northern express boxcar and likely stood out a bit because of the slightly lower height.  While this car would be a later variety such could be of interest to pursue, at least for the western modelers.

[bbussey]

Jerry,

FYI, the links all have an extra http and quotes.

The FHIX car was the subject of the kitbashing with a milling machine article I wrote for NSR.  The page on Jerry's site that Dave referenced up-thread states the IMRC wood reefer with hinged door is correct for an FGE prototype.  The car in the last photo does appear to be the REA steel express reefer, of which MTL has a model.

Jerry also states that the Atlas car is correct for the WFE fleet but not the FGE fleet, but it seems that it wouldn't be difficult to kitbash the Atlas car into an appropriate FGE prototype.

[jmlaboda]

Got the links fixed finally... the forum was throwing in the extra stuff because I added quotation marks to the links in the coding (which works on the A forum but not here).

I will need some of the 40-footers at some point in the future, both wood and steel, so this is a thread that is of interest to me... Bryan, thanks for pointing out some potential cars to use!!!

[bbussey]

... I will need some of the 40-footers at some point in the future, both wood and steel, so this is a thread that is of interest to me... Bryan, thanks for pointing out some potential cars to use!!!

I didn't think the IMRC wood car was a correct prototype of any kind until I read it today on the Keystone Crossings site.  Then I realized the car didn't look right not because the IH was too tall but because the model sits too high.  This afternoon I shaved about .030" off the bolsters of my FGE post-1952 car and body-mounted brown MTL 1015s, and it looks MUCH better.  So now I will pick up a couple more IMRC cars, as I need a large FGE presence as well.

[bbussey]

UPDATE:  Confirmed the IMRC wood reefer is an FGE prototype.

So there are two N scale models specifically based on FGE prototypes:

• MTL 69000-series riveted mechanical reefer
• IMRC 67700-series wood reefer