Industries that used Reefers

How about a beer logo? There are plenty of those available from decal makers, including Forum sponsor Custom "O" Decals.

Hello Harry,

The principle uses of reefers were shippers of products that could spoil if not kept cool.such as, dairy, vegetables, meat, etc. If you like the word "United", there was a dairy farmer association in New England that called itself "United Farmers" that sold its milk and cream in the Boston area.

A side note: the Maine potato industry was ruined when the railroads would not expedite their cross country shipments and keep the reefers iced when the railroad industry was having problems staying afloat themselves.

You have many options.

Here is a list of Atlas O reefers with pictures that should give you some good ideas.

Ron

that is a remarkable post

my favorite - baby ruth

thank you

j

Very nice resource! I'm now thinking cheese, guacamole (upon further research, recipes were published in the 40s, so why not mass produce it in the 50s?), or candy of some sort. All of these were inspired by your post! Thank you very much, Ron!

Thanks for posting, real nice cars.  Nice to have some of those.

Brent

That master list showed reefers I was unaware, of, including some from my narrow

geographic area of collecting..will have to watch out for them.

Tropicana Orange juice

Consider some fanciful paint schemes. They are fun and they irritate rivet counters.

Rapa Scrapple, a staple of the York Meet

Maple Donuts, another staple of the York Meet.

Spam

Esbenshade Turkey Farm - a farm along the Strasburg Rail Road

Breyer's Ice Cream - a Philadelphia favorite

Bassett's Ice Cream - one of the oldest vendors in Reading Terminal Market, a historic farmers' market under Reading Terminal at 12th & Market Streets in downtown Philadelphia (www.readingterminalmarket.org).

Reading, PA, was the home of Green Spot soda, Bachmann Pretzels, and A-Treat soda.

Jane's Lobsters would be a sly reference to the movie It Happened to Jane (1959). "The meanest man in the world," Harry Foster Malone (Ernie Kovacks), took control of a railroad, broke it to pieces, put it back together, and made it pay. Jane Osgood (Doris Day) owns a New England lobster farm and supports her two children. She ships her biggest order to date. But because of Malone's tight budget, there is no station agent to receive it. The lobsters die at the station. Malone reluctantly offers to pay for the lobsters, but not for the damage to Jane's reputation. With the nervous assistance of her lawyer friend, George (Jack lemmon), she sues Malone and th battle is joined.

Careful searching may turn up some old NMRA bulletins with the Olde Frothingslosh O scale printed car sides inside. There have been several variations over the years.

After looking at that reefer link I did a search on "old breweries in Norfolk VA" and found there were a few local breweries:

http://altdaily.com/features/f...breweries-in-norfolk

http://www.oldbreweries.com/br...s-by-state/virginia/

http://www.oldbreweries.com/br...-brewery-corp-va-7d/

Here's a beer can from them:

Do a search on your local town/city and see what you find!

Can't get enough beer reefers. I've added four more new ones since my last run of "The Train of Sin".

How many reefers has Atlas made, shown in that list?  I did a brewery search and found many small towns had them, but most had no reefers.  A large one in SW

Ohio, Wooden Shoe, shipped a lot of beer in reefers, but not logoed for themselves.

They did operate a large fleet of trucks, logoed for themselves.  A fake G-scale

reefer for Wooden Shoe was done.

despite their very hip name, reefers actually had three major uses... refrigeration, insulation and ventilation.  besides keeping products cold, many producers used reefers solely for their insulated construction which provided a less contaminated space for dry goods than could be obtained using a standard boxcar.  alternately (when marked as "Ventilator" or "Ventilated") reefers were also used for produce which would give off heat while ripening in transit and rather than need refrigeration, the hatches could be left open to merely circulate and vent the air in the car.

cheers...gary

BEER....

To expand a little on what Gary said.  Most refers were also set up to accommodate heaters.  These hung in the doorway and were also chained down to the floor to prevent them from swinging. There are many products that need to be protected from freezing.  In this area wine was shipped in insulated cars to protevt it from freezing.  

 "I know I want my railroad (FH&J RR) printed on one side of the door, but I can't figure out what to put opposite that. I am currently thinking "Union Stockyards, Chicago" but I want some other options. What types of companies would look good (i.e. Soda company, ice cream, etc.) on the reefer. Thank you."

   What location and era  is your FH&J  railroad set in? Perhaps something related to your locale and layout theme would work well. Do you plan to model any industries that could use reefers? .....DaveB