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-era wood-sided, ice bunker "reefer" of the American Refrigerator Transit Company (ART), one specially-designated for the transport of dairy products, ''circa'' 1940.]] A refrigerator car (or '''"reefer"''') is a Refrigerated Boxcar , a piece of Railroad Rolling Stock designed to carry perishable freight at specific temperatures. Refrigerator cars differ from simple Insulated boxcars and Ventilated boxcars (commonly used for transporting fruit), neither of which are fitted with cooling apparatus. Reefers can be ice-cooled, come equipped with any one of a variety of mechanical refrigeration systems, or utilize Carbon Dioxide (either as Dry Ice , or in liquid form) as a cooling agent. Milk cars (and other types of "express" reefers) may or may not include a cooling system, but are equipped with high-speed Trucks and other modifications that allow them to travel with Passenger Trains . Reefer applications can be divided into four broad groups: 1) dairy and poultry producers require refrigeration and special interior racks; 2) fruit and vegetable reefers tend to see seasonal use, and are generally used for long-distance shipping (for some shipments, only ventilation is necessary to remove the heat in transit created by the ripening process); 3) manufactured foods (such as canned goods and candy) as well as beer and wine do not require refrigeration, but do need the protection of an insulated car; and 4) meat reefers come equipped with specialized beef rails for handling sides of meat, and Brine -tank refrigeration to provide lower temperatures (most of these units are either owned or leased by meat packing firms). HISTORY Background #14713, a ventilated fruit car dating from 1893.]] After the end of the American Civil War , Chicago, Illinois emerged as a major Railway center for the Distribution of livestock raised on the Great Plains to Eastern markets.Boyle and Estrada Getting the animals to market required herds to be driven up to 1,200 miles (2,000 km) to Railhead s in Kansas City, Missouri , where they were loaded into specialized Stock Car s and Transport ed live ("on-the-hoof") to regional Processing centers. Driving cattle across the plains also led to tremendous weight loss, and some animals died along the way. Upon arrival at the local processing facility, livestock were either Slaughter ed by wholesalers and delivered fresh to nearby butcher shops for retail sale, smoked, or packed for shipment in barrels of salt. Costly inefficiencies were inherent in transporting live animals by rail, particularly the fact that about sixty percent of the animal's mass is inedible. The death of animals weakened by the long drive further increased the per-unit shipping cost. Meat packer Gustavus Swift began looking for a way to ship dressed meats from his packing plant in Chicago to the East. Early attempts at refrigerated transport A number of attempts were made during the mid-1800s to ship Agricultural products via rail car. As early as 1842, the Western Railroad Of Massachusetts was reported in the June 15 edition of the ''Boston Traveler'' to be experimenting with innovative Freight Car designs capable of carrying all types of perishable goods without spoilage.White, p. 31 The first refrigerated boxcar entered service in June 1851, on the Northern Railroad Of New York (or NRNY, which later became part of the Rutland Railroad ). This "icebox on wheels" was a limited success in that it was only able to function in cold weather. That same year, the Ogdensburg And Lake Champlain Railroad (O&LC) began shipping butter to Boston in purpose-built freight cars, utilizing ice to cool the contents. The first consignment of dressed beef left the Chicago Stock Yards in 1857 in ordinary Boxcar s retrofitted with bins filled with ice. Placing meat directly against ice resulted in discoloration and affected the taste, and proved impractical. During the same period Swift experimented by moving cut meat using a string of ten boxcars which ran with their doors removed, and made a few test shipments to New York during the winter months over the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR). The method proved too limited to be practical. ; the wood sheathing would give way to Plywood within twenty years. Vents in the bunker at the end of the car, along with slots in the wood floor racks, allowed cool air to circulate around the contents during transit.]] Detroit's William Davis patented a refrigerator car that employed metal racks to suspend the carcasses above a frozen mixture of ice and salt. He sold the design in 1868 to George H. Hammond , a Detroit meat packer, who built a set of cars to transport his products to Boston using ice from the Great Lakes for cooling.White, p. 33 The load had the tendency of swinging to one side when the car entered a curve at high speed, and the use of the units was discontinued after several derailments. In 1878 Swift hired engineer Andrew Chase to design a ventilated car that was well insulated, and positioned the ice in a compartment at the top of the car, allowing the chilled air to flow naturally downward.White, p. 45 The meat was packed tightly at the bottom of the car to keep the Center Of Gravity low and to prevent the cargo from shifting. Chase's design proved to be a practical solution to providing temperature-controlled carriage of dressed meats, and allowed Swift And Company to ship their products all over the United States and internationally. Swift's attempts to sell Chase's design to major railroads were rebuffed, as the companies feared that they would jeopardize their considerable investments in Stock Cars , animal pens, and feedlots if refrigerated meat transport gained wide acceptance. In response, Swift financed the initial production run on his own, then — when the American roads refused his business — he contracted with the GTR (a railroad that derived little income from transporting live cattle) to haul the cars into Michigan and then eastward through Canada . In 1880 the Peninsular Car Company (subsequently purchased by ACF) delivered the first of these units to Swift, and the Swift Refrigerator Line (SRL) was created. Within a year the Line’s roster had risen to nearly 200 units, and Swift was transporting an average of 3,000 carcasses a week to Boston, Massachusetts . Competing firms such as Armour And Company quickly followed suit. By 1920 the SRL owned and operated 7,000 of the ice-cooled rail cars. The General American Transportation Corporation would assume ownership of the line in 1930. plant of the American Car And Foundry Company (ACF), built in 1899 for the Swift Refrigerator Line .]] Live cattle and dressed beef deliveries to New York ( Short Tons ): The subject cars travelled on the Erie , Lackawanna , New York Central , and Pennsylvania railroads. Source: ''Railway Review'', January 29 , 1887 , p. 62. refrigerator car design. Hatches in the roof provided access to the ice tanks at each end.]] 19th Century American Refrigerator Cars: Source: ''Poor's Manual of Railroads'' and ICC and U.S. Census reports. The "Ice Age" The use of ice to refrigerate and thus preserve food dates back to prehistoric times. Through the ages, the seasonal harvesting of snow and ice was a regular practice of many cultures. China , Greece , and Rome (to name a few) all stored ice and snow in caves or dugouts lined with straw or other insulating materials. Rationing of the ice allowed the preservation of foods during hot periods, a practice that was successfully employed for centuries. For most of the 1800s , natural ice (harvested from ponds and lakes) was used to supply refrigerator cars. At high altitudes or northern latitudes, one foot tanks were often filled with water and allowed to freeze. Ice was typically cut into blocks during the winter and stored in insulated warehouses for later use, with sawdust and hay packed around the ice blocks to provide additional insulation. A late-19th century wood-bodied reefer required reicing every 250 to 400 miles. By the turn of the century manufactured ice became more common. The Pacific Fruit Express (PFE), for example, maintained 7 natural harvesting facilities, and operated 18 artificial ice plants. Their largest plant (located in Roseville, California ) produced 1,200 short tons of ice daily, and Roseville’s docks could accommodate up to 254 cars. At the industry’s peak, 13 million short tons of ice was produced for refrigerator car use annually. "Top Icing" Top icing is the practice of placing a 2- to 4-inch layer of crushed ice over the top of agricultural products that have high respiration rates, need high relative humidity, and benefit from having the cooling agent sit directly atop the load (or within individual boxes). Cars with pre-cooled fresh produce were top iced just before shipment. Top icing added considerable dead weight to the load. Top-icing a 40-foot reefer required in over 10,000 pounds of ice. It had been postulated that as the ice melts, the resulting chilled water would trickle down through the load to continue the cooling process. It was found, however, that top-icing only benefited the uppermost layers of the cargo, and that the water from the melting ice often passed through spaces between the cartons and pallets with little or no cooling effect. It was ultimately determined that top-icing is useful only in preventing an increase in temperature, and was eventually discontinued. Note: Class B refrigerator cars are those designed for passenger service; insulated boxcars are designated '''Class L'''. NOTES REFERENCES
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