Operations
It is useful to summarize how PFE operated its fleet. In some
ways it was quite different from most railcar operation, and
probably not familiar to modelers. When PFE cars were
unloaded, anywhere in the country, PFE wanted them back
during most of the year, because harvesting was continuing in
the western growing areas. Thus PFE had agents in all major
eastern cities to keep track of the whereabouts of cars, and
to stay in contact with yard-
masters and car distributors
to ensure that empty PFE
cars were promptly directed
westward.
As soon as cars arrived on
Union Pacific or Southern
Pacific trackage, they were
sent to cleaning facilities
like North Platte, Nebraska,
or Tucson, Arizona, and then
on to PFE shops like Nampa,
Idaho, and Roseville, or Los
Angeles California. This is an
important detail, because
it means that after nearly
every loaded trip, a PFE car
passed through a PFE facil-
ity on its return.
In addition to keeping cars
in tip-top mechanical condi-
tion and making sure they
were clean and suitable
5: A workman uses a pick-
aroon to manhandle ice
out of an ice service car
onto the chain which takes
it up onto the ice deck
at Hinkle, Oregon. – PFE
photo, courtesy CSRM.
5
Getting Real Column - 4
6: This superb photo by Jim Morley at Roseville shows
men actively handling ice. The 300-pound blocks on the
deck are being split into quarters. The man on the apron
is called the “passer,” and he uses a pickaroon to move
quarter blocks over a bridge, to the man working at the
hatch. With the bident, the “chopper” at the hatch chops
the ice to the needed size. – Author’s collection.
6
for loading, this process also meant that projects to repair,
upgrade, or repaint PFE cars were carried out efficiently and
rapidly. This is a major difference from free-running cars (box
cars, gondolas), which might roam throughout North America
for months or years without returning to home rails.
There was also a difference from most types of cars, for which
cleanliness was not important, such as coal hoppers. PFE
strongly believed that carrying food products made cleanliness
essential to customer service. Until the 1950s, PFE actually
washed its cars.
MRH-Sep 2013
