Getting Real Column - 7
11: This workman is “bar-
ring” the ice in the bun-
ker. Ice size appears to be
“crushed.” This is a Union
Refrigerator Transit (URTX)
car. Note the separate
hatch plug, of canvas-cov-
ered wood construction,
lying atop the hatch cover.
– Arnold Menke collection.
11
It was up to the shipper to choose how they wanted the cars
set up for Protective Services, as the tariff term was. They
could choose (and pay) to have a car pre-iced, with ice bunkers
filled with ice prior to spotting
the car for loading. This would
ensure a cool car interior, and
would hasten the en-route
cooling. Or they could simply
have an un-iced empty spotted
at their dock. For shippers that
had their own precooling facili-
ties for produce, there was less
need for pre-icing.
Note the tariff language: cars
are pre-iced, and loads are
precooled, not the other way
around.
Then any loaded car was nor-
mally fully iced after being
picked up by the local freight.
This was called “initial icing.”
Whether any salt would be
added to the ice, to hasten
melting and increase heat
absorption, was up to the
shipper, for an additional fee.
The shipper also chose how
the in-transit icing was to be
conducted, for example to fill
the bunkers every 24 hours, or
to fill them at predetermined
12: This SP diagram shows air flow through a car set
up for ventilation service. Note that the load does not
reach to the car ceiling, to help with air flow, and that
dunnage at the car center will allow easier unloading.
– Author’s collection.
12
locations only, or any other of a variety arrangements. In cooler
weather, when less ice would be consumed, stage icing could
be chosen. This meant setting ice grates at half height in the
bunker, so that filling to the top with ice would leave the bot-
tom half of the bunker empty (see Figure 2). This maintained
good air circulation, while allowing all cars to be re-iced the
same way: filling the bunkers to the top.
At an icing deck, foremen would go down the string of cars,
opening ice hatches and estimating by eye the amount of ice
needed to fill the bunker to the top. They noted this on a clip-
board as they went from car to car. The ice usage for each car
was charged to the freight bill for the car. Occasionally the
ICC would conduct a field test, checking how accurate these
foreman’s estimates were, and they were usually found to be
quite accurate.
The process would continue all the way to the car’s desti-
nation. Many cars were directed to eastern or midwestern
MRH-Sep 2013
