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
MRH-Sep 2013
