Getting Real Column - 8
13: This builder’s photo of a Class
R-40-23 car with ice hatches
latched open clearly shows the
one-piece design of plug and
cover, along with the latching
hook underneath the plug which
permitted locking hatches from
inside (mostly to prevent tran-
sients from riding in empty cars). –
American Car & Foundry Company
photo for PFE, courtesy CSRM.
13
wholesale produce markets, with the expectation that local
buyers would purchase the cargoes at that market. But
many cars left the shipper’s dock without a final destination.
Fluctuating prices from city to city meant that last-minute
choice of the best market could pay off.
Such cars might be waybilled to a railroad agent at an inter-
mediate city, or to a broker in such a city, with the expectation
that a final destina-
tion could be chosen
while the car was en
route. The “diversion”
information would be
telegraphed to that
intermediate agent
or broker in time to
redirect the car. PFE
allowed up to three
diversions per car
without charge.
Once the cars were
unloaded, of course,
the cycle began
again, with PFE
agents rounding-
up cars and getting
them moving west-
ward again.
Icing
Modelers naturally
find reefer icing an
interesting topic,
MRH-Sep 2013
