Christmas Pickles Anyone?

[dejoh]

Back in the old days. Transporting live fish.

[Csxgp38-2]

Another odd cargo was milk, milk had special boxcars. But very nice car, read about these in one of my old magazines.

[philmoberg]

What other odd cargos were there?

Vinegar cars also came in a single-tank variant. From what I've seen, the horizontal tank variants, whether single or double, tended to be more common.

There was a similar type of car, which I've only seen in a single-tank configuration, that was used to carry yeast. A wooden tank was used both to maintain a more consistent temperature, and because the yeast would have been badly damaged by any of the metals commonly used for tanks in those days. I remember seeing yeast cars in service as late as 1958, but I understand they lasted a bit longer than that.

Helium was another interesting, if far less common commodity. The US Navy had (and may still have) a monopoly on the helium supply, and transported it in cars consisting of long, narrow gas bottles stacked horizontally. The surrounding superstructure included a full roofwalk. Among the more unusual of the variety of the cars the Navy had in interchange service was a fleet of purpose-built flatcars for the transportation of large gun barrels. A WWI-era car designed for transporting the 14" gun (Note: for those unfamiliar with large boresight weapons, this refers to the diameter of the shell, the barrel itself being substantially larger) was one of the earliest four-truck flat cars on the continent. The Army also had dedicated cars for this traffic.

Milk cars came in a rich variety of configurations before the traffic dried up. These ranged from conventional baggage compartments, for carrying milk cans relatively short distances, to purpose-built insulated boxcars, to cars designed around two glass-lined tanks in the last years. The last of these types included the Borden "butterdish" flat cars and Hood's tank cars that looked like steel express cars. Conventional express refrigerators were also used in milk service.

One of the most interesting and unusual commodities was dry ice. This was transported in unique refrigerator cars with tapered sides, the dry ice being loaded through a collection of small doors located just below the cantrail. There were three principal variants of this design, the largest fleet being operated by Mathieson, with Liquid Carbonic also having operated some.

Ventilated boxcars were developed for produce traffic, and are typically spotted by the presence of two doors, only one of which was used at a time. In addition to a conventional door, there was barred door reminiscent of what might be more familiar in a prison. In at least some cases, there were other doors or hatches to provide additional ventilation. These cars tended to be phased out as refrigerator cars became more common.

Less obvious was other forms of traffic for which conventional car types were adapted. For example, grain tended to move in boxcars with boards over the bottoms of the doors, or in latter days, with special grain door adapters. A regional specialty, along the Gulf Coast, was the sugar cane traffic that moved in old single sheathed boxcars. KCS maintained a small fleet of these into the late '60s, that I recall. The finished sugar might then be shipped out in conventional covered hoppers, or bagged and packed in boxcars. CP and others maintained dedicated boxcars for newsprint service, in order to minimise the risk of damage.

The mention of live fish traffic was particularly intriguing. I was surprised to learn that the Soviets were still building cars for this traffic into the early-'60s, according to one report I read. The design, which looked like a truncated version of their standard passenger car design, enclosed a large tank, a power plant, and an apartment for a crew of two. Given the distance between the fishing fleets in the Pacific and the large cities on the western end of the continent, it's clear the crew would have had plenty to keep them busy.

[Kali]

Live fish! this needs investigating. The yeast tank sounds interesting too.

Milk was big business over here for a while; we used 6-wheeled glass tankers running at express-train speeds, or special vans with slatted sides to keep the air moving, and the milk stored in churns. Same for fresh fruit, there were specially ventilated vans running at faster-than-usual speeds for goods trains. We also had some grain hoppers built inside van bodies for some reason ( there was an actual hopper there, they just built it inside a van... ).

One wierd one we had was trains of pidgeons - the train would be sent to a specific place and they'd let all the pidgeons go so they could race home. I think there's a scenario about that for the S&D route.

[Csxgp38-2]

Intersting stuff guys! Phil, I saw some of the modern helium cars on a tour of NASA's Kennedy space center about 2 years ago, cool looking cars!

[Chacal]

A helium car would be interesting to model - its loaded weight would be less than its empty weight.

[arizonachris]

The most interesting car out here is the flatcar with a windmill propellor on it. They stack three props on one flatcar, and it's gotta be 50 to 60 feet long. It's just a spine car but it's modified. I saw a consist of these cars a few weeks ago, I'm sure it was a mile long, and headed out to the desert for sure.

Otherwise, all we get is tankers and intermodal double stacks. Been years since I've seen a box car.

[Kali]

A helium car would be interesting to model - its loaded weight would be less than its empty weight.

I assume it's actually liquid helium :) that thing must be immensely heavy empty.

[Chacal]

[JackD]

Thanks for the Pickle model, Michael, it's very well done as usual.

Re: Ventilated produce cars - I have (had) an HO model I built from an Ambroid kit (called a Watermelon Car) in the early 1960's. Will try to find a photo. The model was lost after many moves. Too bad, it was an interesting car to model and detail.

[philmoberg]

... Milk was big business over here for a while; ...

I'm impressed by the variety of wagons used in British milk traffic, and they types of services in which they were used. Perhaps this was due to the differences in which the urban and rural areas developed, and in the way the railways developed to serve them. In the States, milk trains were typically local (stopping) passenger services, at least nominally; and generally didn't run for particularly long distances.

... I saw some of the modern helium cars on a tour of NASA's Kennedy space center about 2 years ago, cool looking cars!

I have to admit I wasn't aware they still had these, although with the volume of gas they tend to use, it would make the best economic sense to move it by rail. I'd be curious to know which reporting marks these cars are running with. Pretty much all of the rolling stock used by the US military branches is designated DODX. I'm aware that NASA has a fair amount of rail traffic, but I'd assumed most of it moved in leased thank cars.

[Csxgp38-2]

I have to admit I wasn't aware they still had these, although with the volume of gas they tend to use, it would make the best economic sense to move it by rail. I'd be curious to know which reporting marks these cars are running with. Pretty much all of the rolling stock used by the US military branches is designated DODX. I'm aware that NASA has a fair amount of rail traffic, but I'd assumed most of it moved in leased thank cars.

They still use them as far as I'm concerned, I think they actually might have had NASA reporting marks, don't remember. It was either NASA or DODX, probably DODX.