by Bill Welch
Special Issue
February 2008
The B&O Modeler - Keystone Modeler - The Seaboard Coast Line Modeler
(Text only; historical notes only; no modeling information)
(Bill Welch passed away on November 15, 2020, without being able to update this foundational work about Fruit Growers Express.)
by Ben Hom
In January 1987, Railroad Model Craftsman published the first of a series of six articles by Tony Thompson on the refrigerator cars of Pacific Fruit Express. Prior to that series of articles, the enthusiast community knew relatively little about PFE equipment and operations, despite its major impact as the largest operator of refrigerator cars in North America. This pioneering series of articles was followed by the landmark book Pacific Fruit Express, and thanks to the efforts of modelers and historians Tony Thompson, Robert Church, Bruce Jones, Keith Jordan, Richard Hendrickson, John Moore, and A. Dean Hale, the major refrigerator fleets of Pacific Fruit Express and Santa Fe have been well documented.
Unfortunately, the same is not the case for Fruit Growers Express. Nineteen railroads in all made up "Our Companies" (the corporate term for the Fruit Growers Express consortium, which consisted of Fruit Growers Express, Burlington Refrigerator Express, Western Fruit Express, and National Car Company), and their cars were seen throughout the Eastern Seaboard, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest hauling a staggering amount and variety of produce. However, there is an astonishing lack of awareness of the scope of its operations and equipment, which is particularly puzzling given that "Our Companies" served not only major railroads such as the PRR, B&O, ACL, SAL, Southern, CB&Q, and GN, but also smaller roads with large followings such as the New Haven and NYO&W. This lack of awareness has contributed to one of the biggest shortcomings in available rolling stock - the lack of available accurate mass-produced injection-molded models of refrigerator cars for the consortium (though accurate HO scale models of some "Our Companies" wood-sheathed reefer prototypes have been available for some time from Sunshine Models and Westerfield in resin and can also be kitbashed from the Accurail wood-sheathed reefer as detailed by Greg Martin in the March-April 2007 of The B&O Modeler.) Most modelers really "don’t know what they don’t know".
Bill Welch has kindly given us permission to reprint the information package that he initially developed for a clinic presented at Sunshine Models’ 2002 Prototype Modelers Meeting. This special stand-alone combined issue of The B&O Modeler, The Keystone Modeler, and The Seaboard-Coast Line Modeler incorporates corrections and updates to the original text, and is presented with additional prototype and model photographs. We hope that this will accomplish the same purpose as Tony Thompson’s Pacific Fruit Express articles in Railroad Model Craftsman and raises awareness on this subject.
This work is far from the last word on this subject. Bill Welch is working on a history of "Our Companies", a task made far more difficult by the scope of the project and the fact that very little corporate documentation survives. We encourage anyone who has information on "Our Companies", including copies of their employee magazine Teamwork, to contact Bill. Every little piece of the puzzle helps contribute to the big picture.
Of the five great freight refrigerator fleets that transported fresh produce in iced house cars for the first 70 or so years of the Twentieth Century, only the fleets of the Pacific Fruit Express (PFE) and the Santa Fe Refrigerator Despatch (SFRD) have been well documented. The stories of the American Refrigerator Transit (ART), Merchants Despatch Transportation (MDT) and a group I call the "Fruit Growers Express/Western Fruit Express/Burlington Refrigerator Express Consortium" have yet to be fully appreciated and told.
I will leave the ART and MDT stories to others because while they are of interest to me, the task of understanding the companies that banded together at the Munsey Building in Washington, DC is challenging enough for this modeler. I think that from the perspective of a modeler doing history the three companies should be seen together. Obviously from an ownership perspective, they were three different companies. FGEX was owned by over twenty railroads in the south and east, while WFEX was owned by the Great Northern Railroad and BREX by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Both the BREX and WFEX declared who owned them with corporate heralds emblazoned on the car sides, in case there may be any confusion.
But ownership and operation are two different things, and it was the way that these three companies operated that requires that we look at them as one entity. Despite their different reporting marks, in 1928 H. B. Spencer was the President of FGEX, WFEX, and BREX. Each was audited by C. A. Finney while R. R. Cooke served as "Treasurer" and F. E. Evans was the "Superintendent of Car Service" for each of the three principles. If you had to report the movement of a BREX reefer, you sent that report to Mr. Evans. If you had to ice a WFEX reefer, you sent that bill to Mr. Finney. If you had a balance to pay on a shipment made in a FGEX reefer, you sent that check to Mr. Cooke. All of these people worked in Washington, DC, first at the Munsey Building, and later at 1101 Vermont Avenue where the Fruit Growers, Western Fruit, and Burlington Refrigerator Express Companies were all headquartered.
In fact, Western Fruit Express and Burlington Refrigerator Express were formed in 1923 and 1926 respectively so they each would have access to a larger number of refrigerator cars. Likewise, Fruit Growers Express wanted to work with these companies because it meant more cars would be available to them when crops were being harvested in the territory it served. In turn, all three benefited from access to larger markets and having their cars used on a more year round basis.
If you were growing peaches in South Carolina, tomatoes in Georgia, or oranges in Florida and were served by one of the railroad owners of Fruit Growers Express, the Atlantic Coast Line, Southern Railway, or Florida East Coast let's say, it would not necessarily be reefers with only FGEX reporting marks that were sent to meet the local agent's request for cars. Conversely, if you were growing potatoes in Oregon, it was not only WFEX cars that would be spotted for loading. Rather, the odds were that the reefers spotted would have been a combination of FGEX, WFEX, and BREX reporting marks. [Note: It could also have been ART, PFE, SFRD, MDT, NWX, etc. for that matter, as the consortium was infamous for taking other companies' cars "Prisoner."]
In other words, the cars owned by each of the three companies operated as one fleet. If the reefers delivered to fulfill a particular request bore only one set of reporting marks, it would have been a random and accidental event. [Note: Unless the request was for reefers outfitted with internal decking, in which case only the FGEX fleet was so equipped.]
Because of the different sizes of each owner's fleet, some would dominate and some would be scarcer. With about 2,000 cars at any given time, BREX was the smallest. In the middle was WFEX with about 7,000. FGEX over its history varied the most but was always the largest with well over 18,000 cars at one time. As modelers, a good ratio to strive for would be something like 14 or 15 FGEX cars, 7 WFEX cars, and 2 BREX cars.
There are other compelling reasons to treat the FGEX/WFEX/BREX reefers as one fleet. The shops for each entity repaired other member's cars without discrimination and some were involved in building cars for the other partners. The commonality of designs after 1923 between WFEX and FGEX is significant. The family appearance given by the use of the Hutchins3 roof and the squared off ends that it rested upon that was used on so many of its rebuilt and modernized cars means that decisions for the combined fleet was centralized in some way. All three shared a wartime wood sheathed reefer design. The paint and stenciling schemes of each were obviously influenced by their commonality of interests, and changes to paint and stenciling happened in a coordinated way. The cars of each company's fleet, with one small exception, were numbered in a way to avoid conflicting with cars in any other group.
Because of the ways in which the three companies chose to structure themselves and the way in which they operated, and as modelers interested in historical accuracy, we should therefore consider that we are dealing with one operating entity and one fleet of cars. That is why I use the word consortium when I talk about the three companies. As defined by The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language a consortium is "an association or a combination, as of businesses, financial institutions, or investors, for the purpose of engaging in a joint venture."
First and foremost I approach this topic as a modeler interested in history rather than as a historian. This is not a history of the consortium but of their cars, specifically their wood sheathed cars between 1940 and 1953. I have chosen the dates because that is a period many of us model and there are many models available, or scheduled that make this a logical approach. Further, as compared to the other four large produce reefer fleets, the FGEX/WFEX/BREX consortium was still primarily a wood sheathed fleet as it approached 1953.
All five of the major fleets would begin to acquire steel reefers in the late thirties. Of course SFRD would go further and lead the way in moving to steel when it began to rebuild its entire forty-foot wood sheathed fleet with steel sheathing. PFE would buy thousands of forty-foot steel sheathed cars, and while MDT and ART would buy large numbers of steel cars, there steel fleets were substantially smaller than PFE and SFRD.
Contrasting the habits of their competitors, FGEX, WFEX, and BREX did purchase steel cars but in much smaller numbers compared to the other four. (See tables 9, 10, and 11.) Having said that, I hope we will see models of their steel cars eventually. As you may guess, given the idiosyncratic nature of the consortium's wood sheathed fleet, there are some interesting variations in their fleet as compared to the other steel reefers of the period. I will leave covering this fleet to another time.
By 1938, all of the shorter reefers, the 36 and 38 footers, had either been moved from the FGEX roster to the National Car Company roster or scrapped. (Except that 25 thirty-six foot cars appear in 1944 for which there are no clues as yet.) These had come to FGEX from the various roads that helped to form it or joined it from 1920 and beyond. National was been formed primarily to serve the meat and poultry industry and the shorter cars were more suited to this service. I will not discuss the shorter cars in FGEX service but will mention them when I touch on National in the visual presentation. National is very hard to document because they had so many hand-me-downs, but enough photos exist to at least show the variety within their fleet.
This handout is meant to supplement a visual presentation and is limited by that function. It includes six sections that I hope will prove useful to modeler/historians. Section I draws comparisons and contrasts between and among the five major produce reefer entities and their fleets. This serves to put the FGEX/WFEX/BREX consortium into context and perspective. Admittedly, this is very general and possesses all the compromises and pitfalls of generalization. Moreover it is subjective. I will, of course, let you draw your own conclusions.
Let me say how much I have enjoyed preparing this presentation and hope it will stimulate your interest in this unappreciated fleet. I am especially interested in filling in the gaps about those FGEX series where their origins and significant features remain a mystery. If you come up with information, especially drawings or photographs, or copies of the employee magazine Teamwork, please let me know.
PFE, SFRD, and MDT each featured two basic wood sheathed designs while ART featured one, especially if we consider the underframe as a major part of the design.
[Note: PFE did receive 89 cars with the AAR underframe, but this was a very minor class among the several thousands that had either the "Bettendorf or "Built-up" underframes.]
The FGEX/WFEX/BREX consortium featured about 7 or 8. This is due to the fact that so many different companies were involved. FGEX alone had over twenty companies that were part of its ownership, and seven different underframe looks or designs, since many of its owners also contributed their reefer fleets. The consortium shared only one design among its three major entities, the wartime composite design with a welded underframe and plywood sheathing.
Of the five major produce reefer entities in the United States, only the FGEX/WFEX/BREX consortium featured cars with truss rod underframes, albeit all rebuilt with steel center sills. By 1953, BREX would only have one example remaining on its roster, but WFEX still showed 275 in service and FGEX had at least 103 on its roster.
BREX, PFE & SFRD assigned class designations to cars, while the ART, MDT, FGEX and WFEX did not.
All five of the major fleets began to build steel reefers in the late thirties.
SFRD began to rebuild their 40-foot wood sheathed cars with steel superstructures until all of the existing wood sheathed cars were eventually rebuilt. PFE, ART, and MDT did not rebuild wood sheathed cars with steel sheathing on the sides. What each member of the FGEX/WFEX/BREX consortium did can only be said with mixed certainty at this time. It is certain that WFEX did rebuild some of their wood sheathed cars with a steel superstructure and that BREX did not. It is unclear regarding Fruit Growers cars.
In rebuilding their wood sheathed cars, ART and MDT generally made few if any changes to the superstructure. Some ART cars were rebuilt with paneled roofs from SRE, and apparently there are some photos of the ART cars rebuilt with Dreadnaught ends. This does not appear to have been a common change, especially in the 1940-1953 time frame.
PFE made gradual improvements and changes as they rebuilt their wood sheathed fleet, from increasing the inside height to adding steel super frames, and state-of-the-art steel ends and paneled roofs from SRE.
The FGEX/WFEX/BREX consortium was less systematic than either PFE or SFRD. The most basic (and obvious) improvement was replacement of outside wood and XLA roofs with a Hutchins roof and the application of AB brakes. Where not present, brake steps were added. But there were exceptions to this. Based on photographs, the BREX's truss rod cars probably never received the Hutchins roofs, AB brakes, or brakes steps, while FGEX and WFEX examples did. Nor is it clear if the WFEX 54147-54291 series ever received new roofs. BREX's cars (including subsidiary CX and FWDX) with XLA roofs and hatch platforms in place lasted into the early fifties. The documentation on the WFEX's 49000 series with XLA roof and hatch platforms is incomplete, but most appear to have received all of the modem features. A partial view of a FGEX’s 11001 series (ex-FEC) taken in 1953 shows the car with hatch platforms and outside metal roof still in place.
Members of the FGEX/WFEX/BREX consortium, with exception of the above mentioned WFEX steel rebuilds, never rebuilt its cars with steel ends. That is to say if the cars retained their wood sides, they also retained wood ends. Some were rebuilt to taller dimensions and taller doors, but others were not. Rebuilding often included a steel frame between the exterior sheathing and the interior sheathing, the evidence for which are riveted plates along the sill. But even into the mid-fifties, there are cars where the sills show no evidence of this, meaning some cars received wood frames when rebuilt.
All five fleets applied fans to a portion of their older cars as they were modernized.
As a percentage of their respective fleets, ART, PFE, SFRD, and MDT all had more steel cars during the time period covered than did the FGEX/WFEX/BREX consortium.
FGEX and WFEX built their last wood sheathed cars in 1946. The consortium would not resume buying steel cars until 1948.
In talking about the FGEX/WFEX/BREX consortium, it is hard not to use cautious and qualifying language. This can be very frustrating but company records do not exist and within the available photos there are many gaps. MDT seems to suffer the same problem regarding comprehensive records, but Roger Flinman is doing a good job of piecing together information on MDT. Good records exist for PFE, SFRD, and ART.
All of this interesting mix of history and details make things more complicated, challenging and interesting for people modeling the railroads and territories served by the FGEX/WFEX/BREX consortium.
The FGEX/WFEX/BREX consortium's fleet was the second largest refrigerator car entity in the United States. Arguably no other fleet of ice cooled produce reefers served production areas that were as geographically diverse and far-flung as did the FGEX/WFEX/BREX consortium: It loaded produce from Florida and Georgia to Oregon and Washington, from New York and Maryland to Colorado and Texas.
[Section II -- Some Observations about the Wood Sheathed Fleet ]
1919
The Armour Refrigerator Line is found to be unfairly competing by the Federal Trade Commission and is forced to break up its company. This is the conclusive event in a series of attacks on Amour by the railroads and the government. Henry Spencer, the Senior Vice President of the Southern Railway and the son of the Southern's first president, begins to promote the idea of a new reefer line for ACL, B&O, PRR and Southern.
March 18, 1920
Fruit Growers Express Company is incorporated in Delaware with its headquarters in Washington, DC. Although it continues the use of the name Armour gave to its produce reefer fleet, Fruit Growers Express, it is a new company and therefore uses the new reporting marks FGEX rather then FGE. (See Appendix II for the excerpt from the company's first annual report on how the company began. )
May 1, 1920
The new company takes possession of 4,279 cars from Amour, shops in Alexandria, Virginia and Jacksonville, Florida, icing platforms and stations, and 650 employees. Henry Spencer is the president.
December 7, 1920
C&El's receiver sells its truss rod underframed cars to Fruit Growers. Ten more similar cars come from the Frisco Refrigerator Line to Fruit Growers. The later is unrelated to the SL-SF. Combined they add 971 truss rod underframe cars to the fleet in the 30000-31999 series.
Also by the end of 1920 the New Haven and N&W join Fruit Growers.
1921-1922
The first design for a reefer to be built by the new company is created and production begins. The first 100 new cars (32000-32099), "of modem design, conforming to the recommendations of the L. S. Department of Agriculture as to the size of loading space, insulation, and refrigerator devices," the annual report states, are being constructed in the Company's shops at Potomac Yards, Virginia." In subsequent years, Fruit Growers (and later Western Fruit) will buy underframes on the open market and build the superstructure to these underframes in their shops.
Initially this work is done at the Alexandria and Indiana Harbor, Indiana shops, the later of which comes under lease to Fruit Growers from the PRR in 1922.
From this initial underframe design several derivations will evolve.
1922
By 1922 Fruit Growers officials realize that there is a problem: The Company finds that their cars’ usage is unbalanced, and that it is too tied to the Florida citrus and Georgia and South Carolina peach harvests. Only the importation of bananas from Central America through the ports of New Orleans, Charleston and others gives year-round shipments. The California market, once the stronghold of Armour, is dominated by PFE and SFRD.
July 18, 1923
The Great Northern Railway forms a new company, Western Fruit Express, for the purpose of pooling resources with Fruit Growers Express. The new company is headquartered in Washington and its president is also Henry Spencer. Operations commenced on September 1, 1923. Western Fruit brings over 3000 cars with their new WFEX reporting marks into the pool of cars to be operated as one fleet by the new partners, as well as shops in Hillyard, WA (Spokane) and Saint Paul, MN. The Western Fruit cars are numbered in series 40000 and above to insure there is no conflict with Fruit Growers' cars. The new operating entity will have 20,835 reefers at its disposal. The rushes of berries, fruit, and potatoes from the Northwest helps to balance car usage.
Also on this date, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad joins Fruit Growers and brings 1,362 cars of various designs and vintage with them. Most are 40-toot cars but there are 126 thirty-six foot cars included. They are put in the 20000-22549 series.
Oct. 1 1923
The Florida East Coast Railway joins Fruit Growers, bringing 175 nearly new reefers with heavy fishbelly underframes under lease to FGEX's roster to be numbered as 11001-11175.
During 1923, substantial improvements are made to the FGEX shops at Indiana Harbor and Jacksonville.
Oct. 1, 1924
The "handling of all perishable traffic originating on the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway was placed under the supervision" of FGEX, "which had heretofore handled only the fruit and vegetable business on that line" the annual report states.
In the same year a fully equipped car repair shop is constructed in Atlanta to properly maintain the large number of the refrigerator cars that move through that city and other gateways in the region. Machinery was installed at Indiana Harbor for the manufacturing of all forging used by Western Fruit and Fruit Growers.
1924-25
WFEX begins to receive new cars built by consortium's shops to the FGEX design. Rebuilding of the truss rod underframed cars built by GN, Armour, L&N and others begins with the addition of steel center sills and the rebuilt superstructures feature details that are similar to the new cars being built in the shops.
May 15, 1925
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad transfers 1,612 cars to the FGEX's roster. The cars are a variety of lengths, designs and vintage, and are numbered in the 14000-16074 series.
May 1, 1926
The Burlington Refrigerator Express is incorporated and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy moves 2,659 refrigerator cars to the new company. It begins operations on June 1, and is headquartered in Washington under the presidency of Henry Spencer. The new company uses BREX as its reporting marks and the cars carry numbers 74000 and above to avoid conflicts with their two other partners. Another shop in Plattsmouth, Nebraska (Omaha) is added to the pool of resources. The new member furthers the balance of car usage, plus adding territory that includes a significant portion of the meat packing industry. Only the Pacific Fruit Express Company operates more refrigerator cars than does this consortium of companies.
On that same date the Pennsylvania Railroad Company sells FGEX 2,676 "RF" type 36-foot reefers, which had previously been under lease.
On the same day a lease takes effect for FGEX to use 264 New York, New Haven & Hartford refrigerator cars.
Jan. 1, 1927
The Chesapeake and Ohio railroad joins Fruit Growers and brings 49 cars to be numbered as 11301-11349.
Sept. 1, 1927
A nine-year service contract with the Norfolk Southern Railroad becomes effective.
1927
Modifications to the initial reefer design results in a beefier eight-inch side sill and a taller 12-foot 7-inch height to the eaves of the car. Fruit Growers and Western Fruit will build these in large numbers, but BREX will build no examples, having built 1,000 new reefers in 1922 and 1923.
Feb. 1928
National Car Company is formed as a subsidiary of Fruit Growers. Headquartered in Washington, DC, its main function is to serve the meat packers. Kahns, Rath, and Oscar Meyer are early customers. It will use cars of FGEX design, as well as cars inherited from the original members and new members, especially the shorter 36 and 38-foot cars, which are well suited to the meat trade.
1929
Two new series of cars appear on FGEX's roster, 11350-13057 featuring a "Bettendorf’ type underframe and 13500-13999 featuring a PFE style "Built-up" underframe. This is neither the first time nor the last when a series of cars appears in the Fruit Growers ORER entry without any reference to their origin. The two series are notable in that we know what kind of underframe each featured.
Jan. 1, 1931
The New York, Ontario & Western joins Fruit Growers and brings two groups of cars, 46 thirty-six footers to be numbered as 9101-9150 and 240 forty footers to be numbered as 10400-10639. Also on this date, Fruit Growers purchased the cars previously leased from the NYNH&H.
June 1, 1932
FGEX purchases 3,244 "R7" type refrigerator cars from the Pennsylvania that had previously been under lease.
That same year BREX extends its services to subsidiaries Colorado Southern, Fort Worth and Denver City and Wichita Valley railroads. Colorado Southern and Fort Worth & Denver own refrigerator cars identical to BREX's 75000 series and use CX and FWDX respectively for their reporting marks. The cars are emblazoned with the "Burlington Route" herald. Unlike previous numbering of cars to avoid conflicts, the 200 CX cars are numbered 50050-50249 and FWDX uses 20001-20100 for its 100 cars. Conflicting with these, FGEX already has cars in its 20000-21849 and 50000-51999 series.
The consortium now loads produce and other commodities requiring protection in forty states! Every state east of the Mississippi River, with the exception of Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire, is included in this total. Commodities requiring the protection of refrigeration, heating, or ventilation include such things as bleach, starch and ink.
The field operations for the consortium are divided into five major operating districts or territories with headquarters as follows:
• FGEX Southeastern, Northeastern, and Northwestern territories in Jacksonville, Florida, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Chicago, Illinois, respectively.
• WFEX territory in Saint Paul, Minnesota
• BREX territory in Chicago, Illinois
A General Agent is in charge of each operating district, the BREX territory and the FGEX Northwestern District being combined under one General Agent.
November 15, 1932
Fruit Growers enters into a service contract with the Virginian Railway Company to handle all perishable traffic on that line requiring refrigeration.
January L 1934
A similar contract with The Alton Railroad Company becomes effective.
1935
Frozen foods become available on a national scale to the public.
On November 1 of that year service contracts with the Atlanta & West Point Rail Road Company, The Western Railway of Alabama, and Georgia Railroad become effective.
Jan. 4, 1936
Through the newly incorporated Railway Refrigerator Realty Company, an eleven-story office building at 1101 Vermont Avenue in Washington, DC was purchased to house the headquarters offices for the Fruit Growers, Western Fruit, and Burlington Refrigerator Express Companies.
1936
There are 26,327 reefers in the FGEX/WFEX/BREX/NX fleet serving growers and producers in the South, East Coast, Northern Plains, Pacific Northwest, Texas and Colorado with shipments destined for the Atlantic Seaboard, the Northeast, and the Upper Midwest where the bulk of Americans live.
1937
The FGEX 10850-10999 series appears, a most unusual steel sheathed car (is this their first steel sheathed car"). The side sheathing is riveted with both vertical rows and two equally spaced horizontal rows, the pattern of rivets creating a matrix. These have 5-5-5 Murphy ends and a fishbelly center sill. Are they rebuilt from USRA 40 ton double sheathed boxcars?
All of the shorter 36 and 38 foot cars are gone from the FGEX roster by this time, although a small number will reappear in 1944 and are around as late as 1951.
Cars with FDEX reporting marks appear by this time. The cars are stenciled "Double Deck" on the car sides and have double decks permanently installed to handle loads that are easily crushed or are in consumer type packaging. The "DE" in the reporting marks denotes this decking. Cars under these reporting marks would eventually include at least two different types of wood sheathed cars and at least one type of steel sheathed car.
December 31, 1937
The Eighteenth Annual Report of the Fruit Growers Express Company dated December 31, 1937 names the Board of Directors for the Company. They are senior executives of the ACL, B&O, CofG, C&EI, FEC, L&N, NC&StL, NYNH&H, N&W, PRR, RF&P, SAL and Southern Railroads. The board has had this composition from its owner railroads before this date.
1938
As early as 1938 Company shops begin to rebuild cars with a steel roof of Hutchins design. This becomes a signature of the consortium’s fleet, as most cars will receive it. No fascia boards are required and the peaked ends are squared off at the top as a part of this application. AB brakes are being applied by this time.
1940
Late in 1940 The Pere Marquette brings 125 reefers to the Fruit Growers Express roster to be numbered as 16100-16299. This may have been the last railroad to join and bring reefers with them. Six more cars are purchased from the Borden Company.
Also this same year Fruit Growers Express' first fifty-foot freight refrigerators appear in the Official Railroad Equipment Register. Although the numbers listed for these cars are 600-650, there are only ten cars with ten overhead tanks designed to hold crushed ice.
1942
Having begun to receive steel sheathed cars, the consortium finds that World War Two puts a temporary stop to this. Plywood is substituted and FGEX, WFEX, and BREX begin to receive their first deliveries. More would come over the next few years, with BREX's second batch substituting tongue and groove siding in place of the plywood. These cars would be among the first WFEX and BREX reefers to receive fans.
The FGEX Annual Report notes that while there is a 1.6% increase in cars loaded, there is a substantial increase in tonnage as refrigerator cars are loaded more heavily to move as much cargo as possible. This is because coastal shipping has stopped because of Nazi U-Boat attacks and trucks are either being diverted for other kinds of cargo or subject to gas rationing. Since the mid-thirties company annual reports have noted the inroads coastal shipping and trucking are having on the loading of produce. The war effort changes this trend for a few years.
1946
Fruit Growers Express adds more fifty foot wood sheathed reefers with overhead ice tanks: nineteen in the 775-799 series carrying FGEX reporting marks while 180 more are listed in two series numbered 4000-4174 and 4975-4999. These carry the new reporting marks FOBX, the "OB" denoting the presence of overhead bunkers.
1948
Western Fruit and Fruit Growers begin to rebuild the cars first built in the 1920's with taller doors and superstructure. The cars involved are those built with either six or eight inch side sills. The superstructure is further improved by the use of steel bracing between the outside and inside sheathing, which is evidenced externally by riveted steel plates along the side sills. All of these rebuilt reefers received adjustable grates suitable for stage icing. Other cars had also been receiving these previously. Many of these taller cars also receive fans. Other cars with the six or eight inch side sills will be rebuilt with the internal steel bracing without having their body or door height increased.
Western Fruit rebuilds some of their wood sheathed cars with steel sides and a paneled Murphy roof and improved Dreadnaught ends from Standard Railway Equipment. It is unknown presently if Fruit Growers also did this, but it is certain that BREX did not follow suit. This is one of the few examples when one of the consortium's members acted in such a unilateral fashion.
July 1, 1948
Henry B. Spencer, President of Fruit Growers Express Company since its organization in 1920, retired "at his own request," the company's Annual Report announced, John C. Rill, formerly Chief of Freight Transportation, The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, was elected President, Director and member of the Executive Committee to succeed Mr. Spencer, effective July 1, 1948 it reported. He would, of course, also serve as president of both BREX and WFEX.
February 25, 1949
The consortium's first mechanically cooled cars are placed in service. They are fifty feet in length. No date is forecast, but the end of the "ice age" has begun.
In December of that year the employee magazine Teamwork premiers. It is intended to help bind together the people who work for Fruit Growers, Western Fruit, and Burlington Refrigerator; "Our Companies" the magazine calls the combination. Our Companies sprawls across much of the continental United States. It would be a challenge to help the employees feel connected.
1950
President John C. Rill reports that FGEX cars averaged 68.2 miles per day, WFEX averaged 70.6, and BREX averaged 73.8.
1951
FGEX's Indiana Harbor shops begin to build the consortium's first forty-foot reefers with a single sliding plug door on each side. In addition 141 mechanical reefers for FGEX are built and 1,017 wood sheathed cars are modernized and strengthened for WFEX and FGEX through application of the steel body bracing.
By this date FH1X and WHIX reporting marks begin to appear, the "Hl" indicating Heavy Insulation.
Our Companies begin to use thermostatically controlled alcohol burning heaters in place of the traditional charcoal burners. The new devices provide more consistent temperatures.
Average miles per day are up from 1950: FGEX 70.9, WFEX 71.5 and BREX 76.5 miles per day on average.
1952
FGEX's Alexandria, VA shop begins to build forty-foot mechanical reefers. In addition. President Rill reports that expectations for delivery from builders are for 1,000 bunkerless steel refrigerator cars for FGEX, especially designed for shipments of canned goods and other commodities not usually handled under refrigeration but requiring protection against cold; 300 heavily insulated cars for WFEX; and 268 cars for BREX, of which 100 will have meat rails. These 1,568 new cars were ordered in 1951 and are all 40 foot 50-ton capacity cars.
By the end of the year, Our Companies will have built, authorized the building, or rebuilt and modernized 11,562 refrigerator cars since 1947 at a total cost of $86,500,000.
End of 1953
The FGEX/WFEX/BREX/NX fleet remains a predominately wood sheathed fleet with 20,463 cars of all construction types in service. Our Companies provide Transportation Protective Service - inspection, refrigeration, heat, and ventilation - and refrigerator cars for 75 railroads with 500 locations providing protective service facilities.
Unfortunately, the company records for Fruit Growers Express were lost when they were thrown away. Information does surface and many photos exist of the more common designs. There is a good chance more authoritative information exists for Western Fruit and Burlington Refrigerator Express companies since corporate records for their respective parent companies were preserved. How much is unknown at this time. Photos exist for their more common cars as well. Bob's Photos and Howard Ameling have the most and are the sources to begin with, but Big Four (Jay Williams), Richard Burg, California State Railroad Museum Library, and The Library of Congress are other sources. People really interested in the subject should leave no stone unturned.
A collection of Fruit Growers annual reports from the years 1920 into the 1960's, with the exception of 1956, is housed at the Virginia State Library and Archives as a part of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Company Records collection. The business libraries at Harvard, Yale, and Northwestern, and the C&O Historical Society hold less complete collections. Hopefully annual reports for the WFEX and BREX will be found.
An employee magazine entitled Teamwork published beginning in December 1949 is also a wonderful source of information from the issues seen so far and hopefully more of these will emerge. This publication served all three of the entities that made up the consortium, and was their effort to help tie the employees together. The term "Our Companies" occurs often in the magazine making it clear they saw themselves as trying to mold one identity.
Several articles have appeared in the enthusiast press:
"Upgrading The Accurail/5th Avenue Car Shops HO Scale E. Kahn’s Sons Co. 40-Ft Meat Reefer," Greg Martin, The B&O Modeler, May/June 2007, p 20.
"Truss Rod Refrigerator Cars of the Fruit Growers Express/Western Fruit Express/Burlington Refrigerator Express Consortium", Bill Welch, Prototype Railroad Modeling, Volume Two, Speedwitch Media, 2006, p 43.
"The Burlington Refrigerator Express Company’s Signature Wood Sheathed Reefers", Bill Welch, Prototype Railroad Modeling, Volume One, Speedwitch Media, 2005, p 40.
"WFE and FGE 40-foot Wood Reefers from Intermountain Models", Bill Welch, Railmodel Journal, February 2005, p 40.
"Western Fruit Express.. .Refrigerator Cars, Part One", Clive Carter, Mainline Modeler, April 1996, p 72.
"Western Fruit Express.. .Refrigerator Cars, Conclusion", Clive Carter, Mainline Modeler, May 1996, p 40.
"Fruit Growers Express Reefer: Less Publicized than PFE", Ivan Frantz, Mainline Modeler, January 1988, p 42.
"Burlington Reefers - in COLOR", Model Railroading, May/June 1985, p 40.
"The Refrigerator Cars of the Burlington", Model Railroading, January/February 1985, p 40.
Burlington Bulletin #12, Second Quarter, 1984. -- Issue devoted to Burlington Refrigerator Express cars. Some omissions and errors but a good overview and place to begin.
(Excerpts only)
FIRST ANNUAL REPORT
Washington, D. C., April 12, 1921
To: The Stockholders of
THE FRUIT GROWERS EXPRESS COMPANY
The Board of Directors submits the following report for the period from the organization of the Company to December 31, 1920.
Organization
The Fruit Growers Express Company was incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware on March 18, 1920.
On May 1, 1920, it acquired from the Armour Interests 4,279 refrigerator cars, together with their shop facilities at Potomac Yards, Virginia, icing facilities, etc., and began active operation on that date.
The following railroad companies have agreed to take a proprietary interest in the Company, and assume their pro rata share of the liability of the original stockholders to Armour and Company incident to the acquisition of their equipment:
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Co.
Norfolk & Western Railway Company
Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Co.
A plan is being developed for broadening the scope of your Company's activities, with a view of performing all of the perishable protective services east of the Mississippi River. The perishable movement is seasonal, and by centralizing the control of the refrigerator cars in the lines in that territory, the efficiency of the present equipment will be materially increased, thus relieving the shortage of refrigerator cars and reducing the number of cars of this type that the railroads will be required to finance and build in order to meet the demands of the perishable traffic. The Interstate Commerce Commission and large shippers of perishables have [Ed: illegible]ed the desirability of establishing such a central organization.
Equipment
In addition to the 4,279 cars acquired from the Armour interests, your Company purchased from the Receiver of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company, under a car trust agreement dated December 7, 1920, 969 refrigerator cars, making a total of 5,248 cars owned by the Company as of December 31, 1920. There were 24 cars destroyed on various railroads between May 1st and December 31st, 1920. We have been reimbursed and the funds have been set up and materials ordered to replace them, so as to maintain the complete number of cars.
Negotiations for financing the purchase of 2,000 new cars were undertaken. The Government agreed to lend the Company 60% of the funds required, with the understanding that the Company would provide the balance from its own resources. In view of the general business depression throughout the country, however, it was considered inadvisable to consummate the purchase until the conditions had improved.
Notwithstanding the general depression which developed during the last quarter of the year, the amount of perishable traffic handled by the Company continues to increase this year as compared with last. It will be necessary, therefore, at an early date, to undertake the financing and building of at least 2,000 additional cars in order to provide for the steadily increasing perishable traffic.
Additions and Improvements
The car shop facilities of your Company at Potomac Yards, Virginia, have been enlarged by the addition of an erecting shop, new machinery, material storage and track facilities, etc., which will materially increase the efficiency of the shop. The shop has a capacity of building new cars at the rate of 100 cars per month. We are now rebuilding the cars acquired from the Receiver of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company.
A car repair yard has also been established near Jacksonville, Florida, where repairs are being made to equipment en route to the Florida loading territory.
From May 1st to December 31st, 1920, repairs have been made on 4,566 cars at the Potomac Yards shop.
Additional Icing Facilities
The efficiency of our refrigeration service has been increased by the establishment, since May 1, 1920, of new and improved icing facilities at the following points:
Jacksonville, Fla.
West Jacksonville, Fla.
South Jacksonville, Fla.
Tampa, Fla.
Wildwood, Fla.
Miami, Fla.
Haines City, Fla.
Clayton, Del.
The largest improvement is at Jacksonville, Fla., where a modern ice manufacturing plant, with a capacity of approximately of 300 tons per day and storage capacity of 10,000 tons, is being rapidly completed.
Perishable Freight Handled
During the eight months ended December 31, 1920, the Company handled 31,153 carloads under refrigeration. In addition, 6,316 carloads were handled under ventilation in refrigerator cars under our supervision, and 1,422 under car rental, making a total of 38,891 carloads. During the same period the cars ran a total of 56,242,079 miles, and averaged 52.9 miles per car per day.
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