Reefer question

[jwb]

This is not to say that reefers of lines generally associated with produce, such as PFE, were not sometimes rebuilt to haul meat. According to Tony Thompson's PFE book, PFE did have one series of reefers in meat service. There were also ART reefers in meat service, you'd have to check ORERs to tell the difference. The post above says, "Thus meat reefers required lots of salt. The only reefers that required more were the frozen food reefers, which also had heavier insulation. But most of these came into play in the 50's and I believe were of a steel design." Salt was also used on produce reefers for temperature control generally, not just for frozen food. The carts or wheelbarrows sometimes seen on ice dock decks were for salt, most often for produce reefers in ordinary produce service. John Allen would put white streaks around the ice hatches of his produce reefers to represent salt deposits -- I used to think he was incorrect (I'd been taking the "experts" seriously), but in fact he was just following the real world, which as a trained artist is what you'd expect from him!

For some reason, the self-appointed "experts", always a not completely favorable feature of the hobby, seem to flock around the reefer field more than some others, and I've learned to double-check their assertions. Same goes for the blanket statement about fans above. I would ask, for instance, if the PFE or ART reefers in meat service had their fans removed or not, and the question would be whether the "experts" are willing to do this double-checking themselves. Over the years, I've found several errors in Tony Thompson's blanket assertions -- he's said in clinics, for instance, that the Cotton Belt didn't run PFE reefer blocks (I have videos that say otherwise), or that the PFE routed its East Coast traffic principally over the Erie (to which I can only respond !?!?!?!). The best sources are rosters, the ORER, photos, videos, and first-hand accounts. Self-appointed "experts" not so much.

EDIT: while we're at it, another assertion by "experts" is that the Santa Fe didn't run PFE reefers in its trains, and the SP-UP didn't run Santa Fe reefers in their trains. All I can say is that the "experts" apparently haven't seen DVDs of archival footage from WWII to the end of ice reefer service!