Perishable Trafic

[railohio]

Who out there models perishable traffic? What specific commodities do you include? What kind of facilities do you have? What era is it?

[jwb]

I have a hard time limiting myself to a specific era and prototype -- I see my layout a little bit like an eclectic DVD library, but I certainly favor Emery Gulash films from his most productive years, maybe 1955-1980, so I tend to run stuff on my layout that corresponds to that. Perishable is a big subject, too. One of the prototype features I favor is heavy main line operation, so that for the era means priority freights with lots of reefers. It also means mail and express trains with REA and other express reefers. Most of these trains either loop around the layout as "show trains" or run from one staging track to another, since there's only one industry that actually receives produce (there are station tracks in my main terminal that receive express reefers). In my last open house I ran a "show train" with an Athearn veranda turbine and mostly PFE reefers. I've since acquired more meat reefers and can run NYC, PRR, NKP, etc style reefer trains as well.

[Mike Kieran]

I'm modelling 1979. My perishable traffic is fresh fish so that I have a reason for calling my railroad the Port Able Railway. My facilities are basic, a Pikestuff loading ramp to load the reefers from across the parking lot of the pier and warehouse.

[kamerad47]

I have a small loading dock and 45' reefer tailer , from rail car to trailer just basic transload !

[lajry]

Here's a link in Google's Picasa of some maps & pix of the Los Angeles Produce Terminal on the Los Angeles Junction Ry:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://tinyurl.com/9yfmyoy">http://tinyurl.com/9yfmyoy</a><!-- m -->
Will be modeling this on my 12' x 14' layout. There will be ALOT of selective compression. in fact only the docks W/ NO building and only 8 0f the 12 spurs will be modeled! Read the caption from the 10/03 Warbonnet article (5th image) about how the spurs were laid out & how the reefers were unloaded. The article was by Charlie Slater who was a conductor there 1970-1984. He also provided me w/ the LAJ Switching Map & notes for the Produce Lead. Will be doing a PowerPoint clinic on the LAJ at the NMRA PSR convention in Oxnard CA 9/5-9/9/12: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.psrnmra.org/">http://www.psrnmra.org/</a><!-- m -->
Alas the terminal is no more as seen in the last aerial.

[Brakie]

I plan on spotting a 57'' Reefer on the Slate Creek transload track from time to time.

[lajry]

Here's the final images for my LAJ clinic at the NMRA PSR LAJ convention (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.psrnmra.org/">http://www.psrnmra.org/</a><!-- m -->) tomorrow in Oxnard CA: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://tinyurl.com/cexgwgv">http://tinyurl.com/cexgwgv</a><!-- m -->
At the convention there will also be a raffle for a Trix UP Big Boy, 20 boxcars & a caboose for $10.00 per ticket or 3 tickets for $25.00. These are all worth over $1000.00

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I would like to model the Tropicana Orange juice trains, which used to run up the Northeast Corridor. There is a video of such a train behind some E44s in "Penn Central Volume 4" (An Emery Gulash clip, no less!).

Unfortuneately, I haven't done much research on it, as I've been trying to fill out my passenger equipment. One thing that does concern me, is that I can't seem to find it in my Conrail Freight schedules. Does anyone know Conrail's train symbol for the Orange Juice trains?

[bdw9535]

The symbol was OJT, there was an OJT-1 and OJT-5, not sure if there were any others.

Bruce

[jwb]

Also, the unit train of reefers only ran northbound, while the southbound cars went back a few at a time in ordinary freights.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

The symbol was OJT, there was an OJT-1 and OJT-5, not sure if there were any others.

Bruce

I decided to dig deep into my Conrail Schedules to find more about this train during the years I model, and it appears that the PDFs are missing pages. It seems that the Unit trains are left out of many of the schedules and are not always complete.

I found the Orange Juice train in the March 1979 schedule listed as-

Unit Orange Juice Trains

Symbol- WAKE
Destination- Kearny, NJ
Consignee- Tropicana
Route- SCL/RF&P/CR


Clearly, this train would be a good canidate for an electrically powered freight, since the tracks from Potomac to Kearny are entirely under wire, except perhaps for the very last stretch to the Tropicana plant itself. Whats more, it appears that the same march schedule is used in the September 1979 schedule, implying the train has stayed the same. That said, none of the schedules mention the train symbol WAKE outside of the unit train section. I assume that this train would arrive early in the morning, but then again, there are videos of it in the daylight, and they don't make any mention of it being late.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Speaking of Orange juice, the book "Reading in the Conrail Era" has a page on the subject (page 22). There apparently were two trains, the "Tropicana Orange Juice Train", which was an all Reefer train, an the "Orange Blossom Special", which was instead a unit train of refriderated highway trailers on flat cars. At this point, Freight has moved over to the former reading lines.

Interestingly, in many of the photos of these trains, CSX or Chessie power is in the lead. Frequently, RF&P GP40s are on the head end. I suspect this has to do with Cab-signaling, which the former SCL locomotives in these consists probably lack.

Since this is before the Conrail split, I'm assuming they just kept the CSX/Chessie power on the trains so to avoid a time consuming engine change?

[bdw9535]

The info I had (from 1987)was that the juice train was turned over to Conrail at Park Junction, Phila. PA. CR then took it North to Kearney and later in 1991 to the new facility in Jersey City, NJ. Your modeling eight years earlier so this isn't much help.

Bruce

[postman]

I'm modelling 1979. My perishable traffic is fresh fish so that I have a reason for calling my railroad the Port Able Railway. My facilities are basic, a Pikestuff loading ramp to load the reefers from across the parking lot of the pier and warehouse.

Nice!. Do you have a photo of that industry?

[MasonJar]

My era is between the wars, so I intend to have cattle, milk, and other perishables in ice reefers. While I have many of the models required, and some of the rolling stock, I don't have much of it finished yet... :/

I also like the idea of modelling the apple and sugar beet harvests, two of Ontario's biggest seasonal events.

Andrew