Ok heres one for you steamers and eary diesel what type of reefers would be seen moving cold goods? I know there are the old wood side but is there others? (for N scale)

Well, Harry, while I can't point to any particular cars in N scale, for the early diesel/late steam era you would have seen reefers in 36'/34', 40', and 50' lengths, (the latter ones would most likely be express reefers, but not necessarily exclusively). Construction would be wood for the 36'-ers, and wood or steel for the longer cars. Ice cooled reefers lasted on the PFE until 1971, and many of those cars could have been of wood construction.
Depending on the year, cars might still have truss rods - all-wood frames (with truss rods) were banned from interchange service in 1940, but truss rod cars with composite (wood and steel) frames were allowed in interchange until January 1, 1952.
On most models, it would be difficult to determine the nature of the underframe's construction, so if you like truss rod cars and are modelling pre-1952, by all means use 'em. (And, of course, if you like those types of cars and are modelling a later date, no reason why you can't bend the "rules" to suit your own enjoyment.)

Wayne

There is an excellent selection of wood 40' reefers in N-scale.

Thanks guys i have had to re design the M&J since it had been moved from one room to another. Any way i have a milk plant and planing a brewrey so i figuered id ask.

what about mechanical? for 1960?

Mechanical reefers were around in the '60s, but not especially common in most areas. If you use ice reefers, you can also model the icing facilities - more visual interest and more operational interest, too.

Wayne

railroader9731 Wrote:Ok heres one for you steamers and eary diesel what type of reefers would be seen moving cold goods? I know there are the old wood side but is there others? (for N scale)

I recall seeing 40' steel reefers in the 50/60s..I don't recall seeing a wooden reefer in the Columbus,Oh area.

I think most of the old wood sheathed reefers were rebuilt with steel in the late 40's or early 50's. So much of the railroad equipment was so worn out after WW2 that most needed rebuilding or replacing. The meat companies (Rath, Hormel, Swift, etc) stuck with 36 foot long reefers into the 1970's when most of the old line meat packers closed down. Their warehouses and loading docks were designed for the door spacing of 36 foot cars and they didn't want to change their buildings. Santa Fe converted one ice bunker reefer to mechanical in 1948 to test the concept, but I don't think mechanical reefers replaced ice bunkers until well into the 1970's.