Reefer question

[doctorwayne]

There were also drain pipes in all the ice bunkers to allow melt water out. If memory serves me well, they were located at the sides, just in from the ends.

Yup. In the picture below, the drain chutes are visible above the outboard journal boxes of both trucks, between the sill steps and the car's body bolsters:


In 1939, the CNR built some overhead ice bunker cars like the one shown below:


They were equipped with underslung charcoal heaters (the box below the car) for winter shipments of temperature-sensitive lading, and liquidometers (the black and white gadget to the left of the door) which read the car's internal temperature at both floor-level and immediately beneath the overhead brine tanks. This eliminated the guesswork about whether a car needed re-icing or if the heater needed to be used in cold weather. To facilitate icing, there were eight hatches in the roof, and, of course, no end bunkers (which allowed for more payload):


As for car icing, I seem to recall a photo of a truck built for this purpose, utilising a raiseable bed with the necessary equipment.

Kevin, in addition to providing ice for reefers, that ice house may have also be the main supply for domesticate and commercial ice - iceboxes in homes lasted surprisingly late where electricity was scarce, unavailable, or unreliable.

Wayne