Nostalgia & History > Pickle Processing and Pick-Up Stations?

Anyone remember these? This particular processing facility was at Foraker, Indiana (pronounced "Four-Acre") on the Wabash Fourth District. Other pickle processing locations on the Fourth District were at Stroh and Ashley, Indiana. Special cars with vertical tanks were used to ship processed pickles from Foraker to the Libby plant in St. Louis.

For more photos and information on this operation, go to the April 23, 2014 posting at the bottom of my blog at http://www.erstwhilepublications.com/ (The blog button is on the home page.)

Victor Baird
Erstwhile Publications
Fort Wayne, Indiana
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com/



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/14 13:19 by wabash2800.

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AHM or Tyco, one of the two, had a "Pickle" car a long time ago however, I don't know how prototypical it was to the prototype car. I had one but it's long gone now.

The Pepin Pickling Company in Minnesota and Wisconsin had a fleet of flats
with three large wooden casks (the vinegar would corrode the steel) for
transport of pickles to be put into jars. In Lewiston, MN, the PPCX cars
would be spotted in a long wood building with track down the middle and
large wooden pickling tanks on either side. The three casks would be
loaded from the pickling tanks, probably using a wooden wheelbarrow as
is shown in the photo. Then a C&NW R-1 would pull the cars and take
them to Winona where they were put on a Chicago-bound manifest freight,
IIRC, my dad has been gone for several years so I can't ask him .....
as a young man, he worked in the facility, as did many youths looking for
summer employment.

Thanks SR2. Clarence Montgomery, who was a conductor on this line (in the book) said that the tanks were wooden on the cars he saw too.

Also, the local historian I spoke to said that folks would put their kids to work here in the summer to keep them out of trouble!

I note there are photos of pickle cars here, mostly models:

https://www.google.com/search?q=pickle+rail+car&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Zx1YU62VCsifyAS4woIo&ved=0CCUQsAQ&biw=1276&bih=536#facrc=_&imgdii=pqmf7uTgHpDCNM%3A%3Bfm1ysnxZwNixXM%3Bpqmf7uTgHpDCNM%3A&imgrc=pqmf7uTgHpDCNM%253A%3BVnXB6WbL-ycLcM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.trainsarefun.com%252Flirr%252Flirrwrecks%252FGolden%252520Pickle%252520Works%252520Wreck-Crane-MOW%252520Car-Camelback%252520Tender-%252520Car%252520on%252520Side-Calverton%252C%252520NY%252520-%2525208-13-26.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.trainsarefun.com%252Flirr%252Flirrwrecks%252Flirrwrecks.htm%3B800%3B396



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/14 13:18 by wabash2800.

There was an interesting discussion of pickle transport and processing in the Yahoo group dedicated to the Chicago, Attica and Southern. Presumably, most pickles are transported by truck nowadays, although I wonder if Sechler Pickles in St. Joe, IN, ever received the little cukes by rail, given their location near a rail junction.

The M. A. Gedney Co. is a large century and a half old pickle producer in Chaska, MN. I remember those huge wooden vats well. They were used for storage of unprocessed cucumbers, stored in brine.

Besides the vertical wooden tank cars others have discussed in this thread for receiving those cucumbers, there were also horizontal wooden tank cars for vinegar.

I used to sell them packaging products in the '70's. They used lots of glass jars and corrugated boxes, but I didn't carry those lines. I sold them mostly 5 gallon plastic pails for restaurant trade. They were a huge user of wooden barrels, which I did carry, but I never sold them any. They purchased used whiskey barrels for less than my cost.

So, if you're building a model of this industry, you have several unique types of rolling stock specialized for this industry: horizontal wooden tank cars, vertical wooden tank cars, rectangular wooden tank cars, and cooperage cars.

-John

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I think the "little cukes" would come in from the fields transported by the farmers rather than rail. (See the newspaper article on my blog at www.erstwhilepublications.com The pickles would go out by rail, though I'm not familiar enough with Sechlers to know if they used rail. I'm sure if you go back far enough, many did.

colehour Wrote:
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> Presumably, most pickles are transported by truck
> nowadays, although I wonder if Sechler Pickles in
> St. Joe, IN, ever received the little cukes by
> rail, given their location near a rail junction.

LarryDoyle Wrote:
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> > Besides the vertical wooden tank cars others have
> discussed in this thread for receiving those
> cucumbers, there were also horizontal wooden tank
> cars for vinegar.
>>

There is a vinegar tank car at OERM. I remember being fascinated by it the first time I saw it. It was still pretty pungent!

I think the pickle car was produced by Athearn.
jburek

When I had a book signing yesterday at the Wakarusa, Indiana Maple Syrup Festival, I was able to talk with some of the locals about the Pickle Processing Plant. I brought my photos and it was fun reminiscing. This is an Al Corwin photo taken in 1981. The plant was out of operation but still there! I know that an HO model is on my bucket list.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/14 10:29 by wabash2800.

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