Railroaders' Nostalgia > Reminiscing about Railway Express reefers....

Several recent postings on TO have discussed the huge fleet of Railway Express refrigerator cars that existed thru the 1970's.  My first exposure to them was seeing them in the consists of SP's "Imperial", trains 39 and 40, passing thru my hometown of Mesa, Arizona.  Railway Express had a lively business of moving packages from New York City to Phoenix.   There was a express car from New York (Grand Central?) to Phoenix routed NYC - Chicago - La Salle St. Rock Island- SP, and another car every night routed Pennsy St. Louis - MP - Kansas City - Rock Island SP to Phoenix.  Most of the time, REX reefers were used for this service.  REA had a lively trade in markets like this, as they provided fourth morning service from New York to Arizona.  In the Spring, empty REX reefers were deaheaded to California in freight service to be used for springtime strawberry and early grape express special trains.
Time marches on.  In 1972, I was working for Santa Fe as an assistant trainmaster at Fullerton, California.  Now Fullerton had a spring and summer perishable rush each year.  By 1972, urban growth had slimmed that perishable rush down, but we still orginated up to 24 car loads of oranges, broccoli, cauliflower and celery every night during May, June and July.  The problem was that everywhere on the Santa Fe (and on SP and UP) there was a rush, and Santa Fe ran out of refrigerator cars.  We would hope to get 25 empty cars for loading every day but usually only 10 to 15 were supplied.  Most of the cars we got were "ice" reefers, and San Bernardino ran out of ice at the ice plant so we had to make a deal with the ice company across the street from the depot to ice the cars before they could be placed for loading.  The ice plant used a 1934 Ford flatbed track with a makeshift conveyor on it to raise the 300 pound blocks of ice to the roofwalk of the cars.  As you can imagine, that process didn't work smoothly.
Because Santa Fe was so short of cars everywhere, obscure cars were borrowed from wherever.  Imagine my surprise when, one day, eight "SLC" reefers showed up for loading.  SLC?  Oh, that's San Luis Central - an almost unknown 8 mile short-line in Colorado's Alamosa Valley.  But these aren't just common ice reefers.  They are about 55 feet long, and they have passenger style trucks......Hmmm.....For the balance of the season we loaded a few of the SLC cars every day.
A railfan friend provided the asnswer.  These cars were the former REA Express reefrigerator cars purchased when REA folded up in the early 1970's to haul potatoes from that high valley in the Rockies and were "drafted" in 1972 to fill in a large car shortage.  But the plot thickens a bit!  The San Luis Central was owned by Ed Burkhardt, who was also employed by Chicago and Northwestern in their transportation department.  Apparently, his ownership of a short line caused issues within CNW's management even though SLC did not connect with CNW.  Burkhardt later became famous as the leader of the group which formed the Wisconsin Central and did such a remarkable job of resurrecting the remnants of the former SOO Line into a successful railroad.
30 years later, I saw some of those same REA reefers stashed on a spur tracks on the San Luis Central.  The yellow SLC job paint had faded  but the diamond REA empblem was visible beneath. 
Several years later, I was seated in my private car "TIOGA PASS" in the Amtrak San Diego station in mid-afternoon when a well-dressed couple walked up to the car.  I chatted with them and then invited them aboard.  Heck, I love to meet new folks!  The man introduced himself as Ed Burkhardt.  We had a great conversation about his career and railroads.  I was fortunate to have met him.  

TIOGA PASS


TIOGA PASS   

 

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/16 16:41 by aronco.

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I remember Oxnard back in the early 1980's  several of these cars were stored on track 9.  In those years the internet was invented yet by Al Gore..  had to use the old Railway book that listed all of the railroads..  miles of track, routes and the top executives.  Always thought to myself how did these cars end up in Oxnard along ways from Colorado?  After a lengthy inspection realized these cars had the high speed trucks etc...  Thanks for jogging my memory  Norm !

Number five through Tabernash on the main line,.  Unusual!  Normally there would be a coal load waiting to go through the Moffat Tunnel!

Rob