Model Railroading > Interesting boxcar load for Christnas

Indiana, PA. loading of a B&O box with bundled XMAS Tees, done on site.
Could be easily modeled, including the smell?

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Lots of Christmas trees from Michigan traveled in boxcars. Also, intermodal flatbed and van trailers were loaded with Christmas trees. I use to haul flatbed trailers of Christmas trees from Michigan to around the midwest.

Indiana Pennsylvania was the home town of Jimmy Stewart. 

My father-in-law talked about buying Christmas trees out of the train cars in LA years ago. I believe a lot of our trees sold here in Utah come from Oregon, but I don’t know if they come in containers on trains or just by truck.

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

Indiana, Penn. claims to be the “Christmas Tree Capital of the World.”

Posted from iPhone

I remember one year as a child in the early 1960's we bought our Christmas tree from a tree lot adjacent to the Sacramento Northern in Walnut Creek (Calif).  Workers were unloading trees from a single Great Northern 40 foot box car spotted on what was once the main track. By that time, the SN main line had been cut back to Walnut Creek from Oakland and the main track at that location was nothing more than a team track. 

Thank you for posting that great photo.

Jeff Pell
Lodi, CA

atsf121 Wrote:
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> My father-in-law talked about buying Christmas
> trees out of the train cars in LA years ago. I
> believe a lot of our trees sold here in Utah come
> from Oregon, but I don’t know if they come in
> containers on trains or just by truck.
>
> Nathan
>
> Posted from iPhone

My folks always bought our Christmas trees there.  It was just off Alameda Street, not too far from the L.A. Union Station.  There were numerous rows of sidings with the box cars backed in.  The trees were offloaded and put up for sale right there next to the box cars.  My younger brother and I just loved running around through the thousands of trees.  I can even remember actually going into one of the box cars once.  My mother was VERY picky about which tree we would buy and we would spend hours there looking for the perfect tree.

Here's a vintage photo of one of those trees, complete with American Flyer S gauge and a snow covered village, circa 1960's.

Hope you are all doing well,
Allen Drucker



 

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missouri had some big farms

This post reminded me of many years ago wandering Germany one morning. The holidays were approaching. 

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herderover Wrote:
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> I remember one year as a child in the early 1960's
> we bought our Christmas tree from a tree lot
> adjacent to the Sacramento Northern in Walnut
> Creek (Calif).  Workers were unloading trees from
> a single Great Northern 40 foot box car spotted on
> what was once the main track. By that time, the
> SN main line had been cut back to Walnut Creek
> from Oakland and the main track at that location
> was nothing more than a team track. 
>
> Thank you for posting that great photo.
>
> Jeff Pell
> Lodi, CA

That would have been fun to see, the tracks were a nice trail that I used a few times while living in Walnut Creek decades later.

Posted from iPhone

Streamliner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> atsf121 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > My father-in-law talked about buying Christmas
> > trees out of the train cars in LA years ago. I
> > believe a lot of our trees sold here in Utah
> come
> > from Oregon, but I don’t know if they come in
> > containers on trains or just by truck.
> >
> > Nathan
> >
> > Posted from iPhone
>
> My folks always bought our Christmas trees there.
>  It was just off Alameda Street, not too far from
> the L.A. Union Station.  There were numerous rows
> of sidings with the box cars backed in.  The
> trees were offloaded and put up for sale right
> there next to the box cars.  My younger brother
> and I just loved running around through the
> thousands of trees.  I can even remember actually
> going into one of the box cars once.  My mother
> was VERY picky about which tree we would buy and
> we would spend hours there looking for the perfect
> tree.
>
> Here's a vintage photo of one of those trees,
> complete with American Flyer S gauge and a snow
> covered village, circa 1960's.
>
> Hope you are all doing well,
> Allen Drucker
>
>
>
>  

Loved the story and the photo Allen. Reminds me of my neighbor Hank across the street when I was a boy and his trains under the tree. I always wanted to go Christmas caroling to his house first, wonder why!? :)

Nathan

Streamliner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My folks always bought our Christmas trees there.
>  It was just off Alameda Street, not too far from
> the L.A. Union Station.  There were numerous rows
> of sidings with the box cars backed in.  The
> trees were offloaded and put up for sale right
> there next to the box cars.  

I'm pretty sure that location was at the big SP Team Tracks at 8th and Alameda.

SP was loading Christmas Trees into mechanical reefers into the 1990's

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/25 22:36 by funnelfan.

We lived in a Cornucopia of railroads when I was a kid (1950s). Those railroads have slowly faded into the past. Sigh!
The Reading RR served a team track and later a small building that some entrepenuer deemed the "Orange Car". During the winter carloads of citrus fruit would arrive at the "Orange Car". Families would line up to buy crates of fresh Oranges and Grapefruits. 
But just before Christmas carloads of Christmas Trees would arrive, and if I recall correctly CN or CP boxcars, that was over 50 years ago and the same would happen, lines of families buying their Yuletide Tree. In later years the trees arrived by truck to a location nearer our home and the family (I went to school with their kids) became a major source of Christmas Trees.
No more "Orange Car" but a family friend was a race horse "Pullman" truck driver. He would come back from Florida with crates of citrus. I always found it funny that the Oranges could be a large as Grapefruit or as small as Tangerines! These were the furits that usually ended up in juices! But dirt cheap! He aslo showed up one year with something called a "Hess Truck". Yes the original with functioning hoses and a tank you could fill with water. What a marvel!
Fun Memories, thank you.
Gonut

Was that "Orange Car" the one in Harrisburg, PA ?