Western Refrigerator Line
Encyclopedia
Refrigerator car
A refrigerator car is a refrigerated boxcar , a piece of railroad rolling stock designed to carry perishable freight at specific temperatures. Refrigerator cars differ from simple insulated boxcars and ventilated boxcars , neither of which are fitted with cooling apparatus...
companies have operated under the name Western Refrigerator Line.
The first, the Western Refrigerator Line (WRL) was a refrigerator car leasing company founded by the Western Pacific Railroad
Western Pacific Railroad
The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California...
on January 1, 1923 specifically to service the fruit and green vegetable farmers in California's
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
Central Valley
California Central Valley
California's Central Valley is a large, flat valley that dominates the central portion of California. It is home to California's most productive agricultural efforts. The valley stretches approximately from northwest to southeast inland and parallel to the Pacific Ocean coast. Its northern half is...
. In early 1924, however, the WP and Pacific Fruit Express
Pacific Fruit Express
Pacific Fruit Express was a railroad refrigerator car leasing company that at one point was the largest refrigerator car operator in the world. The company was founded on December 7, 1906 as a joint venture between the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads...
entered into an agreement whereby the PFE would handle all of Western Pacific's perishable goods. All of the WP's 2,000 pieces of existing rolling stock were placed into PFE's car pool, including an additional 775 units ordered that year.
All cars delivered prior to the agreement were painted yellow with black ends and roofs, were lettered "Western Refrigerator Line," and bore a diamond-shaped herald formed by the words "Perishable Products" surrounding the letters "WRL." Units arriving after the contract's execution were painted yellow-orange, were lettered and numbered according to PFE's classification, and were emblazoned with WP's "Feather River Route" emblem on each side.
After three decades of service, 900 of the best cars were reconditioned at PFE's Roseville, California
Roseville, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Roseville had a population of 118,788. The population density was 3,279.4 people per square mile...
shops. The units were outfitted with electrically powered circulation fans and other improvements required to bring them up to current standards. By 1967, all but a few of the cars had been retired. Facing the need to invest millions of dollars toward the purchase of new, mechanically cooled refrigerator cars, the Western Pacific chose instead to become a partner in the PFE's rival Fruit Growers Express
Fruit Growers Express
Fruit Growers Express was a railroad refrigerator car leasing company that began as a produce-hauling subsidiary of Armour and Company's private refrigerator car line. Its customers complained they were overcharged. In 1919 the Federal Trade Commission ordered the company's sale for anti-trust...
in June of that year (which, at the time, controlled 24,000 mechanical reefers and 3,500 refrigerated tractor-trailer sets).
A handful of the original wood refrigerator cars were converted for ice service on the WP system.
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The Western Refrigerator Line Company (WRX) was established in 1929 to operate a 500-car fleet of reefers for the Green Bay and Western Railroad
Green Bay and Western Railroad
The Green Bay and Western Railroad served the transportation and freight haulage needs of northern Wisconsin for almost 100 years before it was absorbed into the Wisconsin Central in 1993...
(GBW). WRX was headquartered at Norwood Yard in Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
until the property was purchased by the GBW in the 1960s. WRX rolling stock often sported the GBW's "Green Bay Route" emblem. By 1981, the WRX had become part of the Burlington Northern Railroad
Burlington Northern Railroad
The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996....
.
Western Refrigerator Line Company Roster, 1930–1970:
| 1930 | 1940 | 1950 | 1960 | 1970 |
| 500 | 500 | 481 | 386 | 198 |
Source: The Great Yellow Fleet, p. 17.