Russ,
The "Three Sisters" or "Associated Companies" designations are from files I
found at the Minnesota Historical Society for the Western Fruit Express
Company.
As you say, the designations do not apply to the railroads as entire
entities, only to their refrigerator car operations. It is clear from the
above-mentioned files that BREX, WFEX and FGEX were independent companies.
The marching orders for all three companies, however, came from Washington,
DC-headquarters of the Fruit Growers Express Company.
Notice that the refrigerator car operations were very different from the
working arrangements of the "Hill Lines"-the GN, NP and CB&Q. The former two
actually owned the third. This was not the case with the Associated
Companies (refrigerator car operations), each of which was a separate
entity. Similarly, the NP was not a party to this refrigerator car pool. The
NP had a long-term relationship with the MDT-owned Northern Refrigerator Car
Company.
Sorry I didn't make myself clearer in the original post.
Regards,
Dave Lambert
_____
From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CBQ@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Russ
Strodtz
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 10:55 AM
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Reefer Companies on the Q
Dave,
What members called themselves as "Three Sisters"? It was
certainly not connected by the CB&Q and GN, or at least to
used, by any such group.
I will agree that, at some times, CB&Q and GN would use power
as it based on traffic when needed. Please keep in mind that
power was only used when needed. If not needed it was sent home
or stored.
I find it head to believe that I have lived for all these years
and never seen any road that you have said as the "Three Sisters".
Where did this come from?
Russ
----- Original Message -----
From: Dave Lambert
To: CBQ@yahoogroups. <mailto:CBQ%40yahoogroups.com> com
Sent: Wednesday, 18 June, 2008 09:00
Subject: RE: [CBQ] Reefer Companies on the Q
Rick,
The answer to your question is somewhat era-specific. By that I mean if you
are modeling the 1920s, your answer would be different from someone else's
who models the 1950s or '60s.
The CB&Q was a member of the "Associated Companies" or the "Three
Sisters"-the Fruit Growers Express (dominant member), Western Fruit Express
and Burlington Refrigerator Express. The BRE was the smallest member of the
Sisters in number of cars owned and contributed to the pool of cars operated
by the Sisters.
So, in a general sense, the most common reefer likely to appear on the Q
would be an FGEX car-because it was the largest contributor to the Sisters
pool. The season of the year would dictate the second-most common car you
would spot. If you were modeling a time of year (winter, for instance) when
large perishable shipments weren't on the move; you'd probably see more
home-road (BREX) on the railroad. If during the perishable shipment months,
I would guess most of the BREX cars would be off-line and you would see
mainly FGEX and WFEX cars.
In many ways, pooled refrigerator cars were like headend cars on passenger
trains. There were "patterns" for the appearance of foreign-line cars in
passenger and M&E trains, but just about anything had a non-zero probability
of showing up.
This is a long-winded answer to your question-for which I apologize. The
long-and-short of it is that Pacific Fruit Express, American Refrigerator
Express and even Santa Fe Refrigerator Express cars could and did regularly
appear on the Q. They were just not as "common" as the cars from the
Sisters.
Regards,
Dave Lambert
_____
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