Charlie,
You ask a good question.
My understanding of the possible answer follows:
Remember who owned the CB&Q. They certainly had something to say about the
ownership (or lack thereof) of express reefers by the Burlington.
Secondly, keep in mind that there were actually two competing express reefer
pools-the Railway Express Agency and Northern Refrigerator Car, a subsidiary
of Merchant's Despatch, and hence, of the New York Central. Both CB&Q owners
had cars in the REA pool until the mid-1920s. Around 1927, the NP withdrew
its cars from the REA pool after a mileage dispute and signed on with NRC
for coverage of its express reefer needs.
The Great Northern, on the other hand, was quite content with its
arrangement with the Agency-adding the GN 2200-series cars to the REA pool
as late as 1957. Two owners, two different views of dealing with express
reefer needs.
There seems to have been little disagreement, however, about the Burlington
owning or leasing express refrigerator cars. It was apparently felt
unnecessary. The Great Northern's involvement in the pool provided coverage
for the Q's rather limited need for such equipment.
You mention trains which carried express refrigerator cars. One of the major
users of this equipment 0n the Burlington was Train 29, The Fast Mail. Such
cars in the consist of this train were almost certainly carrying dry
(non-refrigerated) express-or even more likely, bulk mail. The Post Office
Department loved express reefers because of their excellent riding
qualities. By the late 1950s, only about 5% of the loadings of express
refrigerator cars required ice.
You mention express reefers from MILW, SOO, CRIP, WAB, M&StL, ATSF, GN and
NP, etc. You must be looking at fairly old photos to have seen some of these
cars. The MILW cars were never in the REA pool (although they "were
available" to the American Railway Express pool in 1919)-they were
considered too short (at 44-ft) and under-insulated. The CRIP, WAB, M&StL
and SOO cars were all leased from General American in the mid- to late-1920s
but were off-lease by the late-1930s or early 1940s. Very few such cars
(some MP, SAL and SOO) were still under lease by the end of WWII. The NP
cars were not pooled, as I mentioned, after the late 1920s and appeared
(infrequently) in their own trains as most were 44-ft cars.
SOO cars lasted into the 1950s but were not in the pool by that time.
However, seeing pooled GN 2200-series cars would have been very common on
Train 29.
So, the short answer to your question is that the Q's owners thought it
unnecessary for the railroad to own express reefers.
I find it very difficult to argue with that decision.
Best regards,
Dave Lambert
_____
From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CBQ@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of cvlk
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 12:14 PM
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [CBQ] The CB&Q and the REA
This brings up a question I have been wondering about that hasn't been fully
answered. Why, if the CB&Q was so involved with the REA, didn't the Q have
REA Express reefers lettered CB&Q as so many roads did? From looking at
photos of CB&Q trains it looks like the express reefer traffic in general
was less than one might expect.... the trains that do carry express reefers
seem to be fowarded to or from the NP and GN. ATSF, MILW all had their own
cars, SOO, RI, WAB, M&StL, etc.. had REA cars with their name on
them.....yet the Q express reefer fleet was limited to very early Cream Cars
and Milk Cars which were gone by the early teens.
Curious.
Charlie Vlk
>
> You are correct - I spoke to Mr. garrett on the phone shortly after the
> book came out and encouraged him to do an expanded article for BRHS Zephyr
> re: his experiences with REA serving CB&Q stations in SD & WY. When I
> mentioned the book title in my 'post', I was @ work so did not have it in
> front of me. Great guy especially when one considers he's in his 90's and
> went from being a helper with REA to a top corporate job right up to the
> time REA dissolved. He has so many good stories of his times working with
> Burlington depot agents, even getting Q engineers to spot trains to make
> it easier to load/unload large REA shipments.
>
>
>
> Not much has ever been written on the role REA had with the RR's (CB&Q
> being of the large group of RR owners).
>
>
>
> Gerald
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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