Re: [CBQ] What could these crates be?

[Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com]

Read some of the old Railroad Magazine stories by E.S. Dellinger...Specifically 
 "Wheeling the Hotshots"...this story and some others are based on the exploits 
of "Young Runners"...racing Banana Extras" north at passenger train speed.  
This would have been in the late teens an early twenties...


Bananas were moved in ice reefers from New Orleans to northern markets  ie 
Chicago, Minneapolis et cetra...shipments were cared for by Banana Messengers 
who accompanied the shipments and took care of opening and closing the vents 
and operating the heaters on the cars.
I encountered one of these messengers in the yard at Ravenna, NE one night in 
1956...He was creeping down a train with a dim "barn" lantern.
I asked the foreman..who that guy was..He said.."That was the banana 
messenger....They were recruited from such environs as West Madison St. in 
Chicago and other like environs in other cities.


BTW..just so ya know...Bananas were a commodity that actually created heat as 
they ripened...That's why the cars had to have someone to regulate the 
temperature by opening and closing the vents and lighting and extinguishing the 
heaters.  If not properly handled the bananas would ripen too rapidly spurred 
on by their own self created heat and thus spoil before they reached 
destination.


We handled banana claims in the Rock Island Claims Department during my 
regime...1964-72.


Pete



-----Original Message-----
From: archie hayden <klinerarch@charter.net>
To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wed, Mar 19, 2014 11:58 am
Subject: Re: [CBQ] What could these crates be?


 
  
    
                  
I believe Eric has solved the mystery of the strange crates found at  
various depots along the Burlington.  To think our ancestors had  
bananas around the turn of the century.  What wonders  God hath  
wrought!  Thanks, Eric   Archie