Rick,
I will be curious about the answers. I have seen
several places a color photo of a large number of
ART reefers staged in Grand Junction and this helps
explain why.
A 1965 MP Freight Traffic Circular showing a "List
of Firms and Industries having Trackage Facilities
at Competitive Points" shows all of the Fruit and
Vegetable receivers in Omaha-Council Bluffs being
served by the UP. This makes sense as the bulk of
fresh produce and fruit into Omaha would be coming
from California points that were served by PFE. So
it would suggest that most traveled UP Denver to
Omaha.
It can stated with some certainty that the Q
handled some of this traffic in Kansas City proper.
The Q shared with the ATSF and RI switching duties
at the KC Produce Yard located along the Missouri
River in the current City Market area. The Q
switcher for this duty for a long time was a motor
car while the ATSF and RI used 44 tonners. The UP
started their own produce yard in Kansas City KS in
the late 1930s (this is discussed in Richard
Overton's book), but various court proceedings by
the other KC railroads kept it from being major
produce yard in KC.
Watching the video, it is hard to tell what kind of
reefers were in the train. At the time of the video,
all of the big reefer suppliers still had a large
number of wood sheathed cars (ART PFE and SFRD had
more steel cars as they started building them in the
mid 1930s - the FGE affiliated roads (BREX, WFEX,
etc) and MDT still were still almost 100% wood
sheathed).
Bill Hirt
CB&Q List
Please see email and link below
You might find this interesting as it states
some of the peaches ended up in the Denver to
Omaha routing for points east.
Couple of questions, would the Q handle ART
reefers on a regular basis? Would Burlington
reefers be used on a regular basis for the
western slope peaches?
Thanks
Ricky Keil
Papillion, NE