Were refrigerator cars in general (such as BREX or WFE or FGE) paid on a mileage and not on a per diem basis?
I can now see why there would be a tendency for offline railroads not to move refrigerator cars out of the yard once they were empty. Prodding was necessary.
My dad did talk about the virtue of getting backhauls for the refrigerator cars (mostly not needing refrigeration).
Thank you for the heads up on The Great Yellow Fleet. As I read at most the first half of it, so I should be safe. I have spent more time on The Pacific Fruit Express 2nd edition by Thompson, Church, and Jones. I hope that one is safer.
The whole story of refrigerator cars (and their eventual decline disappearance) is fascinating (such as the need for a separate company to be formed that dealt exclusively with refrigerator cars).
Burlington Bulletin No. 12 is devoted to the BREX (the article is by Rod Masterson and Robert Landregan). And BB No. 28 is on Burlington Billboard Reefers (by Hol Wagner and Robert Landregan).
Given the wide knowledge base of this group it would be very interesting to learn more about issues in the operation of reefers (especially Burlington’s and those the Q was connected to - like WFE and FGE).