Throwback Thursday!
This is how refrigerated freight traveled circa 1910. Before the interstate highway system a very large percentage of domestic freight moved via railcar, as over the road truckers were limited by technology and the available roadways, and intermodal containers were not yet built. Many times, unlike today, rail was actually the faster means of hauling freight cross country.
If you needed to move produce, dairy or meat products long distances this is how it was done! Railroad cars like this were,early on, wood construction and cooled via large ice blocks. On long haul routes, for example Texas to Chicago, generally the refrigerated cars would be re iced midway through the trip to make certain the necessary temperatures were maintained.
Refrigerated freight was a great money maker for railroads until the volumes started to decline in the late 1960s and 1970s with the rise of OTR reefer trucks. A large amount of freight is still moved by refrigerated rail car, which in many respects are similar in what they accomplish, but utilize modern steel construction with diesel powered cooling units. Intermodal containers are also available as refrigerated units, and many are operated on North American railways. Tropicana continues to operate large unit trains of refrigerated cars between Florida and the north east.
