Cassville and Exeter RR

HO. Late 30's. The Fruit Belt logo shows a strawberry, did they mostly do strawberries or was there other produce shipped? Did they use ice reefers for shipping? And where can I get a Ventilated Fruit car?
Thanks
Bill

 

Here is some other information on the C&E - http://www.barrycomuseum.org/pages/CandE.html

 

Excellent addition. Notice the Frisco Ventilated Boxcar in the picture where 345 is pulling a cut. She follows the tank car right behind the tender.

 

Bill, I don't have any direct knowledge about Cassville production, but generally the strawberries were grown on hillsides and rougher land. The better, flatter land might be in orchards. At least that was the pattern in Benton County, AR during the period that the C&E operated. I remember some strawberry operations in the 50's. A few orchards, mostly apples, lasted past then and there are some still going strong in Washington County.

 

Strawberries? Hmm, back in the mid-70's I went through an operation outside of Neosho (I think; maybe Goodman) that made strawberry baskets out of cottonwood veneer. He had an old "sawmill" looking building that would shave the cottonwood trunks into the veneer and that stuff was taken to a building (looked like an old WWI or II single story barracks) where the baskets were stapled together. It now makes sense as to why it was located where it was.

 

I may be a little late in posting this, but the old C&E yards were across the creek from my grandma's backyard on E. 10th Street in Cassville. I remember wandering around and seeing the rails buried in the dirt, and wondering what railroad could possibly have operated in that little old town.

 

Five years ago in this thread I questioned the partial view of a locomotive in a picture of the Cassville depot. I even questioned whether it was really taken on the C&E. There followed some discussion of there having been an ex-USN Alco numbered 3. Well, I was scanning old negatives a couple of days ago and lo and behold what did I find that I myself had photographed in 1956 other than a very derelict number 3! It had only been 55 years, how could I possibly have forgotten ? . . . . . At least I remembered that is was a wretched dark rainy day. Mea culpa.

Gordon

 

I'm enjoying these pics as they surface and the stories/descriptions they engender. Thanks

 

More photos of the C&E have shown up on the Barry County MO Museum Facebook page. Looks like lots of folks got their TVs via Frisco and the C&E.

 

From the Barry County Museum web site:

"Loading Elberta peaches in the Cassville MO rail yard around 1913"

 

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/...rticle/fresh-from-the-hills-zark-railway#text

A little hard to read with the grammar and type issues, but an insightful little story of a trip on the C&E from 1946.

 

I’m looking for a map of Cassville showing the railroad in town. I have found this one of Exeter!

 

2644 spoken of earlier in this thread.

 

Prior to it being the Cassville and Exeter, it was the Cassville and Western. Railroad changed ownership and name after this tragedy.

http://www.4bcaonline.com/in-memoriam-a-girl--a-train.html