Frisco Refrigerator Line (FRL) - 40 Foot Wood Side Ice Bunker Refrigerator Cars

If I may jump in here, since the photograph of FRL 1010 is black and white, I cannot tell the side color.

Any one know if it is white, gray or yellow?

John,

Thanks for the link to Missouri State University Library.

The reefer on page 7 will save the day for Andre.

I can easily make a reefer for the time period needed.

Also a couple bonus cars, a 40 foot furniture car and a 34 foot box, all with Frisco markings.

John L Fleming

 

John Sanders,

Thank you for that excellent reference material.

Well done!!!

John Fleming,

Boy have we hit the jackpot or what?

Andre

 

The "Fruit Car" "loosepg4" looks promising as well, though no colors are shown on it.

 

Any ideas about who manufactured the passenger cars shown in the paint diagrams?

Looks like an interesting large scale project!

Dan

 

Is there any chance that Frisco reefers moved any Rio Grande Valley traffic over their Ft. Worth and Rio Grande (FW&RG) subsidiary out of Brownwood, TX?

Modelers of the Golden Age probably have a better insight to the traffic patterns of the early 20th Century.

Joe Toth
The Trinity River Bottoms Boomer

 

It is more likely that in 1912, Rio Grande Valley produce traffic would have originated on the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico (SLB&M), which was controlled by the Frisco at the time.

I do not know how that traffic would have been routed beyond the rails of the StLB&M and the rest of the "Gulf Coast Lines", which were not physically connected to the rest of the Frisco system. See the map linked below.

Possibly by way of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific (CRI&P) access to Houston, since the Rock Island, like the Frisco and the Chicago and Eastern Illinois (C&EI), was part of B. F. Yoakum's empire at the time.

Unfortunately for the Frisco and its hopes of dominating south Texas, Yoakum's empire fell apart in the financial crisis of 1913. The StLB&M and the rest of the Gulf Coast Lines were sold off by the bankruptcy court, and came under Missouri Pacific (MP) control in 1925.

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/eqf10

http://www.ttarchive.com/Library/Maps/Gulf-Coast-Lines_Ref-Map.html

 

A drive around North Springfield, MO this morning unearthed something that may be related to FRL cars.

I noticed an interesting garage and more importantly the door hinges. I made a loop around the block and returned to photograph the hinges. After I got home out came the FRL binder to compare the garage hinges to the drawings from the 1913 Car Builders Directory.

They appear to match closely. The FRL page in the December 1912 ORER lists Springfield as the repair shop. Frisco and C&EI divided up the cars after they disbanded FRL in April 1920. The two roads divided up the cars with SLSF 1500 cars and C&EI 1000 cars.

By the early 1920s some of the Frisco cars went through a rebuilding program which improved the durability of the cars, while some cars were converted to ventilated box cars and conventional box cars.

Most of the rebuilt refrigerator cars were retired by the 1930s. Any surviving cars ended up in company service. My thought is these hinges might be from retired, or converted FRL/Frisco cars. It is possible these are from any retired refrigerator car that happened to use the same hinge.

I had intended to post these drawings some time ago, but here they are now. Also attached are photos from this morning.

John Sanders
Springfield MO

 

I am in the process of having the Frisco Refrigerator Line decal made.

Details coming soon.

 

Thanks Chris and Keith for the kind words.

It is possible that the match board siding used in the garage doors is car siding. I am waiting for a friend, freight car restorer at Mid Continent Railroad Museum, to look at the photographs and see if that may be the case.

Another couple of freight car friends are convinced the hinges are vintage refrigerator car hardware. However, they each identified two different hardware makers as the hinge supplier.

The car drawings in the Car Builders Directory remove one more excuse for not building a car. The small lettering in the delivery scheme remains a mystery, as does the rebuild scheme of the 1920s.

John Sanders
Springfield, MO

 

While looking for something else, I stumbled across the May 1925 issue of the Frisco Employe's Magazine, which includes an article, starting on page 10, about the rebuilding of refrigerator cars of this type which were purchased in 1912-1913.

It describes the cars' early history as follows:

"They were painted white, with black letters and red ends and on account of the trouble these cars gave, someone nick-named them 'White Hopes'.... Account of the light superstructure of this car, the body went to pieces rapidly and on account of the reputation these cars had on foreign lines, we could not get them over interchange. The cars were then taken through the shops, but did not receive any substantial repairs. The paint was changed from white to yellow, changing the identity of the cars, but the paint did not make the cars any more useful than when they were white."

It includes descriptions of the physical rebuilding of the cars, with much discussion of draft sills, insulation, etc., and four photographs. Three "construction" photographs and one of the cars apparently in service. The lettering is hard to read, but as near as I can tell the two cars in the latter photograph are SL-SF 2043 and SL-SF 1741.

https://thelibrary.org/lochist/frisco/magazines/fem_1925_05/fem_1925_05_11.pdf

 

I figured it had something to do with light colored paint absorbing less heat from sunlight.

But that is just speculation on my part.

BAS

 

Adding to this great old thread.

Image from the 1917 ORER.

 

I realize this is an old thread, but it is a GOOD thread.

Did the early era refrigerator decals ever get produced?

Available in N scale?

I was reading the Fruit Farming on the Frisco pamphlet the other day, which was published in 1899.

In it, there is a photograph of one end of a Kansas City Fruit Express reefer being loaded.

I found one photograph of a KCFE car, on eBay of course.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/141702559355?hash=item20fe21767b:g:6QEAAOSwBLlVTQN7

I assume that photograph is not good enough for a decal maker to make decals from, what with the angle and all?

Still I thought it was interesting.

Sorry if I have strayed too far off topic.

 

Frisco Friends,

Giving this thread a bump, as Chris Gobert and I are looking for additional photographs and perhaps a lettering diagram for the Frisco Refrigerator Lines (FRL).

They will be used for a decal project Chris is pursuing.

If you can assist, I will gladly share a few sets for those interested, as with the other projects recently!

Bob T.

 

Good morning Bob Thomas and Frisco friends.

I am new to this group and very pleased to join you. I am primarily a C&EI modeler and currently am kind of fixated on the period of Frisco control. I note above in this thread that some years ago Levi Benjamin Matthews was having decals made for the FRL cars.

Earlier John Sanders alluded to a lettering diagram, whereabouts unknown, and more recently Eric Hansmann has provided some very useful suggestions for the hardware inventory lettered on the ends of the cars.

I am quite serious about commissioning a sheet of decals for these cars and would very much appreciate any input to ensure utmost accuracy.

Kind regards to all of you.

Chris Gobert.

 

Just came across this wonderful RPPC on ebay.