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

Discussion in 'General' started by Frisco2008, Sep 28, 2008.

  1. rjthomas909

    rjthomas909 Member Frisco.org Supporter

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  2. rjthomas909

    rjthomas909 Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Team track activity at Brownsville, Texas.

    Are they loading watermelons?

    The reference says this is somewhere in the Texas State Library Archives.

    I have been trying to find out if they have a higher quality version, but cannot locate it digitally.

    https://tsl.access.preservica.com/archive

    FRL-Texas.jpg
     
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  3. Chris Gobert

    Chris Gobert Member

    Are you able to identify the car in the middle of this cut?
     
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  4. rjthomas909

    rjthomas909 Member Frisco.org Supporter

    It appears to be another FRISCO refrigerator car, but not lettered as the FRL.

    It has the FRISCO billboard lettering, I think.

    You can also see the first full car on the left has had siding replaced.

    Bob T.
     
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  5. rjthomas909

    rjthomas909 Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Another drawing, provided by Raymond Breyer.

    This diagram is not the same car number series.

    An earlier car than the FRL cars?

    ORER shows these as 1896.

    FRL-Car-Drawing-Dimensions.jpg
     
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  6. Chris Gobert

    Chris Gobert Member

    Bob note that this is the rebuilds.
     
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  7. fwober

    fwober Member

    It has been about 20 years, since I was at the Brazoria County Museum, Angleton, Texas.

    I think they had a photograph of an St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico (SLB&M) train with a white reefer in it, with a Gulf Coast Lines caboose, also painted white.

    This would have been after the SLSF lost control.

    I realized that white would have been a cooler color in Texas.

    Michael Lowe
     
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  8. rjthomas909

    rjthomas909 Member Frisco.org Supporter

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  9. rjthomas909

    rjthomas909 Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Frisco Friends,

    I am looking for a bit of clarity here.

    The ORER from 1917 seems to show these cars as 33 foot cars, inside length, and I am guessing 40-ft cars outside length (1-2500). The line drawing of a car seems to be a 40 foot car, but it is unclear to me that this is an "FRL" car verses the cars mentioned in the Frisco Employees magazine.

    Were these cars re-lettered at some point, or are they the same cars?

    Thanks to this excellent thread, we have a description of the colors.

    "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....""

    SLSF-Reefer.PNG


    Regarding the 3419-3437 series cars, the January 1915 ORER only shows two of these Frisco cars for the "St. Louis and San Francisco" and shows the 2500 "Frisco Refrigerator Lines" cars.

    ORER-1915-01.PNG

    Thanks in advance for any information the Frisco Nation can provide.

    Bob T.
     
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  10. klrwhizkid

    klrwhizkid Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    The 33 foot length would have been the usable space in the cars.

    If you subtract the length of ice bunkers from each end, the internal length of a 40 foot car would be about 33 feet.
     
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  11. rjthomas909

    rjthomas909 Member Frisco.org Supporter

    From the 1925 ORER.

    Notation of the transition of cars FRL 1001 to 2500 to the SLSF.

    Courtesy of Jerry Beach.

    upload_2024-3-6_18-51-31.png
     
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  12. rjthomas909

    rjthomas909 Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Also courtesy of Jerry Beach, in the 1925 ORER we see the FRL cars now assigned to the St.L.&S.F. and the 34 foot cars that are 3400-3429 and 3501-3649.

    I think in the photographs in this thread, we see a few of the latter, 34 foot cars alongside the 40 foot FRL/St.L.&S.F. cars.

    upload_2024-3-6_18-55-4.png
     
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  13. rjthomas909

    rjthomas909 Member Frisco.org Supporter

    We also have provided by John Sanders, his compiled history of related information.

    I think I now have a little more clarity.

    I will start a thread on modeling some of these cars in the "Modeling the Frisco" area.

    Bob T.

    [​IMG]
     
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  14. rjthomas909

    rjthomas909 Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Steve Hedlund dug this one out of a freight yard photograph.

    Chicago, Illinois.

    Unknown date.

    FRL-304-Chicago-Steve-Hedlund.jpg
     
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