I am working out the track arrangement for Henning Street Yard and the Armour plant on my West Bottoms railroad. I was putting in an icing dock, but in a recent Model Railroader article it indicated they didn't use block ice but a crushed ice and salt mixture called brine. They also blew cold air into the reefers before icing which was called pre-cooling. So the sequence would be, clean out, pre-cool, ice with brine, load meat, top off ice, dispatch. So there is quite a bit of switching going on. My problem is I have never seen a picture of the pre-cooling or brine operations. I've searched the internet, no help. Does anyone have any information on these operations and what the equipment looked like? I know it was a long time ago and this is a shot in the dark. For now I guess I would use a Walther's icing platform and run a hose from the ice house to hang overhead. Seems like I would probably need a water tank also. John
Some Internet information on this subject, and just about any other subject you can imagine, can be found by doing a search on Google Books. There are a few things you can do to limit the amount of information and narrow the search. I usually start at GOOGLE.COM My browser shows a line across the top with various available searches Images, Maps, News, etc. Click on "more" and select "Books". When the search page comes up I usually go to advanced and select "full view only" in the options. A good place to start on this subject is with the Report of the Federal Trade Commission on Private Car Lines issued June 27, 1919. There is a LOT of information scattered through this and it will take some reading. If you have high-speed it might be easier to download the book as a pdf file and save it on your computer where you can easily take it in small bites. There's Frisco information beginning on page 205 and over the next 50 pages or so. No photos, but a lot of information on the ice operations prior to 1920. John
