Icing Stations on the N&W

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Chuck:  Chances are that the icing done this late was by a contractor from
the local ice company/cold storage company, ice reefers being rare in the
1960's.  Some of these companies had trucks with elevator/conveyors for
lifting the block ice.  

 

FGE had a man at Clare yard in Cincinnati.  He would hire off duty crews to
ice the cars that came through- not all that many.  Ice was purchased from a
local ice house and stored in a small 'shack' atop the icing platform.

 

See the book on Pacific Fruit Express for good details on icing operations,
large and small.  

 

Gary Rolih

Cincinnati

 

  _____  

From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org
[mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 12:46 PM
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: Icing Stations on the N&W

 

Please excuse the reposting of this e-mail.  I forgot to put my name on it
the first time.

 

I am interested in learning about the use of icing stations and the icing of
reefers on the N&W.

 

Here is the background.  I have a copy of the 1966 N&W Stations and Sidings
listing.  In the back the icing stations list regular, emergency, and retop
stations.  Durham, NC is in the Norfolk Division and is listed as an
emergency icing station. Durham is also a junction with several railroads,
namely the Southern, Norfolk Southern, Seaboard, and Durham Southern.  

 

My question is:  For reefers coming to or thru Durham, I would assume that
icing would be done at the point or origin or retoped at one of the regular
icing stations.  If ice was needed here, would N&W most likely to have an
ice house where it received ice from the closest ice station shipped in or
would it rely on a local ice producer.  Would there be a small "ice house"
on site at the freight yard?  Was ice cheaper to haul or buy locally back in
the 1920's-30's-40's?

 

I would appreciate any enlightenment on this.

 

Chuck Stewart

Bahama, NC

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20060917/50fb4f44/attachment.html