FreightWaves Classics: Refrigeration helped railroads move fresh food nationwide (Part 2)

Swift and Company refrigerator cars on multiple sidings. (Photo: trains.com)

If you missed Part 1 of this article, here is a link.

Improving refrigerator railcars

Early wooden refrigerator railcars required insulation to help protect their contents from extremes in temperature. “Hairfelt” was compressed cattle hair, placed into the floor and walls of a railcar. It was inexpensive (a byproduct of the slaughtering process), yet quite flawed. Hairfelt would last three to four years, but it would decay, which rotted the car’s wooden partitions and often tainted the cargo...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-refrigeration-helped-railroads-move-fresh-food-nationwide-part-2

FreightWaves Classics: Fallen Flags – Illinois Central Railroad (Part 2)

A new Illinois Central locomotive. (Photo: American Locomotive)

There are many people interested in former transportation companies, whether they were trucking companies, railroads, airlines or ocean lines. They are called “fallen flags,” and the term describes those companies whose corporate names have been dissolved through merger, bankruptcy or liquidation.

As reported in Part 1 of this article, the Illinois Central Railroad (IC) is among the most notable of the railroads that are now considered fallen flags. The IC’s slogan, “The Main Line of...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-fallen-flags-illinois-central-railroad-part-2

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