The Orange Car

• The exhibit shows orange crates stacked at one end of the car.   However, this isn't correct as there was an ice bunker on both ends.   The produce was positioned slightly away from the ice bunker to keep it from freezing and allow for air circulation.   But, there's no other place to put the crates where they wouldn't be in the way.

• The Museum's car was not owned by a railroad company.  It was owned by the Pacific Fruit Express Company, formed in 1906, which was owned by two railroads: the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific.   However, refrigerator cars were also owned by individual railroad companies (such as the Santa Fe, which had a large fleet of cars) as well as hundreds of individual shippers.  It should be noted that - historically -  railroad companies, being the first large corporate bureaucracies, were not noted for customer service.   Prior to competition from the truck, the railroad customer service moto was (basically):  "We're not happy until you're not happy!"   Consequently, the first refrigerated cars were forced down the throat of railroad companies, with railroad management kicking and screaming all the way.   

• Before the invention of modern insulating materials (like fiberglass and Styrofoam), animal hair was used as the insulation.  It was found that horsehair was particularly good because it didn't smell as it aged (which, obviously, would ruin the taste of the produce inside).  Horsehair's big drawback was a tendency to settle (compact) due to the constant vibration of the car, which caused a loss of insulation effectiveness.   

• The exhibit shows block ice loaded into the left-side ice bunker.    However, other types of ice could be used (chunk, coarse, crushed) which have different humidity characteristics, so the ice was matched to product being shipped (similar to how modern home refrigerators have drawers with humidity controls for different kinds of produce).   In addition, depending on the product, various amounts of salt could be added to the ice to decrease the internal temperature by a desired amount.   However, salt also rusted everything it touched, including the car itself, the track, and bridges.   Railroads fought this by spraying a coating of heavy petroleum oil over entire railroad lines, specifically those carrying many refrigerator cars - tens of  thousands of miles of track, to protect the steel (this, of course, was before anybody knew they should care about the environment).  

Today, foodies often tout their "Farm to Fork" preference for food.  And the shortest distance between the "Farm" and their stomach is considered best, regardless of the cost.  This implies the foodies' food doesn't hang around in the large supermarkets where the hoi-polloi generally shop.  

However, prior to the invention of the refrigerated boxcar everybody was "Farm to Fork", whether they wanted to be or not.   And the farm had to be pretty close by, because there was no way to move perishable products long distances.   Prior to the 1950's (or so), most of the US population lived north of and east of St Louis and the growing season there was short.   So, before the refrigerated boxcar, for about 2 or 3 months out of the year, the city folks would get produce from nearby farms.  But for the rest of the 9 or 10 months, they wouldn't get anything.   Produce is an important source of vitamins, a lack of which causes health problems.

Fresh milk was the first product moved in chilled cars in large quantities.   Imagine Boston or New York City in the 1870's.   Fleets of express trains would start in the very early morning and would work their way from the Dairy Farm areas toward the city.   At hundreds of local stations along the way there would be "milk cans" waiting on station platforms, which would be quickly loaded into the railcars, and the trains would race to the next station.   The milk had to be delivered to the big-city by morning.   The trains became known as "Milk Runs".   Prior to the "Milk Runs", all the fresh milk was churned into butter on the farms, as otherwise it would spoil.  

As harvesting ice was already established by this time, it wasn't long before people began experimenting with using ice in boxcars to keep things cold.  And, it wasn't long before the farmers in California, who had trillions of oranges to sell - but very few people to sell to, realized that there were millions of people 2000+ miles away who would love to have some Vitamin C in the winter.   After the oranges, came the rest of the fruits and vegetables, and after that came huge quantities on a regular basis, and after that came the supermarket which allowed people to improve their quality of life with better food.   The refrigerator car made that possible.

The museum's refrigerator car specifically represents the tens-of-thousands of cars which were used for transporting fresh fruit and vegetables from California to the East Coast, roughly from 1880 to 1980.   However, there were refrigerator cars used all over the country for any purpose that required cooled or frozen shipments.  The cars were used all-year-`round from states like California, Arizona, and Florida, and for spring and summer produce from pretty much everywhere to everywhere, and in the fall and winter from states like Maine, Washington and Idaho for crops like apples and potatoes.  In the winter the cars could be heated with small portable heaters, one of which is sitting just outside the door of the exhibit.   Similar cars were used for meats, and fresh fish from the east-coast to cities far from the ocean. Live lobsters could even be shipped from Maine to anyplace in the country using express refrigerator cars on passenger trains.  Refrigerated cars allowed any perishable product to be shipped anyplace in the country, even "Ten Turtles to Tucumcari".  It's estimated there were 180,000 cars in operation the 1930's.  

As the business became more and more profitable, investments were being continuously made to decrease the transit times.  In the late 19th century, it took about 12 days for oranges to get from California to the east coast, but by the 1950's it only took 5 days.  As the transit times dropped, more kinds of perishable fruits and vegetables could be shipped. 

Depending on the season, and the era,  the ice would last about 18-24  hours.  19th Century cars had less insulation than early 20th century cars, which had less insulation than mid-century cars.   Regardless though, if the car was going further than one day's travel, it would need to re-iced.  The railroads had Icing Stations all around the country to handle this process.  Depending on the railroad, some Icing Stations were large enough to re-ice an entire train at one time.   

No.  It was experimented with, but found that dry ice affected the color and flavor of some products, and the logistics of having two separate icing systems wasn't worth the cost. 

Two primary circumstances:

1.  Small entrepreneurial trucking companies running-rings-around large railroad corporate bureaucracies.  Railroads were the first large corporations.  As anybody who has ever worked for a large corporate bureaucracy knows: the customer doesn't come first.  The customer is just an annoyance that gets in the way of perfecting "the mission statement".   As railroads got larger, their responsiveness to customers suffered proportionally (especially with smaller customers, like farmers).   In contrast, the small trucking company exists on customer service, or the customer will go someplace else (the magic of competition).   But, prior to the Interstate Highway System, railroads were still faster than trucking over long distances which was important when transporting perishable products.   And that changed when...

2. The government built the Interstate Highway System.  When the trucks became faster than the trains, the railroads quickly lost the business, and by (roughly) the 1980's it was mostly gone. See the FAQ: "Why doesn't the US have fast trains" in the "Fast Trains" page. 

Eventually, the railroads lost most time-sensitive transportation, with perishables, mail, and package express being the some of the most profitable ones.  But the railroads still ship plenty of frozen products and, every once in a while, the railroads - in spite of themselves - can still compete on time sensitive goods.