How did the refrigerated railroad car changed America?

A couple weeks ago, an advertisement in a 1918 weekly newspaper prompted a search concerning slaughterhouses and transportation of fresh meat. The following are excerpts from what I’ve found, so far, on the subject. 

Until after the Civil War, fresh meat was not available except at slaughtering time, which usually took place during the winter months. People mainly ate cured pork. 

By the 1870s, centrally located Chicago became the hub of the meatpacking industry. Companies there used the railroads to deliver cattle and hogs from the West to their facilities. They invested in cold storage houses, which held ice from the Great Lakes to run their businesses year-round.

In the 1880s, the widespread use of refrigerated railroad cars by Chicago meatpackers made it possible to ship fresh meat, especially beef, not only to large urban areas but also to small towns across the nation including towns in Wyoming. Gustavus Swift led the industry in shipping fresh beef.

In 1878, Swift, the founder of the Chicago meatpacking company called Swift and Company, commissioned the designing of a new kind of freight car to carry butchered meat. The boxcar used large blocks of ice which, when deposited through roof hatches, would chill meat products below. 

The floor was covered by raised panels, which could be lifted to clean out condensation and droppings from the transported meat. The car also had wooden bars running the length of the ceiling which were used to hang dressed meats and carcasses. 

To keep the cold in, the boxcars closed with 10-foot wide plug doors which lock into place with a complicated system of rollers, hinges and latches.

While these were unpopular with railroads, who had invested significantly in stock cars to transport live animals, the refrigerator boxcar quickly caught on nationwide. By the 1920s, the Swift Refrigerator Line had over 7,000 reefer cars on rails across North America.

In the latter half of the 20th century, mechanical refrigeration began to replace ice-based systems. Soon after, mechanical refrigeration units replaced the armies of personnel required to re-ice the cars. 

In ancient history, communities harvested snow and ice and put them in ice houses (or pits) and caves that worked like giant refrigerators and freezers to keep food and perishables fresh. These half buried pits were the premature “refrigerators” and the standard of the time.

However, over time small innovations in insulation improved the efficiencies of the ice houses, keeping ice frozen for longer than the former rudimentary pits of ancient times. During the First Industrial Revolution, ice harvesting became a business and ice selling became an international trade. Ice houses were widespread especially in Britain.

The First Refrigerated Rail Transportation

At the same time in America, although rail transportation existed, rail networks were regional patches of low-quality railways that made national distribution of goods uneconomical. This lack of a national rail network was why Fredric Tudor – nicknamed the Boston Ice King – focused on exports when he started the ice trade business in 1806.

The Second Industrial Revolution coincided with the “Gilded Age” of America. During this post-civil war period, America witnessed rapid industrialization, high immigration, and economic growth that was unparalleled in the world. It was during this gilded age that America’s railroads gained prominence.

As railroads grew, ice traders began to shift attention to domestic markets. This spurred the use of ice in railroad cars, especially for the preservation of meat transported from Midwest slaughterhouses to East Coast markets.

This is how “ice-cooled” refrigerated rail transportation was born in the United States.

As reefer transportation evolved, railroad companies experimented with various product designs to find the best way to keep the ice frozen for the longest possible time.

Eventually in 1878, Gustavas Swift, who owned a meat packing business in Massachusetts, created a lasting solution that placed the ice in a compartment close to the top of a well-insulated reefer and allow the chilled air to flow naturally downward to the meat packed at the bottom of the railcar.

Even with all its design innovations, the ice reefer still suffered from melting ice when the weather was warm and refilling the ice along the way was not a sustainable and safe activity.

Around 60 years later, mechanical refrigeration began to replace ice-based systems in refrigerated rail transportation and feature in refrigerated trucking. The first mechanical refrigeration railcar gained popularity in 1939.

Solar Energy Innovation

Today, refrigerated railcars do not have to rely on a train’s diesel engine to power the refrigeration. Modern advances in solar panels have made way for new solar solutions.

PolarPanel is a Houston cleantech startup that retrofits refrigerated railcars and trucks with NASA-developed solar power/battery hybrid technology. The technology can keep goods refrigerated for up to three days without sunlight, keeping perishables safe with varied energy generation and storage.

How did refrigerated railroad cars change life in America?

Why was the refrigerated railway car such an important invention?

What impact did refrigeration have on the cattle industry?

Who invented refrigerator railroad?