Ice and the railroads: Pt. III–railroad ice houses


FOUR PHOTOS: PAUL LARSON: KANSAS CITY, MO; 1951. AUTHOR’S COLLECTION


In the early 1950’s, the late Paul Larson took a series of photos and made a number of detailed drawings of what was to become one of the most famous icing platforms in model railroading history. Larson was a former editor of Model Railroaderand frequent con- tributor to RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN prior to his untimely death. He constructed an O scale model of this structure which appeared frequently in the model press. This view (above) shows the track


This lower platform was often called the “winter platform”31


as it was used


to unload ice from the source and into the house. Of course, this was done in the winter. Many Union Pacific ice- houses, for example, had winter plat- forms on the front of the house, giving them a distinct two-story look. Many railroads chose to locate the winter platform or platforms on the back of the house and make it (or them) short enough to off-load one or two cars maximum. Of course, there was a gig assigned to the winter plat- forms, one per platform to facilitate the loading of the ice house. Like


their commercial ice house


cousins, many railroad ice houses and platforms had lightning suppression ap- paratus. “There is perhaps no class of railroad property more frequently de- stroyed by fire . . .”32


However, often dis-


tantly located from rapid response by fire fighting equipment, many had fire barrels on the platforms similar to open- deck wooden bridges. Railroads often ap- plied and strictly enforced no smoking and good housekeeping rules. Fire hy- drants and hose houses were frequently- found appliances at railroad ice houses. Ice house fires can (and did) have cata- strophic financial consequences. Prior to the Great War, the Northern Pacific lost its large frame icehouse at Pasco, Wash- ington, to fire. Of course, all the contents were lost. This forced the railroad to re- place all the destroyed natural ice with artificial ice at disastrous prices. The orientation of the ice house to


74


the platform varied with the standard practice of the parent railroad. For ex- ample, the Northern Pacific ice houses had their long axes parallel with the length of the platform. In many cases, including on the standard plans, the platform was only as long as the ice house, that is, the platform did not ex- tend beyond its ends. The Union Pacif- ic, on the other hand, changed its early parallel-to-the-track standard to one in which the long axis of the ice house was perpendicular to the platform. The engineering reason for the change is explained below in this article. In addi- tion, Union Pacific practice was to place a peaked roof on each ice room, giving the appearance of multiple ice houses per platform.33 Some railroads favored parallel plat- forms in order to service multiple


strings of refrigerator cars. One of the most famous ice houses, the Burling- ton’s facility at Galena, Illinois, had two platforms, one on the house, the other an “island” which serviced an in- ner and outer track. Likewise, the NYNH&H’s moderate-sized ice house at Poquonnock, Connecticut, had two tracks separated by an island plat- form. It had a winter platform on the icing track nearest the house. The is- land platform was served by a bridge immediately below the crusher room, connecting it with the house. Some railroads favored a covering over the platforms to protect ice from di- rect sunlight while awaiting the arrival of a train. The Union Pacific, as men- tioned, favored a peaked roof while the NYC&HR design featured a lean-to roof. Most houses had uncovered platforms.


JUNE 2012


side of this compact structure. Another of Paul Larson’s photos of the MKT Kansas City ice house (below) shows two retired wooden refrigerator cars pressed into ice storage service. To their right is the continuous chain elevator to the machinery house level. It’s not clear if ice cars were unloaded into the side door of the near reefer or onto the narrow unloading platform beside it. The left hand down ramp from the machinery house platform is shown.


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