Moving melons by rail
USDA PHOTO: CIRCA 1928 AUTHOR’S COLLECTION
One of the earlier series of ACL Merchants Despatch ventilator cars was photographed in transit and loaded with melons around 1936 (above). The melon load can be seen behind the ventilator door, and the open upper end vent is visible on the car end. This USDA photo (top right) shows how the melons were stacked and the removed stem was disinfected in- side the car. The melons were packed four or five high and a boy (as recommended by the USDA) is applying disinfectant to the stems with a brush from a pail. The protective felt in- terior lining of the car can be seen on the walls of the car and the floor is covered with a bed of straw and pine needles to protect the bottom layer. The upper end ventilator of the car is visible above the stack of melons. Note also that the car interior is fully sheathed on the ends and to the roof to provide a smooth interior for the cargo. Many “rough” freight cars were typically only sheathed on the interior about half way up. In this example photo, the packers have placed a heavy paper or cardboard lining on the interior car sides.
a model with the door in the ventilator position and with a visible load of wa- termelons. The ventilator door opening would provide some visual relief dur- ing the operating sessions among all the other boxcars moving with closed doors and mysterious, invisible, con- tents. Thus sparked a quest to find out how watermelons were shipped and how the railway cars were loaded. This story provides some history and
background on the watermelon (pro- duce) transport cars and some details of how I finished my models. As this was a fun endeavor, I also assembled Westerfield kit No. 6301 for the Florida East Coast and the Wright-Trak kit for the Seaboard 36-foot V9 car. Together, they make a nice addition to the trains operating on the layout.
Moving melons Like most northern city kids, I only
see watermelons in the grocery super- market, and the first question is “How do watermelons get to the stores today?” At least for our area, the melons are shipped in sturdy, octagonal cardboard boxes on a standard shipping pallet. This enables them to be moved into and out of transport (trucks or freight cars) and handled on the supermarket floor with a low dolly. With an understanding of the cur- rent shipping technique, the question
50
remained: “How were watermelons packed in the railway freight cars dur- ing the days of steam?” Much search- ing on the Internet found a copy of a 1924 set of reports on farming from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “Farm- ers’ Bulletins Nos. 1376-1400.” This comprehensive document, in addition to providing instructions for planting, feeding, weeding, harvesting and sell- ing nearly every crop imaginable, also included a section (1394) on watermel- ons by W.R. Beattie. Better yet, the sec- tion discussed the best practices for shipping watermelons by rail, complete with period photographs! As the USDA report outlined, water-
melons were moved from the fields at harvest time in trucks or wagons to the railway loading tracks. The insides of the specialized railway cars were lined (“double lined”) with felt to protect the melons from damage from the car’s wooden interior lining. Sometimes the shipper would add their own paper lin- ing to the car to help protect the load in unlined cars. A bed of straw and pine needles was put on the floor to prevent bruising.
The melons were loaded into the
railway car by hand with a team of four people. One unloaded the wagon and threw the melons to the second man at the car door, who would throw the mel- on to the third man/stacker (see below
for the fourth man). The melons were packed on the car floor to a depth of four or five high, starting at the ends and working towards the door. The melons were packed tight to prevent shifting and bruising from the car’s motion during transit.
The melons were usually picked in the field with a bit of the stem attached to reduce the possibility of “stem rot.” When loading, the USDA recommended that the fourth team member, “a boy,” be employed to trim the stem and apply a disinfectant to the stem-root as the mel- ons were stacked. Other notes said that the best position in the loading team was that of the man at the door. He was out of the direct sunlight, perhaps with a cross-breeze through the car, and away from the direct sunlight for the wagon man or the oven-like conditions for the stacker inside the car. The illustration from the 1924 USDA report shows the melons being stacked with their long axis aligned with the car length. In later years, ever helpful, the USDA reported on statisti- cal studies that had been conducted showing there was significantly less damage to the melons in transit when they were packed with their long axis at 90 degrees to the length of the cars. It seems that the amount of shipping damage also depended on both the type of melon and its ripeness. The “Congo” melons were particularly prone to damage as they had thin-skinned ends, and loading them crosswise placed the stronger side skin in the direction of the longitudinal forces and shocks of the car when it was travelling and switched as part of the train. Melons picked later in the season and thus riper and with softer skins, also experienced more damage in tran- sit. In general, about six percent of shipments had some damage, but indi- vidual carloads could range from 0 to 40 percent damaged produce. Although the USDA report focused on the railway car packing conditions, it seems clear from reading the studies that there was also ample opportunity for severe damage as the melons were picked in the field, thrown in the wag-
JANUARY 2014
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100