| Built by General American Transportation Company in 1954. The Following is from a sign attached to the car: Union Refrigerator Transit was one of the largest lessors of refrigerated freight cars. The cars often carried the lessees name. Until the development of reliable mechanical cooling systems, refrigerator (reefer) cars used ice to maintain the interior temperature necessary for safe transport of perishables. Major rail yard had icing platforms where ice would be loaded before or during transit into bunkers at each end of the cars. Entire trains of reefers often traveled at passenger train speeds. URTX 66216 was equipped with meat rails and hooks, for transport of meat for lessee Oscar Mayer (and previously, Swift Refrigerator Lines) until its retirement around 1970. The car was purchased from The Wisconsin Electric Railway Historical Society, and arrived at IRM in 1989. |