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GFX 248 East leaving Barstow with EMD F7's having total
6000 H.P. |
The hottest freight train on the Santa Fe Railroad in 1954 was the GFX (Green Fruit Express) trains, from the farmlands of California to points all over the map. For those trains making it all the way to Chicago, distributions were made to all points Midwest. Many entire trains were transferred to the Erie RR for Northeast delivery. The B&O, PRR, and NYC covered D.C., Pennsylvania, and New York respectively. All types of fruits and veggies grown in the West were on these trains, and time was of the essence. Most cars were filled with ice on both ends of each car to keep everything cool. Ice stops were to be made daily. The train took 6 days to reach Chicago, reaching its destination on the morning of the sixth day.
The GFX ran from California to Kansas City or Chicago. Others stops included Galveston, Dallas, and Houston. These Texas trains ran as CTX or BTX. Cars could be pulled from the GTX at any junction point for delivery to places such as Denver or St. Louis, for example. It was a very complicated system of delivery with too little space here to go into it further.
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| Forty ft. Ice refrigerator cars passing Shell refinery. |
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| Shell refinery, 1954. |
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| In Needles, CA yard. |
Here are photos of several classes of ATSF ice refrigerator cars that you could see in any Green Fruit Express train, no matter the destination...
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| Intermountain model RR23, with 1947 revised slogan herald, The Route of the Chief. On the right is a RR25. |
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Intermountain Santa Fe RR25 on left. Straight Line map on the left, revised "Ship and Travel..." slogan on the right, a RR25. Probably a repaint?
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| IM RR25, with original slogan. |
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| IM RR25, with straight line map. |
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| Intermountain RR27, with revised lettering, 1947-1959. |
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| Intermountain RR27 |
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| Two Athearn 50' RR30's, with original slogan lettering on the left, and revised lettering on the right. |
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| Athearn RR30, revised "Ship and Travel..." lettering on the left, straight line map on the right |
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| IM RR32's with original lettering. |
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| IM RR32's with original lettering |
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| Plug door RR53's of mid fifties manufacture for the Santa Fe. I cannot remember the manufacturer of these N scale cars. |
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Micro Trains wood side cars with heavy weathering. I do not know the class name of these cars as they are general wood side reefers made by MT. I added additional wood walkways near each icing door.
A video of this train can be seen on YouTube at:
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https://youtu.be/yL_qrkt-SIY
Thanks for viewing the Needles Division, 1954!
