09/06/2026
Among SP's hottest (in terms of speed) freight trains was one of its coldest (in terms of temperature)! This eastbound block of Pacific Fruit Express (PFE) refrigerated cars and trailers typical for these trains in the early 1960s.
Many of the cars are classic "ice bunker reefers", kept cool with thick insulation in the walls and huge blocks of ice loaded through hatches in the roof. The 1960s were the beginning of the end for the ice bunker cars though — early examples of diesel powered, mechanical refrigerated cars were already proving their worth, and soon the massive infrastructure required for ice bunker reefers would be history.
This transition period overlapped with another piece of modernity - mechanically refrigerated and insulated truck trailers bearing the PFE name were introduced to add flexibility for shippers, however they proved to be a short-lived experiment for the organization.
Stay tuned tomorrow for more....
Want to see this train and more like it? Come to the Golden State Model Railroad Museum, where we have over 10,000 square feet of model trains! We're open every Saturday and Sunday from 12pm to 5pm, with trains running every Sunday on all three of our enormous layouts. We're located at 900A Dornan Drive in Richmond, California - inside the Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline Park.
