The Armour Refrigerator Line (ARL, one of the Armour Car Lines) was a private

refrigerator car A refrigerator car (or "reefer") is a refrigerated boxcar (U.S.), a piece of railroad rolling stock designed to carry perishable freight at specific temperatures. Refrigerator cars differ from simple insulated boxcars and ventilated boxcars (co ...

line established in 1883 by

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

meat packer The meat-packing industry (also spelled meatpacking industry or meat packing industry) handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. Poultry is generally no ...

Philip Armour Philip Danforth Armour Sr. (16 May 1832 – 6 January 1901) was an American meatpacking industrialist who founded the Chicago-based firm of Armour & Company. Born on an upstate New York farm, he made $8,000 in the California gold rush, 1852 ...

, the founder of

Armour and Company Armour & Company was an American company and was one of the five leading firms in the meat packing industry. It was founded in Chicago, in 1867, by the Armour brothers led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company had become Chicago's most ...

. To get his products to market, Armour followed the lead of rivals George Hammond and Gustavus Swift when he established the ''Armour Refrigerator Line'' in 1883. Armour's endeavor soon became the largest private

fleet in America. By 1900, the company listed over 12,000 units on its roster (one-third of all the privately owned cars in the country), all built in Armour's own car plant. One of the Armour Car Lines' subsidiaries was dedicated to produce hauling. In 1919 the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...

ordered the company's sale for antitrust reasons. On March 18 of the following year the new entity, to be known as

Fruit Growers Express Fruit Growers Express (FGE) was a railroad refrigerator car leasing company that began as a produce-hauling subsidiary of Armour and Company's private refrigerator car line. Armour controlled both the packing operations and the transport insulate ...

(FGE), would take with it 4,280 pieces of rolling stock, repairs shops at

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Downto ...

and

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

, and numerous ice plants and other facilities scattered throughout the

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References

* White, John W. (1986). ''The Great Yellow Fleet''.

Golden West Books Golden West Books is a privately owned American publishing company specializing in American Railroads. Donald Duke founded the company in 1960, and wrote some of its titles. Its headquarters are in San Marino, California. The company's titles ...

San Marino, CA San Marino is a residential city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It was incorporated on April 25, 1913. At the 2010 census the population was 13,147. The city is one of the wealthiest places in the nation in terms of househo ...

. . *

External links

* article at the official website. {{Refrigerator Car Lines of the United States American companies established in 1883 Refrigerator car lines of the United States Transport companies established in 1883 1883 establishments in Illinois Armour family