Two distinct and separate

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

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 ...

companies have operated under the name Western Refrigerator Line. The first, the Western Refrigerator Line (WRL) was a refrigerator car leasing company founded by the

Western Pacific Railroad The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...

on January 1, 1923 specifically to service the fruit and green vegetable farmers in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

's Central Valley. In early 1924, however, the WP and

Pacific Fruit Express Pacific Fruit Express was an American railroad refrigerator car leasing company that at one point was the largest refrigerator car operator in the world. History The company was founded on December 7, 1906, as a joint venture between the Union P ...

entered into an agreement whereby the PFE would handle all of Western Pacific's perishable goods. All of the WP's 2,000 pieces of existing rolling stock were placed into PFE's car pool, including an additional 775 units ordered that year. All cars delivered prior to the agreement were painted yellow with black ends and roofs, were lettered "Western Refrigerator Line," and bore a diamond-shaped herald formed by the words "Perishable Products" surrounding the letters "WRL." Units arriving after the contract's execution were painted yellow-orange, were lettered and numbered according to PFE's classification, and were emblazoned with WP's "Feather River Route" emblem on each side. After three decades of service, 900 of the best cars were reconditioned at PFE's

Roseville, California Roseville is the most populous city in Placer County, California, located within the Sacramento metropolitan area. As of 2019, the US Census Bureau estimated the city's population to be 141,500. Interstate 80 runs through Roseville and State Rout ...

shops. The units were outfitted with electrically powered circulation fans and other improvements required to bring them up to current standards. By 1967, all but a few of the cars had been retired. Facing the need to invest millions of dollars toward the purchase of new, mechanically cooled refrigerator cars, the Western Pacific chose instead to become a partner in the PFE's rival

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 ...

in June of that year (which, at the time, controlled 24,000 mechanical reefers and 3,500 refrigerated tractor-trailer sets). A handful of the original wood refrigerator cars were converted for ice service on the WP system. The Western Refrigerator Line Company (WRX) was established in 1929 to operate a 500-car fleet of reefers for the

Green Bay and Western Railroad The Green Bay and Western Railroad served central Wisconsin for almost 100 years before it was absorbed into the Wisconsin Central in 1993. For much of its history the railroad was also known as the Green Bay Route. At the end of 1970 it operat ...

(GBW). WRX was headquartered at Norwood Yard in

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...

until the property was purchased by the GBW in the 1960s. WRX rolling stock often sported the GBW's
Green Bay Route
emblem. By 1981, the WRX had become part of the

Burlington Northern Railroad The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a Mergers and acquisitions, merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996. Its historical lineage begins in the e ...

. Western Refrigerator Line Company Roster, 1930–1970: Source: ''The Great Yellow Fleet'', p. 17.

References

* White, John H. (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 ...

. . * White, John H. ''American railroad freight car''

External links

History of the Green Bay Route: Western Refrigerator Line Company (WRX)
{{Refrigerator Car Lines of the United States Transport companies established in 1923 Refrigerator car lines of the United States 1923 establishments in California Transport companies disestablished in 1981 1981 disestablishments in Wisconsin