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Swift Refrigerator Line

Transportation Company - Swift Refrigerator Line - Railroad Equipment
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Company NameSwift Refrigerator Line
CategoryRailroad Equipment
CountryUnited States (Details)
Transportation Company - Swift Refrigerator Line - Railroad Equipment



Company History: The Swift Refrigerator Line (SRL, also known as the Swift Refrigerator Transportation Company) was a private refrigerator car line established around 1875 by Chicago meat packer Gustavus Swift, the founder of Swift and Company. Ad for the line from 1921. Shows sample Swift cars at the top and a map of the distribution locations.

Swift hoped to develop an alternative to transporting live cattle across the Midwest. He experimented by moving dressed (cut) meat using a string of ten boxcars which ran with their doors removed, and made a few test shipments to New York during the winter months over the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR). The method proved too limited to be practical.

In 1878, Swift hired engineer Andrew Chase to design a ventilated car that was well-insulated, and positioned the ice in a compartment at the top of the car, allowing the chilled air to flow naturally downward. The meat was packed tightly at the bottom of the car to keep the center of gravity low and to prevent the cargo from shifting. Chase's design proved to be a practical solution to providing temperature-controlled carriage of dressed meats, and allowed Swift & Company to ship their products all over the United States, and even internationally, and in doing so radically altered the meat business.

The General American Transportation Corporation (GATX) assumed ownership of the line in 1930.

From Wikipedia
Brief History:
The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.

Item Links: We found: 4 different collections associated with Swift Refrigerator Line - Railroad Equipment
Item created by: gdm on 2017-10-10 09:58:43. Last edited by gdm on 2018-03-04 10:34:12

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