Ice-cooled, Milwaukee Road Refrigerator Cars

Ice-cooled, Milwaukee Road Refrigerator Cars 38662 and 38794 were built in the early 1950's to allow perishable goods such as vegetables and meat to be hauled across country. Before the days of modern mechanically refrigerated cars, these items would be transported in cars such as these. Commonly called “reefers”, they are heavily insulated and equipped with bunkers at each end. Patches in the roof allowed workers to fill the bunkers with blocks of ice to preserve the contents of the car en route to its destination—not unlike the practice, before modern home refrigerators, of keeping perishables in an insulated box in the kitchen, adding ice delivered to the home. These are super-sized ice boxes on wheels.