Fairmont Creamery Company's
Fairmont Dairy Line

Introduction

While the early 1930's saw an explosion of refrigerator cars leased to small Western dairy and poultry establishments, the Fairmont Creamery Company, established in Omaha in 1884, seems to have been a little ahead of the curve, having initiated a small fleet of cars under their own Fairmont Dairy Line (FDL) reporting marks in the mid 1920's.  While detailed records do not appear to exist, much can be gleaned from Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER) records and photographic evidence, and the car line has had a few mentions in published articles and books.  It appears FDL leased these cars from a wide variety of concerns, including American Refrigerator Transit (ART,) Fruit Growers Express via their National Car Company subsidiary (FGEX/NX,) General American Car Company (GACC,) North American Car Company (NACC,) Northwestern Refrigerator Line (NWX,) Quaker City Refrigerator Line (QREX,) and Union Refrigerator Transit Company (URTC.) In contrast, no evidence has come to light that Fairmont ever outright owned any railway equipment.

The Refrigerator Cars


Varney metal kit, RW-4


2/17/1928, The Durham Museum, Bostwick-Frohardt Collection


11/23/1928, The Durham Museum, Bostwick-Frohardt Collection


11/23/1928, The Durham Museum, Bostwick-Frohardt Collection

The first cars leased to Fairmont were among 100 40' refrigerator cars from URTC, series 30000-30099. Appearing in the ORER in Jan 1925 with no QTY yet listed, extant photographs showing a "NEW MILW 2/25" weigh date suggest that these cars were leased by Fairmont from the time of construction.1  At that time, American Car & Foundry (AC&F) was delivering their "Type II" refrigerator cars, based on an earlier ART produce reefer design featuring a very deep, 30" fishbelly, fabricated center sill.2  By Nov '27, Fairmont began submitting information to the ORER, and 40 of these cars appeared, registered under their own reporting marks, in the FDL 30000-30039 series.  New data submitted Nov '28 increased that to 85 cars in the FDL 30000-30084 series, and by Jul '30, all 100 cars were under the FDL listing, with the series entirely removed from the URTC entry.  Al Westerfield's ACF reefer article in the July 1992 Rail Model Journal identifies 30047-30085 as Type III ACF reefers and 30086-30109 as Type II in 1935/6, but no photos are in that article (and I'm struggling to find his Part 1 and 2 to see if he included any there.)  The register data does not seem to corroborate Westerfield's claim, but there may very well be more to that story.


2/12/1927, The Durham Museum, Bostwick-Frohardt Collection


AC&F photo, Northwest Museum of Art and Culture


Ca. 1925-6, Steamtown NHS collection, cropped from larger image here

Just a few months after the 30000 series cars were built, URTC acquired another 100 cars, placed them in the 35000-35099 series, and seemingly leased at least some portion of that group to Fairmont as well.  These appear in the May '25 URTC ORER listing, with the series filled shortly thereafter.  In contrast to the FDL 30000 series, this series was registered under and painted with URTC reporting marks, and utilized a somewhat different lettering scheme.  By FDL's Apr '31 submission (published in the Jul '31 register,) their earlier leased car series expanded by ten additional cars to 30000-30109, while URTC's Jul '31 35000 series entry decreased to only 75 cars.  Previously, it seems that series had experienced a small natural attrition; it seems reasonable that that series was the source for FDL's ten extra cars.  What fully became of the remainder of the URTC series is unknown to this author, as it disappeared from the ORER after 7/34, but by 7/35.

A third group of cars from URTC appeared by July 1930 as well, originating from URTC's 40350-40854 series. The cars may have been constructed in company shops in 1923 from Type II refrigerator car underframes supplied by AC&F, or possibly in 1922 as part of AC&F Lot 9355.  Cars from this series are known to have been leased to a variety of concerns, but at some time in perhaps the beginning of 1930 (and thus subsequent to the GACC acquisition of URTC,) 25 examples in a small block in the middle of the series, URTC 40574-40599, were selected for conversion into brine tank refrigerator cars.  Five of the converted cars appear to have been moved to FDL reporting marks at the time, 40585-40590.  While there is room for six cars in that group, only 5 were ever included in the FDL totals.  No photos are yet to have been located depicting this small group of cars.


GACC photo, Billboard Reefers, by Hendrickson & Kaminski, Tim Moses Collection

Fairmont Dairy Line 45014, built by GACC June 1926, appeared with its series, FDL 45000-45014, upon the company's Nov 1928 ORER update.  Note that General American did not acquire URTC until late in 1929, so these cars represent a distinctly different business relationship for Fairmont at the time.3  The car design is virtually identical to cars the GACC company ran under their GARE reporting marks and also leased to OMRX and RAOX, as well as sold to Quaker City which further leased them to MAHX.  However, the specific history of the FDL cars remains rather clouded, with no specific "donor" series yet identified for what would seem to have been renumbered freight cars.  No suitable new GARE series appears in the register between Apr '26 and Oct '26, suggesting the cars may have been leased to another concern when first constructed.  QREX would appear to be a likely candidate, but direct evidence has not yet been found to support that conjecture.


GACC photo, Billboard Reefers, by Hendrickson & Kaminski, Tom Callan Collection

While all of the previous cars discussed were nominal 40' lengths, one series of shorter, 36' brine tank reefers did appear in the Jul 1930 ORER update: FDL 45015-45039.  While no photographic evidence has yet come to light regarding this group, they share a number of precise dimensional matches with a series of Quaker City Refrigerator Line cars built by GACC in 1928: QREX 700-799.  (A further interesting coincidence is that the ice bunkers share the precise dimensions with the 40585-40590 brine tank reefers discussed above which were converted at approximately the same time these shorter cars were leased.)  Quaker City is known to have leased the 700 series to Paden-Thompson, Golden Valley, and Holland Butter.  Identical cars were also leased to Neuhoff Packing, NPRX 735-736, as well as the B&O Cash Store of OK, BOKX 201-202.  Furthermore, all of these cars were very similar in appearance to an earlier 1927 built series that QREX owned, 600-699, as well as a later group, QREX 850-899.  Taken as a group together, these all shared a fishbelly undeframe with rectangular plates riveted to the bolster ends and all 4 cross ties.  The image of QREX 731 is included here as an example of what FDL 45015-45039 likely looked like.

In general terms, as the industry saw the likelihood of an adverse ICC ruling which could limit refrigerator car leasing practices, a bloom of new billboard schemes would precede it.  Fairmont may well have been influenced by this, but their business may also have been developing well under the adverse conditions of the time.4  Regardless, their fleet saw overall growth during the Depression, with numerous changes from what had developed the previous decade.  By the Mar 1934 (bimonthly) ORER listing (when compared to 3 years earlier,) there had been a decrease by 40 cars leased from URTC, while six new series were added, one eliminated (45000-45014,) and some dimensional simplifications.  This date marks the high point of the Fairmont fleet, which now stood at 215 cars.

Two of these six new series included 30110-30119 and 30185-30204, totaling 40 cars.  These were leased from NWX, who had been purchasing 40' cars from AC&F during the late 1920's virtually identical to those purchased by URTC.  The first group of 10 cars were leased beginning in 1931, while the second group of 30 would appear subsequently, but were listed in the register by Mar '34.  It can be surmised that the Billboard reefer ban, in effect Jan 1, 1937, saw these return to NWX, as they were struck from the Fairmont listing by Jan 1938 (and very possibly earlier.)

Two more groups of 35 and 5 cars were supplied by ART and placed in the 30120-30154 and 30220-30224 series at the time.  ***When I receive my copy of Maher, Michels, & Semon's ART book in the next week or two, hopefully I'll be able to write more here...***  These cars too would be gone no later than 1938

Another leasing company that would supply cars to Fairmont in 1933 or 1934 was FGEX through their subsidiary, NX.  30 cars in series 30155-30184 came from the parent company's 36000 series cars, shop built from 1929-1932 to the consortium's 1927 design.  Interestingly, while the earlier and other new ORER listings only state "FDL", this series would be the first indication of "FDLX" appearing on car sides.  Unlike the other cars appearing around 1934, this NX lease does not appear in the Jul '35 register.

A lettering diagram, dated 1933 or 1934, exists for a second group of NX-leased cars for Fairmont, FDL (no X again) 30225-30234, but the series does not show in the ORER's used in this study.  Whether it will yet turn up, or whether the lease was never enacted remains to be determined.


NACC photo, Billboard Reefers, by Hendrickson & Kaminski, Tim Moses Collection

One last group of newly leased cars came from NACC.  Fairmont Dairy Line 30211 is an example of these cars, a PSC product numbered in series 30205-30219.  However, the photo above clearly shows the car was reweighed, and very strongly suggests was repainted, in March, 1931.5  Like the remaining URTC and QREX/GACC cars, and the NWX and ART leases, these also were gone no later than 1938.

R.M.SeriesToLessorLessee1/255/254/2610/262/28
(11/27)
11/29
(11/28)
12/30
(7/30)
7/31
(4/31)
1/324/32
(1/32)
3/34
(3/34)
7/34
(7/34)
7/35
(7/35)
1/38
URTC/FDL3000030099URTCmix? listed100100100----------
URTC3500035099URTCFCColisted100100100--9775unk23unk7--
URTC3000035099------200---------
URTC3008535099-------115--------
FDL3000030039URTCFCCo----40---------
FDL3000030084URTCFCCo-----85--------
FDL3000030099URTCFCCo------100-------
FDL3000030109URTCFCCo-------110110110----
FDL3004030109URTCFCCo----------7070--
FDL3004730084URTCFCCo------------16-
FDL3008530109URTCFCCo------------15-
FDL3011030119NWXFCCo--------101010---
FDL3012030154ARTFCCo----------353535-
FDL3015530184FGEXFCCo----------3030--
FDL3018530204NWXFCCo----------202020-
FDL3020530219NADXFCCo----------151515-
FDL3022030224ARTFCCo----------555-
FDL3022530234NXFCCo------------10-
FDL4058540590URTCFCCo------5555555-
FDL4500045014QREX? FCCo-----151515151515---
FDL4501545039QREX? FCCo------25252525252525-
Total-unkunkunk40+100+145+155? 165165215215156-

With their aggressive business practices, Fairmont would not, however, stay small, growing to be a major national food processor, and eventually changing their name to reflect the diversification away from dairy.

Notes

1: During initial research, this claim was offered with the thin evidence presented from an early Varney metal model kit depicting a very plausible lettering scheme with number 30041 applied, and importantly, a 2-25 build date and weigh date.   While photographic evidence was later discovered to better validate the early lease of the cars, this confirmation does shows the degree of accuracy that some early models sought to have and demonstrates their potential value when other evidence is lacking.

2: , Al Westerfield, Rail Model Journal, 7 & 8/1989

3: "Carriers Plan Merger; General American Tank Car to Acquire Union Refrigerator Transit", New York Times, 9/14/1929.

4. Congressional hearings during the late 1930's investigating the unfair business practices conducted by the national dairy distribution companies would mention Fairmont Creamery among their peers such as Bowman, Borden, United Dairy Products, and others.  These practices appear to have played a large role in some of those companies' unusually strong financial results during the Depression, and were understood to contribute to the economic pain of the farms who supplied the monopolistic dairy distributors, the smaller distributors, many of whom were bought out or shut down, and the retailers who had to abide by the distributors' demands if they were to stock dairy products at all.

5. This fact reminds us of limitations that relying strictly on the ORER can have; the April 1931 update provided by Fairmont, still being published at least as late as July that year, made no mention of this new group of leased cars.  Furthermore, this fact casts doubt on the appearance of stability in the Fairmont fleet during the early Depression years.

Sources

Official Railway Equipment Register (4/1923, 1/1925, 5/1925, 4/1926, 10/1926, 2/1928, 11/1929, 12/1930, 7/1931, 4/1932, 3/1934, 7/1934, 7/1935, 1/1938). New York: The Railway Equipment and Publication Co..

United States. Interstate Commerce Commission. (1935). Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States. Volume 201, May-Jul, 1934. Washington: Govt. Print. Off..

Wagner, Hol and Bob Landregan (1993). Burlington Billboard Reefers for Beer and Produce, Burlington Bulletin #28. LaGrange, IL: BRHS.

Hendrickson, Richard and Edward Kaminski (2008). Billboard Refrigerator Cars. Berkley and Wilton, CA: Signature Press.

Thank you to Dave Bott, Don Hensley, Jon Pansius, Dave Parker, Douglas van Veelen, and Al Westerfield for supplying ORER data.

HOME

Posted 9/17/22.  Updated 3/18/23  Maintained by Earl Tuson