37' General American Meat Reefer

Prototype Information

General American Transportation (GARX) wood reefer was built between 1937 and 1941. Although built with a wooden sheathed body and roof that made them look like a car from an earlier era, these GARX cars were modern for their time. They were constructed on a steel underframe of similar construction to boxcar underframes then in common use and featured AB brakes, Equipco brake wheels and housings and Barber S-1 trucks. More than 940 cars were built to this configuration making it one of the most numerous meat reefer designs, and they lasted in service well into the early 1970’s.

Reefers of this type were typically assigned AAR class “RSM”. They would normally be assigned to meat service only, running between meat packing houses and regional dealers throughout North America. Typically the meat would originate in the Midwest, where blocks of cars would then be moved to Chicago and then dispersed to their final destinations. Meat reefers from a wide variety of packing houses could be seen on the hottest freight trains of roads throughout the country. They would normally be assigned to meat service only, running between meat packing houses and regional dealers throughout North America – including Canada