50' Mechanical Reefer - Ready to Run -- Pacific Fruit Express #300209 (orange, black)

The Atlas Trainman N Scale 50' Mechanical Reefer is based on cars used beginning in the 1950s for handling refrigerated loads. Following the end of World War II, the wider acceptance of frozen food nationwide caused a shift in the traditional refrigerator car (or reefer) industry. While it was possible to maintain some foods in a frozen state by using heavily insulated ice reefers over relatively short distances, for some foods such as frozen orange juice - which had a low freezing point and required constant temperatures between 0 and -10 degrees F - or for travel over longer distances, a new method for railcar refrigeration was required. Companies such as Fruit Growers Express (FGE), Pacific Fruit Express (PFE), and Santa Fe began to explore mechanical methods of refrigeration. FGE, which was more invested in the new orange juice traffic, led the way in these designs with over 175 mechanical cars operating by 1952. Through exchange of information between all three companies, mechanic