Cannery Row boxcars, printed 40' reefer sides. 24 different pairs of boxcar reefer sides printed on 48 cardstock sides full color, a pair of each in reefer yellow to make 24 different boxcar reefers from the billboard reefer era with a Tuscan brown fascia line across the top. If you don't want to make your own boxcars or kits, simply glue them onto plastic boxcars with working trucks and couplers. It is recommended that you use an X-acto knife or razor, though I have had good results simply using sharp scissors. There are 24 different Quaker City Refrigerator Express reefers, they are:
#1100 "Cap'n John Clam Bouillon" with a portrait of Cap'n John on the official logo
#1101 "Lady Parlor" (peacock image on logo) Albert Mackie Co, Ltd, Wholesale Grocers, New Orleans, La.
#1102 "Defy The World" (tomato logo) Sam'l L. Kelty & Son, Quinton, Salem Co., N.J.
#1103 "King Pelican" (peas) F.S. King & F.E. King, Sacramento, California
#1104 "CHEERIO" California Vegetables, with a cheerful aristocrat on the official logo above slogan "The Aristocrat Of The Crop"
#1105 "COCK- I -TOO" brand California Fruits and Vegetables with a white cockitoo on the logo .
#1106 "Quercus Ranch" Finest Bartlett Pears, Lake County, California.
#1107 "Squaw Brand Vegetables" Centerville Canning Co., Centerville, Maryland
#1108 "California & Arizona Vegetables" with a smiling lady on the official logo in her underwear or a 2-piece bathing suit above slogan "Plenti-Grand"
#1109 "MARYLAND CHIEF" brand Canned Vegetables from Maryland with a Native American chief on the logo
#1110 "Clover Farm" with 2 logos: a bee landing on a clover flower left of the door and a bowl of red kidney beans right of the door
#1111 "Victor Renee Sardines, Norwegian Style" from Pembroke, Maine, with a happy chef on the logo
#1112 "ROCK MAPLE 100% Pure Vermont Maple Sap Syrup" shiped from New England
#1113 "MOTHER HUBBARD" brand Sweet Relish from New Orleans LA & Houston, Texas, with kindly old Mother Hubbard on the logo
#1114 "Robertson's SILVER SHRED Lemon Marmalade" with logo shaped like a lemon. Imported from Paisley, London & Manchester, England
#1115 "BONNIE LASSIE" Spicey Toilet Water from the Buerger Bros. Supply Co. of Denver If you don't know what Toilet Water was, look it up on Google. Apparently this one was extra spicy
#1116 "Royal Bouquet Face Lotion Toilet Water" from Jersey City, N.J. "Delightful, Lasting, Refreshing"
#1117 "QUEEN BEAUTY TOILET SOAP" with a nice lady on the logo. Apparently this toilet soap was great face lotion from New Jersey.
#1118 "The Witch" with logo of one riding a broom. The A.F. Weymer factory is still in business, though I don't know if it's still in Syracuse, N.Y.
#1119 "PINTO" California Vegetables, Monterey Bay Pkg. Co., with a colorful Hispanic cowboy on the logo
#1120 "Chautauqua Maid Quality Grape Juice" Huntley Manufacturing Co., Brockton, N.Y. with a strangely Caucasian looking Chautauqua Maid on the logo
#1121 "KINGFISH PEAS" Grown & Packed by F.S. & F.E. King, Sacramento, California with a crown-wearing fish logo
#1122 "JO JO MELONS" with logo of JO JO the Clown. J.L. Thompson Co., Somerton, Arizona
#1123 "REPETITION APPLES & PEARS" Yakima, Washington, with triplet boys on the logo standing behind 3 identical boxes of apples & pears, grown & packed by R. Wachsmith
King & King shipped a variety of vegetables with the King Pelican and King Fish logos in the 1920s & 1930s. "Defy The World" was the brand name of a farmer named Samuel L. Kelty who built his own cannery so that he could can and ship his vegetables directly to stores, which lasted at least to the 1930s when he died and the brand name disappeared. The "Plenti-Grand" logo may look a bit racey, but really no more so than the art on U.S. airplanes returning from Europe and Asia at the time. Sardines were one of the most popular canned items to come from "Cannery Row," eventually leading to canned tuna later on to keep the waterfront canneries going when there weren't enough small fish in the catch to sell as sardines. Heinz, well known for its own colorful billboard reefers, eventually bought one of the largest fish canneries, Starkist Tuna, in the mid 1960s.
Quaker City Refrigerator Express Line (QREX) was founded by George Woodsmith, founder of Standard Equipment / Standard Tank Car Co, the world's largest producer of railroad tank cars before & after WW1. He was a former employee of General American Tank Car Corp (GATX / GARE), which built most of Quaker City's 6000 plus reefer, tank & stockcars for them. General American bought out Quaker City in 1928 and changed QREX reporting marks to GARE in the mid-1930s. As of 1927, Quaker City owned 6500 cars of which 2500 were reefers. Some companies that leased Quaker City and GARE cars, such as "Libby's" and "Berkshire Ham & Bacon" kept the same car number but used their own reporting marks. LMN&L for Libby's and MAHX for Miller And Hart's Berkshire brand. General American also bought out Union Refrigerator Transit Co (URTC), so a number of Quaker City's 40-foot reefers were built by URTC. Both GARE and URTC used all-metal "fish-belly" underframes with their wood reefers, which had wood sides, ends and roofs painted Tuscan brownish-red. Quaker City and General American painted as many billboard reefers for their customers as possible between February and July of 1934, when billboard reefers were outlawed by the FDR administration but previously painted cars were allowed to remain in service as is.
The Red Ball company of Oregon supplied traincar kits 1939-1959 using car sides printed on balsawood so the modeler would not have to mess with decals or dry transfers. Strombecker was another producer of the period, using cardstock printed car sides assembled onto simple wood kits. Simply cut balsa or basswood to the size of the ends and then glue on the printed cardstock sides. A one-sheet of their instructions will be included with your purchase, or you could just glue them to the sides of an existing 40' boxcar with Elmer's glue. Strombecker suggested putting a 3rd piece of wood in the center to keep the sides from bowing, while Red Ball used solid wood sides.
Or buy old boxcars on Ebay and glue these sides onto the sides, or even build your own boxcars and glue them to boxcar frames that come up for sale from time to time on Ebay with trucks and couplers already attached. Ordinary Elmer white glue or Testors wood cement should work just fine and give you plenty of time to position each side just right, these are not stickers. You could even buy plastic boxcar or reefer doors from another Ebay vender and glue them to the center for more of a 3-d look, and/or attach metal-type scale ladders to the side. These would fit right in with any steam or early diesel-era layout.
If you don't like it, simply send them back for a full refund.
>>> I wanted you to know how pleased I was with the sets of sides I purchased, I had 7 Hawthorne village Budweiser boxcars that I never used because they looked too cheap. I removed the grab irons, ladders, doors and sanded the sides. I glued on the sets of sides, put the details back on, added ice hatches on the roof and now have "brand new" reefers that look pretty good. They "pop out" in a train because of their yellow sides and colorful pictures. Very happy with them, and hopefully more modelers will try your product, you have my vote - tedewright
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