Back in January I mentioned in a post that in two Louisiana cities, Hammond and Ponchatoula, both claimed to be the strawberry capital of the world. You can read that post here. The image below shows farmers in Ponchatoula lining up to load strawberries into refrigerated rail cars back in the 1930s. Look closely and you’ll notice a second string of cars behind those in the foreground. The Illinois Central would build strawberry trains that would very swiftly carry this valuable cargo up to points north.
From the collection of the State Library of Louisiana.
Jack,
What do you imagine were those bags on the roof? Perhaps salt to accelerate melting of the ice to cool the car more effectively?
Matt
Matt, I’ve heard before that salt was used as you say, so I’d speculate that you’re correct!
-Jack
So Cool.