Marty -

I just saw a photo on the "WW&F building car 65" thread and it rang a bell with one of your photos of the mannequins at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. On the back wall of the display of car 65 at Wiscasett, there are a pair of ice tongs. It's been many, many years since I was a kid and remembered the ice man on the south side of Chicago making deliveries of ice blocks to residential customers. But I know he didn't carry blocks of ice like the mannequin supposedly taking such a block up to the roof of FGEX refrigerator car #57708. When I first saw your photo of that display, I knew something didn't look right, and now I know what it was. I believe the mannequin would have grabbed that block of ice with the tongs and slung it on his shoulder to get it up the ladder. The displays at the RRMofPA are terrific but I think this one needs to be "tweaked". But then again, maybe I'm wrong. It's been a long time!

Les

Les, you're right about the handling of a block of ice; see this movie clip, at 1:30, in which a fellow delivers ice to a kitchen in 1932; note not only how the block is handled, but the waterproof covering on his back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO_3vTWcFvM

(And while you're at it, have fun with W.C. Fields.)

Of course, from what I understand, hauling ice up the ladder like that would have been a bit unusual. It might have been more typical that icing would have been done at roof level, with a car icing plant. That would, of course, required somehow incorporating that infrastructure in the display. How might it have been done?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_whRPy8 ... ure=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3k90Qn0 ... ure=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OteaxVpv ... ure=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H4NCuhT ... ure=relmfu

Thanks for the W.C. Fields film clip with the iceman making his delivery. I like the "tongue in cheek" introduction to the Mack Sennett comedy showing a dog barking (a spoof of M-G-M's lion I am sure).

I also agree that the hauling up of ice to the roof of the reefer was probably some "poetic license". I guess though, that it might have been done at a small, private company. To illustrate the point of icing, in this case I'll give the RRMofPA the benefit of the doubt.

Les

Probably not too many people around can say this, but I used to be an "ice man." Not the kind that delivered to individual homes, but on boats. But the guy we got our ice from did just that. He used tongs, and wore the waterproof pad on his shoulder/back just like the film clip.

Here in San Diego anyway, ice was primarily made by the Union Ice Company. Their plant was next to the Santa Fe yards, where I presumed they could ice refrigerator cars directly. Ice was made in 300 lb. blocks, which were scored such that they could be cut with an ice pick into 3 - 100 lb blocks; 6- 50 lb blocks; or 12- 25 lb blocks as desired.

When fish boat holds were iced, the 300 lb blocks were shoved into a crusher, the ice was discharged through a big hose (like on a modern concrete pumper) into the hold.

For loading the "ice box" on a pleasure boat, the Union Ice guy cut the 300 lb blocks into 100 lb blocks, which he carried on his shoulder like the guy in the film, and put them in our cooler. Most our our customers wanted either 25 or 50 lb blocks, although a few wanted 100 pounders. We cut them to size on order. From my memory, the guy in the film appears to be delivering a 50 lb block.

We also had a vending machine. The 300 lb blocks were slid from the delivery truck into the machine, which was about 30 ft long and 10 ft wide. and kept below freezing. We'd cut the blocks into 25 pounders which we loaded onto conveyor belts that would dispense one block when the proper amount of money was deposited int the coin slot. In 1955 that was 25 cents, and was up to I think 75 cents when I quit that job in '64.

I never carried ice on my back, but with a couple pairs of those tongs I could easily carry a 25 lb block in each hand; and with difficulty, two 50 pounders. But, NO WAY could I have climbed a ladder to the top of a reefer car with even one 50 pounder. Maybe with 25 lbs. And with tongs. You can't hold block ice in your hands. It is too slippery.

At PSRM in Campo, we have FGEX 56415. According to the information we have, it held 10,000 to 12,000 lb of ice, depending on how fine it was crushed when loaded. I find it had to imagine icing a car with that much ice carrying a block at a time up the ladder.