Hiram Walker

[Davy]

Back in the '30's Hiram Walker leased some reefers, which had company lettering.  Although icing wasn't necessary, I was told reefers were acquired because they got a good deal on them.  I was wondering if anyone knows what color the cars and lettering were.  About 25 years ago TMI (Train Miniature of Illinois) released a gray steel reefer that had red lettering, but I don't think this scheme was correct for what actually existed.

[Orsonroy]

Davy,

When did HW lease the cars? They don't show up in my 1930 ORER. Who did they least them from? I might have a few photos.

I just went through 400 reefer images (I have thousands of freight car photos digitized, so it takes seconds) and I didn't find any HW lettered reefers.

I'm modeling the NKP's Peoria Division, which carried the bulk of HW's eastern shipments of booze East. From at least 1930 to 1960, HW shipped their product in plain, UNmarked MDT (NYC) reefers. Booze was a high-tarriff, high cost commodity, and they didn't WANT to advertise their product on cars, since it'd get stolen quickly. In the 1930s MDT cars were generally deep yellow with plain lettering. In the 1940s they were white with a small red & blue stripe along the lower edge. By the mid-1950s, the cars were again yellow or orange, and always plainly lettered.

[Davy]

The Peoria distillery was built after prohibition was repealed in '33, so they were probably from a number of years after that.  Somewhere I do have old B&W photos which I am going to try to locate.  One of them is of five of the reefers in front of the plant.  The other is of an 8,000 (?) gal. tank car, which has a doghouse-like fabrication at its center, which covers the expansion dome.  It has the Walker "W" crest on its side. 

[Orsonroy]

Hmmm...it doesn't look like I have any pre-Peoria WH data.

Have you contacted Art Griffin and asked him about the HW cars? He's possibly THE go-to guy when it comes to pre-WWI freight car paint schemes.

[Woody Elmore]

Maybe they owned the cars as opposed to leasing them. Chateau Martin wine used to have there own reefers.