The record-union., 1899-07-30
THE FRUIT
SHIPPING
INDUSTRY.
Sacramento the Chief Center
Of Export.


mistakes. They cannot afford to do
so. No car is moved without a pur-
pose, and in the game of chess played
winner.
The cars from outside points
need icing before crossing 'the
HILL" and after they have been segre-
gated from the incoming trains they too
are hustled out to the ice-houses iced,
trundled back to the yards and become
integral parts of the trains which before
day dawns are due to be rolling through
the tunnels in the high Sierras.
Nor is that all. Many refrigerator
cars brought here en- route to other
points for loading - Davisville for in
stance are as hot as furnaces, and
to load them in that condition would
mean considerable damage, if not the
loss of the entire tonnage, before they
could be- iced at this city. The hot ones
which go to points which have no icing
depots, are sent to the ice-houses
and loaded SO as to cool off the interior
of the car before it receives it's burden.
Cars for outlying stations Which nave
icing depots, and there are a number OF
such, are not SO iced, but enough OF
them receive such treatment to keep the
yard master on the lookout.
During the fruit season about fifty
empty cars for outside points are han
died each night, SO that handling load
ed cars is not the only. duty Of the night
switching crews.
Then again, many ears loaded at
LOOMS and other points in the foothills
are sent to this city for inspection be-
fore starting for Truckee. and these too
fall to the lot of the Yardmaster and his
crews.
Verify, the life of the yard-men, dur
ing the fruit season, is far from an easy
one.
From fifty-five to seventy-five loaded
fruit cars are handled every night, to
say nothing of the half hundred emp
ties designated for other loading points.
Each outgoing fruit train is supposed to
contain twenty cars, and three of these
trains leave Sacramento every night,
the first at about 11:30 p. m. The sec
ond at u o'clock midnight, and the
third about 2:30 a. m. The trains are
SO constructed that they need not be
broken while icing at Truckee, Boca, or
other points further east.
Five switch engines are constantly
employed in the Sacramento yards, and
one of these, on the night shift, attends
to the icing of fruit cars, and, at this
season Of the year, nothing else. sec
ond, or assistant, makes up outgoing
fruit trains, handles empty refrigerator
cars, ETC., so that each night two engi-
neers, two firemen and six switchmen,
to say nothing of the Yardmaster, who
supervises it all, the fiagmen, whose du-
ties make their presence a necessity,
and the pilot, devote their entire time to
handling fruit cars. And as these men
all draw good salaries, and justly SO.
it can be seen at a glance that in one
month the cost of labor for handling
fruit cars alone, to say nothing of icing,
coal or wear-and-tear of material,
amounts to an easy thousand dollars
and more
All nights look alike to the Yard
men, and Choosing at random) on Sun
day night of last week, one hundred
and thirty two cars, fifty-two of which
were loaded with fruit, started from the
Sacramento yards for Eastern points,
between the hours of p. m. and 4:30
a. m. And they called it days work,
good count.
VOLUME OF FRUIT.
AT matter of fact. four fifths of the
fruit which leaves California at this
season of the year starts from Sacra-
nlento, or from points between this city
and Colfax. Up to date this season.
a trife under 2,700 carloads have been
shipped east and of that number only
about 400 have been started from points
other than Sacramento and points east
on the Central Pacific line Each car
is supposed to carry $4,000 pounds of
fruit, and as 2.250 cars have been
shipped, it means that $500, 900
pounds, or "a 250 tons, have been start
ed over the hill from this city Not a
bad showing, even for California s
great central shipping point, Sacrament
to. E-
REFRIGERATION. q
The refrigerator cars which carry
California fruits to Eastern markets are
owned and operated by the Continental
Fruit Exchange &C. F. X.) and the
ruit-Growers' Express. The latter
company operate a few more cars in
California than the latter but each
does an enormous business. And after
the cars have been loaded, ready for
transportation, it devolves upon these
companies to place the products of
California orchards before the people
of Chicago, New York and other East
ern cities in good marketable condition.
and with these companies ice is king,
with cars and labor counted as Incl
dentals.
g., 1t, T-A -.
and streams in the vicinity of Truckee
are made to give up their CONCEALED
liquid treasures, and the big cakes of
ice are slowed away in great icehouses
to await the demands made by the
refrigerator car companies.
The ice used by the car companies
is furnished by contract. They do not
store their own ice, but depend for
their supply on the plants at Truckee,
Boca and elsewhere. Small icing de-
pots are the nearest things to ice
houses of which either company can
boast.
The depots in this city are extremely
small affairs, when the immense guam
titles of ice used here each day are
considered Storage properties were
not considered when they were built
They were aimed for distributing de-
pots, and for that purpose only, and
are accordingly small fry.
Yet sufficient supply must ever be
on hand when needed, and throughout
the deciduous fruit-shipping season il
is needed every night, and to meet re-
quirement from six to ten carloads are
brought each day from the big plants