page_title: Milk car
section_title: Tank cars for bulk loading
hierarchical_section_title: Milk car / Tank cars for bulk loading
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Gabarit ferroviaire AAR «Plate C» English: American Association of Railroads “Plate C” loading-gauge
context_page_description: Milk cars are a specialized type of railroad car intended to transport raw milk from collection points near dairy farms to a processing creamery. Some milk cars were intended for loading with multiple cans of milk, while others were designed with a single tank for bulk loading. Milk cars were often equipped with high-speed passenger trucks, passenger-type buffer plates, and train signal and steam lines seldom found on conventional refrigerator cars.
context_section_description: Increased availability of motor vehicles after World War I encouraged bulk transport of milk to minimize inefficient handling, washing and redistribution of milk cans. A standard 46.5-US-quart (44.0 L; 38.7 imp qt) milk can weighed 27 pounds (12 kg) and held 86 pounds (39 kg) of milk. Farmers needed two sets of milk cans so one might be filled while the other was at the dairy. Early milk cans had been soldered from three pieces, but they were later replaced by rolled and molded single-piece cans, which avoided uncleaned cracks in the solder joints. Milk tank cars were first made of glass-lined steel, and later of stainless steel.  These tanks were often enclosed for insulation within a car body resembling a boxcar.  These tank cars were usually filled with milk pre-cooled to 38 °F (3.3 °C) at a central collection point just prior to pickup by a milk train with a delivery schedule avoiding need for additional cooling during transit. Milk was shipped from Wisconsin to Florida as a test; and the temperature rose only a single degree Fahrenheit (0.56 °C) during a trip lasting 101 hours.
  Caspar Pfaudler invented a method of lining cast iron tanks with glass while working with the brewing industry. The first glass-lined tanks were built by the Dickson Manufacturing Company in 1887; and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 increased use of these tanks for milk products. The Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) was using a milk car with glass-lined steel tanks in 1910. Pfaudler designed what became a standard milk car with two 3,000-US-gallon (11,000 L; 2,500 imp gal) tanks inside a closed car. Earlier cars featured a removable roof to replace damaged tanks, but the tanks proved durable enough to eliminate that feature from later production. Pfaudler cars included brine coils to cool the car at the creamery, and an electric stirring mechanism to keep butterfat distributed through the milk and minimize deposition on the interior of the tank. Stirring also helped maintain a uniform temperature throughout the tank.
caption: AAR Plate C loading gauge
exif: {}