Refrigerator car question

[hoppercar]

Building one of pacific design shops wooden reefers...its a great kit !!!....I have a couple good reefer car books, with a lot of pictures for reference......just curious, trying to come up.with the reason why they most all had a black area painted on the siding just below the side loading doors ??

[FLtenwheeler]

Salt was added to the ice to make it colder. The black might be a tar based product to help keep things from rusting away.

Tim

[makinsmoke]

Much of the hardware on those orange cars was painted black. My guess is related to the comment above, that there is a steel plate in that area to reduce wear on the wood siding, and it was painted black. Perhaps even a piece of angle iron. The tar product as suggested could have been the finish. But black. A cheap, common, easily repaired color. I need to go look at my Santa Fe wood reefer book now!!

[makinsmoke]

I’m seeing a lot of early wood cars with no evidence of steel plate in that area. I’d maintain it was painted black for quick and easy touch up due to the beating the lower door area took during loading and unloading.

Still, a tar based coating is a possibility. Remember, the floors had racks for the product to sit on, as well as allow the cold air to circulate. The ice bunkers often had floor drains to the outside of the cars.

[SPSteam2491]

The area under the door wouldn't see salt as salt was only applied in the end ice bunkers. They may see some melting ice when produce was top iced but I don't believe they ever used salt when top icing (the produce would likely get all salty).

On almost all of the PFE reefers until about 1940, the area under the door was actually painted boxcar red (same as the car ends). There were some outliers that were painted black but it was usually only for a year. It is difficult to tell from black and white photos but the Southern Pacific Freight Car Painting and Lettering guide does clearly show this.

There were also years where that area was painted the same color as the sides. It wouldn't look out of place to pick any of the three options. I actually think the black paint would look better as it would match the door hardware.

I do need to go back and update the painting diagrams I include with the kits. I missed that detail when first drawing up those diagrams and it does help to better match the prototype.