The Armour Refrigerator Line (ARL, one of the Armour Car Lines) was a private

refrigerator car A refrigerator car (or "reefer") is a refrigerated boxcar (U.S.), a piece of railroad rolling stock designed to carry perishable freight at specific temperatures. Refrigerator cars differ from simple insulated boxcars and ventilated boxcars (c ...

line established in 1883 by

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

meat packer The meat-packing industry (also spelled meatpacking industry or meat packing industry) handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. Poultry is generally ...

Philip Armour Philip Danforth Armour Sr. (16 May 1832 – 6 January 1901) was an American meatpacking industrialist who founded the Chicago-based firm of Armour & Company. Born on an upstate New York farm, he made $8,000 in the California gold rush, 1852 ...

, the founder of

Armour and Company Armour & Company was an American company and was one of the five leading firms in the meat packing industry. It was founded in Chicago, in 1867, by the Armour brothers led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company had become Chicago's mo ...

. To get his products to market, Armour followed the lead of rivals George Hammond and

Gustavus Swift Gustavus Franklin Swift, Sr. (June 24, 1839 – March 29, 1903) was an American business executive. He founded a meat-packing empire in the Midwest during the late 19th century, over which he presided until his death. He is credited with th ...

when he established the ''Armour Refrigerator Line'' in 1883. Armour's endeavor soon became the largest private

fleet in America. By 1900, the company listed over 12,000 units on its roster (one-third of all the privately owned cars in the country), all built in Armour's own car plant. One of the Armour Car Lines' subsidiaries was dedicated to produce hauling. In 1919 the Federal Trade Commission ordered the company's sale for antitrust reasons. On March 18 of the following year the new entity, to be known as

Fruit Growers Express Fruit Growers Express (FGE) was a railroad refrigerator car leasing company that began as a produce-hauling subsidiary of Armour and Company's private refrigerator car line. Armour controlled both the packing operations and the transport insulat ...

(FGE), would take with it 4,280 pieces of rolling stock, repairs shops at

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

and

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

, and numerous ice plants and other facilities scattered throughout the

East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a radio station in Co. Wicklow, Ireland * East Coast Swing, a f ...

References

* White, John W. (1986). ''The Great Yellow Fleet''.

Golden West Books Golden West Books is a privately owned American publishing company specializing in American Railroads. Donald Duke founded the company in 1960, and wrote some of its titles. Its headquarters are in San Marino, California. The company's titles ...

San Marino, CA San Marino is a residential city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It was incorporated on April 25, 1913. At the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census the population was 13,147. The city is one of the wealthiest places in the n ...

. . *

External links

* article at the official website. {{Refrigerator Car Lines of the United States American companies established in 1883 Refrigerator car lines of the United States Transport companies established in 1883 1883 establishments in Illinois Armour family