Florida Grapefruit Shipped to Europe Via Southern's Rail - Highway Service

A Southern Railway System rail-highway container moving through the streets of Paris? Or, over the highways of Germany? Could these things happen? They did in March. Two Southern Railway containers were used in a test shipment of Florida grapefruit to European markets; the most off-line trip any Southern equipment has ever made.

The shipment was made to test a belief that fresh fruit could be shipped in ventilated containers during the cool months of the year and arrive in good condition in Europe. Major transportation participants in setting up the movement were Southern Railway for overland handling in this country and United States Lines - for the ocean journey and arrangements overseas. They worked in close cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture. If proven practical, it was clear that the use of Southern Railway type containers would considerably reduce the cost of future fruit and produce shipments - an important price factor in the highly competitive European citrus and vegetable markets - and eventually, will lead to development of special containers to handle shipments of this type.

(Left) Here's where it all began . . . the Apshawa Groves at Clermont, Fla., where the fruit headed for France and Germany is "picked for packing. ( Center) United States Department of Agriculture representatives Randall H. Cubbedge, at left, and Russell H. Hinds, center, explain to Southern's W. C. Thomas, assistant manager - Rail - Highway Services, that the electric fan installed in the container door will be used to ventilate the load of grapefruit. (Right) Southern container No. IRC-l101, loaded with grapefruit to be delivered to five West German cities pulls away from the loading dock at the Lakeland Packing Company at Lakeland, Fla.

As things are now, most fruit is refrigerated for long-haul shipments to retard the ripening process which continues even after the fruit has been picked from the tree. However, two things happen in transit - the ripening fruit generates heat and produces a gas. Both accelerate the ripening process and may lead to spoilage in the center of the load when fruit is shipped in a closed and unventilated or conventionally refrigerated container.

Stacking boxes of fruit in a ventilated container in a way that would provide channels for the circulation of cool fresh air through the load was a procedure that experts of the U. S. Department of Agriculture thought would be an answer. Air passing through the container would hold down temperature and carry off gas. The test shipment involved two container loads of a variety of grapefruit known as "Marsh Seedless," grown by Apshawa Groves, Inc., of Clermont, Fla. The fruit was picked and delivered to the Lakeland Packing Company of Lakeland, Fla., where it was washed, graded and packed into boxes holding 40 grapefruit each, or four-fifths of a bushel. In order to make the test as complete as possible, two types of packing boxes were used - a corrugated fiberboard box and a wire bound wooden crate.

On hand to supervise the loading were three representatives of the Department of Agriculture: Russell H. Hinds and Philip W. Hale, USDA Transportation Research Branch, and Randall H. Cubbedge, Market Quality Research Division. Present at the loading on behalf of the carriers involved in the shipment were Southern's w. Clyde Thomas, assistant manager Rail Highway Services, and Eric Rath, president of the Cooltainer Corporation and consultant to the United States Lines.

As boxes were packed, Hinds supervised their stacking in the Southern containers to insure there would be adequate ventilation channels throughput the load while Cubbedge inspected the fruit and installed test packages for reinspection at destination. Hinds had previously installed a system of remote reading thermometers by fastening a "harness" of wires to the ceiling of the trailer. "Lead wires" dangled down into the load space. When the loading progressed to a point where a lead wire was hanging, Hinds would open a box, take out a single fruit and plunge a thermometer into it. Then he replaced the fruit in the box, closed the lid and placed the box in the load. Once the loading was completed, Hinds, who was to accompany the containers from Florida to Europe, would be able to keep a constant and accurate check on the temperature of the fruit without opening the container doors.

The containers used in the test were designed to be used in ventilated service and are equipped with four ventilation doors - two of them, high in the nose of the units and two more, low in the rear doors. These provide a sufficierit flow of fresh air while the containers are, under way in a moving train or at high speeds over a highway but there was some question whether enough air would move through the container while it was being trucked through towns at low speed or while it was secured to the deck of a ship in a trans Atlantic crossing. To insure adequate ventilation, Hinds installed an electric ventilating fan in the rear door of each of the containers. These were to be powered by a special 220-volt, a.c. generator mounted on the highway tractor or they could be connected to a ship's electrical system or plugged into the electrical system at the consignee's warehouse.

(Left) At the Florida East Coast Railway's piggyback loading ramp at Fort Pierce, Fla., a workman secures Southern container No. IRC-1256 to a flatcar. When he's finished, the container will be ready for the rail trip to New York, the first major leg of its journey to Paris. (Right) At New York City's pier 62, the two Southern containers are hoisted aboard the United States Lines' "American Challenger" where they were secured to the vessel's foredeck during the Atlantic crossing to the port of Antwerp, Belgium.

The loaded containers were delivered to the Florida East Coast Railway's piggyback loading ramp at Fort Pierce, Fla. An FEC train took the containers to Jacksonville, Fla., where they were turned over to the Southern. Traveling behind Southern diesels, the containers were hauled from Jacksonville to Potomac Yard at Alexandria, Va. At that point the Pennsylvania Railroad took over for the balance of the rail journey to Kearny, N.J. At Kearny the units were grounded and trailered to New York's pier 62, for loading aboard the United States Lines steamship" American Challenger ."

The " American Challenger" which carried the test loads - one of 16 such ships in the United States Lines' fleet - is specially equipped for hauling containers. Special electric service to operate auxiliary equipment - like the fans installed in Southern's containers - is available at on deck locations. Hoisting gear for handling containers is part of the regular equipment of these vessels. "Challenger express service" means speeds of some 21 knots ( approximately 24 miles per hour) as compared to the 14 to 15 knot speed of most cargo ships, according to U. S. Lines' officials.

The "Challenger's" destination was the port of Antwerp, Belgium, where the containers were off-loaded onto chassis and taken in tow by highway tractors of the Hans Gerzymisch transportation firm. From the pier at Antwerp, one of the containers went directly to Paris where the whole load was consigned to Pomona-Import of Paris Bercy a company operating some 60 stores throughout France.

The second trailer delivered fruit to receivers in the West German cities of Duisburg, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Mannheim and Munich. According to Eric Bath who was on hand when the containers were unloaded in Germany: "The fruit arrived in excellent condition." The receivers, Rath observed, were more than pleased not only by the freshness of the grapefruit but also by the reduction in travel time effected by the cooperation of the many carriers involved in the shipment. The containers encountered some delay at the port of Antwerp because of inspections and paperwork, but, according to Russell Hinds, "the Paris bound container was delivered in 15 days and the multi drop shipment to Germany was completed in 16 days." Some 70 European newspapers and trade journals carried accounts of the move and the German Traffic Journal (Deutsche Verkehrs-Zeitung) noted that the time required was considerably less than the usual three to four weeks required for such a trip.

(Left) After their ocean journey, the containers are set off the ship at Antwerp for the trip to Paris and Germany. (Below, left) Southern No. IRC-llOl arrives in time for the grapefruit to be featured in a special sale of American products at the Hertie department store near Munich, Germany. (Below) Eric Rath, at left, president of the Cooltainer Corporation and consultant to United States Lines, and Alfred LaRocque, right, European representative for the Florida Citrus Commission, check the condition of a box of grapefruit on arrival in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Those in the background are members of the European press who turned out in a snowstorm to witness the arrival of the Southern container with its load of fresh Florida fruit.

Thus, from all accounts, it appears that both the practice of using internally ventilated containers for the overseas shipment of fresh fruit and the cooperation among the various modes of transportation have proven to be highly successful. It is through this type of cooperation that American growers can hope to deliver their products in foreign marketplaces at prices that are competitive with those of growers located in Mediterranean areas who have a distinct advantage in their nearness to the consumer.

Southern played a major role in this first attempt to build new markets for Florida citrus growers - and stands ready, as always - to work with shippers anywhere, with any kind of shipping problem, to increase the usefulness of railroad service. .