A 1960's era 54' mechanical refrigerator car from the Atchinson,Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad.

A 1960's era 54' mechanical refrigerator car from the Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad., a photo by Eddie from Chicago on Flickr.

One of My favorite rail cars I fondly remember seeing first hand during the 1960's and 70's when I was growing up on the near southwest side of Chicago, were these 54' Mechanical Refrigerator cars from the former Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad.

There was some sort of a food company near West 26th Street and South Sacramento Avenue that I recall in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, that frequently had shipments of potatoes delivered in these on the Illinois Northern Railroad branchline.

The Illinois Northern was a short line subsidiary railroad of the Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. When I was a little boy growing up here in the 1960's, I seem to recall that the I.N utilized Alco S4 yard switchers wearing the 1950's era Santa Fe blck and white zebra striped color scheme.

In the year of 1972, the Santa Fe purchased the old I.N outright, and operated the line as a Santa Fe industrial branchline railroad until the 1995 merger with the Burlington Northern, that created today's BNSF Railway.

The line was leased to DRS Rail Services in the year of 2000, and unfortunately is now reported to be abandoned due to a major lack of online business..

I used to see these cars on the I.N branch during the 1960's and 70's at any given time. This Athearn H.O Scale model brought back some happy memories for this local Chicago railfan.

Thanks.
Eddie K.