St. Louis Refrigerator Car Company

St. Louis Refrigerator Car Co. #4466, a bunkerless refrigerator car, AAR mechanical designation RB, passes through Limon, Colorado on November 9, 1951.

The St. Louis Refrigerator Car Company (SLRX) was a private refrigerator car line established on February 3, 1878, by Anheuser-Busch, the brewer's first subsidiary. SLRX was formed to facilitate large-scale distribution of the A-B's products via the U.S. rail network. The SLRX not only built its own bunkerless reefers, but maintained and operated them as well.

In 1919 the firm was acquired by Manufacturers Railway Company (MRS), another A-B transportation subsidiary that provided switching service to the brewery and interchange connection with the common carrier railroads serving St. Louis. The St. Louis Refrigerator Car Company currently owns the "Dome Railway Service" in Wood River, Illinois.

St. Louis Refrigerator Car Company Roster, 1900–1970:

  1900   1910   1920   1930   1940   1950   1960   1970  
  1,500   1,500   5,088   604   762   1,337   944   268  

References

  • White, John H. (1986). The Great Yellow Fleet. Golden West Books, San Marino, CA. ISBN 0-87095-091-6.
  • White, John H. Jr. (1993). The American Railroad Freight Car: From the Wood-Car Era to the Coming of Steel. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-4404-5. OCLC 26130632.