NEW YORK MILK COMMITTEE 13 



THE TRANSPORTATION AND CARE OF MILK BY 

 RAILROAD COMPANIES 



MR. CHAIRMAN, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : In response 

 to your invitation to discuss the question of the care and 

 handling of milk, from a transportation standpoint, I will tell 

 of the conditions prevailing on the Lackawanna Railroad, with 

 which I am personally familiar, having been in charge of its 

 Milk Department for several years. I will begin by a descrip- 

 tion of the cars used by that Company. 



The standard milk car of the Lackawanna Railroad is 42 ft. 

 over the end sills with steel underframe and is equipped with 

 standard passenger trucks, high speed air brakes, and is, in 

 fact, from the floor down, the same in every particular as a 

 first-class passenger coach. These cars have a capacity of 

 SOO 40-qt. cans or ,550 12-qt. boxes of bottled milk. They 

 are provided with end and side doors, beveled and cushioned 

 with canvas, opening in to facilitate handling at the various 

 platforms and are equipped with a large ice bunker in each 

 corner, which are filled by removing the hatches (the inside one 

 being also beveled and cushioned with canvas), and dropping 

 the ice through the roof. This is done at the various icing sta- 

 tions provided for that purpose. 



Realizing the importance of proper refrigeration during 

 the time milk is on the road, a series of experiments has been 

 made to secure the best possible results, the object being to 

 have sufficient ventilation for the proper and uniform melting 

 of the ice in the bunkers, which are cleaned before loading to 

 prevent an accumulation of hay or sawdust and to insure the 

 free circulation of air, resulting in regular and uniform re- 

 frigeration. 



In order to secure this ventilation, the specifications of our 

 milk cars provide for an opening between the end facia and 

 end plate through which the air enters and passes along the 

 entire length of the car through openings in the built up car- 

 lines and out at the other end. This also draws air up through 

 vents on the inside and through two small openings at each end 

 of the car near the bottom, which are covered with malleable 

 iron gratings and screened. The air passes through the sides 

 of the cars between the sub-posts and lining by means of open- 

 ings cut in the sub-posts and then passes up and into the roof 



