This 36’ wood-sheathed ice reefer is painted box car red with yellow sides. It bears a black “Fresh Meat Express” with red andwhite star logo. It was built in the late 1890s and runs on Arch Bar trucks. The reefer was not the invention of the railroads or meatpackers, but the result of inventive minds such as Gustavus Swift in the late 1800s. Swift began as a butcher’s apprentice and rose to become one of the countries most prominent meat barons. When the reefers were introduced to the meat packing industry, they were instantly welcomed as a profitable alternative to shipping live animals in stock cars.