industry transportation founded 1920 headquarters jacksonville florida u.s. area served eastern united states services freight car repair parent csx corporation website http www.csx.com wooden fge reefer car at the railroad museum of pennsylvania . fruit growers express fge was a railroad refrigerator car leasing company that began as a produce hauling subsidiary of armour and company s private refrigerator car line . its customers complained they were overcharged . 1 in 1919 the federal trade commission ordered the company s sale for anti trust reasons . 2 fge car showing csxt marking to the left . loading ice into fge cars for shipping north . the company is now controlled by the csx corporation . 3 incorporated on march 18 1920 the firm took possession of 4 280 pieces of rolling stock repairs shops at alexandria virginia and jacksonville florida and numerous ice plants and other facilities scattered throughout the east coast on may 1 . by year s end the chicago and eastern illinois new haven and norfolk and western railroads became major stockholders . in order to compete with the pacific fruit express and santa fe refrigerator despatch in the west fge and the great northern railway formed the western fruit express wfe on july 18 1923 a move that added 3 000 cars to the equipment pool . by 1926 fge had expanded its service into the pacific northwest and the midwest through the wfe and the burlington refrigerator express brex its other partly owned subsidiary formed in partnership with the chicago burlington and quincy railroad cb & q on may 1 . that same year fge purchased 2 676 36 foot long 11 m reefers from the pennsylvania railroad . in february 1928 fge formed the national car company as a subsidiary to service the meat transportation market . customers included kahns oscar mayer and rath packing . fruit growers express roster 1920 1980 4 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 4 280 8 025 14 114 12 063 12 446 8 384 3 182 notes edit december 31 1903 . fruit shippers complaint . want investigation of armour company which has new contract . pdf . new york times . p. 6 . retrieved 2009 04 02 . austin texas december 30 . the texas railroad commission was to day advised that the southern pacific has renewed its contract with armour & co. for the operation of the cars of the fruit growers express between california and new orleans another period of two years . the fruit shippers of california have complained bitterly of the alleged excessive charges of armour & co. and an effort is being made to have the inter state commerce commission conduct an investigation of the abuses complained of . fruit growers express company refrigerator car no. 35832 . sacramento california california state railroad museum foundation . retrieved 2009 04 02 . the most successful private refrigerator car company was the armour car lines including its subsidiary the fruit growers express . success led to downfall for in 1919 the federal trade commission ordered the sale of the produce hauling subsidiary for anti trust reasons . a group of eastern and southern railroads formed a new fruit growers express company in 1920 to take over the operations . by 1926 fge had expanded service into the pacific northwest and the midwest through its partly owned cooperating subsidiaries western fruit express and burlington fruit express . class i railroad annual report csx transportation inc. to the surface transportation board for the year ending december 28 2007 the great yellow fleet p. 16 . references edit white john h. 1986 . the great yellow fleet . san marino ca golden west books . 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 . external links edit the florida railroad company inc. the fruit growers express company short history of fruit growers express fruit growers express company 35832 photos and short history of an example of the wooden ice type reefers commonly placed in service between 1920 and 1940 . fruit growers express company 56415 photos and short history of an example of the wooden ice type reefers used in the first half of the 20th century for shipping produce . v t e csx corporation current subsidiaries csx transportation fruit growers express consolidated rail corporation conrail joint ownership winston salem southbound railway joint ownership railex joint ownership former subsidiaries greenbrier hotel corporation sea land corporation tracks railway lines list of csx transportation lines list of csx transportation predecessor railroads key people michael j. ward chairman ceo clarence w. gooden president john w. snow oscar munoz john b. breaux related companies seaboard system railroad predecessor chessie system predecessor category v t e major private refrigerator car lines of the united states american refrigerator transit co. armour refrigerator line burlington refrigerator express fruit growers express general american transportation corporation hormel and co. merchants despatch north western refrigerator line pacific fruit express railway express agency santa fe refrigerator despatch st. louis refrigerator car co. swift refrigerator line tropicana products union refrigerator transit line western fruit express western refrigerator line retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title fruit growers express & oldid 742143187 categories refrigerator car lines of the united statescsx transportationfruit productionamerican companies established in 1920food and drink companies established in 1920transport companies established in 19201920 establishments in florida navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store 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