<P> Swift's attempts to sell Chase's design to major railroads were rebuffed, as the companies feared that they would jeopardize their considerable investments in stock cars, animal pens, and feedlots if refrigerated meat transport gained wide acceptance . In response, Swift financed the initial production run on his own, then--when the American roads refused his business--he contracted with the GTR (a railroad that derived little income from transporting live cattle) to haul the cars into Michigan and then eastward through Canada . In 1880 the Peninsular Car Company (subsequently purchased by ACF) delivered the first of these units to Swift, and the Swift Refrigerator Line (SRL) was created . Within a year, the Line's roster had risen to nearly 200 units, and Swift was transporting an average of 3,000 carcasses a week to Boston, Massachusetts . Competing firms such as Armour and Company quickly followed suit . By 1920, the SRL owned and operated 7,000 of the ice - cooled rail cars . The General American Transportation Corporation would assume ownership of the line in 1930 . </P> <P> In the 1870s, the lack of a practical means to refrigerate peaches limited the markets open to Samuel Rumph, a Georgia peach grower . In 1875, he invented a refrigerated railcar and crates that allowed him to grow peaches on a very large scale and ship them to distant markets . He was the first to achieve this . His innovations created Georgia's fame for peaches, a crop now eclipsed economically by blueberries . </P> <P> Edwin Tobias Earl was born on a fruit ranch near Red Bluff, California on May 30, 1858 . His father was Joseph Earl and his mother, Adelia Chaffee . His brother was Guy Chaffee Earl . Career . He started his career in the shipping of fruits . By 1886, he was President of the Earl Fruit Company . In 1890, he invented the refrigerator car to transport fruits to the East Coast of the United States . He established the Continental Fruit Express and invested US $2,000,000 in refrigerator cars . In 1901, he sold his refrigerator cars to Armour and Company of Chicago and became a millionaire . </P> <P> Live cattle and dressed beef deliveries to New York (short tons): </P>

The first long haul shipment of a refrigerated freight car was made from california to new york