Re: Good looking reefer (pic)

I think refrigerator # 55 takes the prize as the longest running Friends restoration project which spanned 20? years starting in 1991. See the Friends restoration page if you want a year by year synopsis of just what it took to resurrect this car. Here is part of the story as told by Earl Knoob:

Earl Wrote:
=======================================================
> #55 has come a long way since Dave Peterson and I,
> acting on a hunch that there was a short reefer
> body at "some airport in the Valley" hunted it
> down on a cold snow day in late March, 1983. We
> were returning the Chama after riding one of the
> last trips of the Rio Grande Zephyr. I was on the
> BOD of the FOCTS then and reported the finding and
> recommended the FOCTS acquire the car. It took a
> LONG time for 55 to get a new home but finally
> showed up in Chama in 1991.
>
> It's good to see her finally out on the road.
>
> On the same trip we "discovered" the two frameless
> tanks in La Jara at Gibson Trucking. They took
> even longer to find a new home.
>
> One has to remember back the the dark ages, you
> found stuff by exploring and by word of mouth.
> Life was full of wide goose chases. Some stuff I
> was told was someplace by a respected source, I
> never did find.

Here is an earlier view by Benoit Poulin circa 2002 of the other side of #55 that is lettered with the Moffat herald pre 1940 style lettering. Great job to the team who worked on this project for all those years.

Rod