  The
container revolution required a cool box to carry meat and vegetables
to places where they would not grow. The reefer container was born
of a desire to meet the demand of grocery stores everywhere. These
smooth sided, insulated containers have become very common in recent
years. The front two feet is occupied by cooling unit. To operate,
the unit must be plugged into a power supply. On board ship, a central
power supply is used. On trucks a small generator (or "gen set") is
attached either to the chassis or the nose of the container. On trains,
truck style nose mounted units can be used or all of the containers
 riding
a particular stack car can be plugged into a single gen set in a 20'
container. These containers are owned
by most shipping companies around the world, some of which like Carlisle
and Lauritzen Reefers specialize in cold cargoes. Those bananas in
your kitchen probably arrived in a Dole, Chiquita, or Ecuadorian Line
40' reefer container! On many trains, there will be a power unit contained
in a 20 foot frame container with extension cords running down the
car attaching to all of the boxes. When in port, the containers will
be left on chassis and tied to "ground power". It looks a lot like
a drive in theatre for trailers! The reefer unit can be removed and
changed without opening the box. The bolt pattern on all of the reefers
are the same, and there are forklift pockets in the front of the unit
for ease of removal  and
replacement. The deLuxe model features a Carrier cooling unit (one
of the most common.) The spotting features on this type of cooler
are the three service  hatches
in the upper portion of the unit. The fan and time recorder are also
included in the reefer unit. Like our 40' corrugated container, the
reefers are released in pairs with two different road numbers.
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