500 Railroad Ave | Property Record | Wisconsin Historical Society

Property Record

500 Railroad Ave

Architecture and History Inventory
500 Railroad Ave | Property Record | Wisconsin Historical Society
NAMES
Historic Name:Milwaukee Road #URTX 37432 Refrigerator Car
Other Name:Colfax Railroad Museum
Contributing:
Reference Number:246033
PROPERTY LOCATION
Location (Address):500 Railroad Ave
County:Dunn
City:Colfax
Township/Village:
Unincorporated Community:
Town:
Range:
Direction:
Section:
Quarter Section:
Quarter/Quarter Section:
PROPERTY FEATURES
Year Built:1948
Additions:
Survey Date:
Historic Use:rolling stock
Architectural Style:
Structural System:
Wall Material:
Architect:
Other Buildings On Site:Y
Demolished?:No
Demolished Date:
NATIONAL AND STATE REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
National/State Register Listing Name:Not listed
National Register Listing Date:
State Register Listing Date:
NOTES
Additional Information:This steel panel car was constructed by the General American Transportation Corporation for the Union Refrigerator Transit Line. The ice-bunker (meaning the coolant used was ice) car was one of the last manufactured to hold ice as the refrigerant. In the 1950s, railroads transitioned to mechanically refrigerated cars. The General American Transportation Corporation originally was founded to lease rail cars and by the 1920s was a leader in producing and leasing tank cars for liquids. They branched out into manufacturing ice-bunker refrigerator cars, which they were still producing in 1948. The Union Refrigerator Transit Line was started in Milwaukee for the Schlitz Brewing Company and then was acquired by General American Transportation Corporation in 1929. The car was eventually leased to the Milwaukee Road, then sold in 1971 and displayed in a railroad museum in Minnesota. The Colfax museum purchased it in 2014 for its collection.
Bibliographic References:NRQ, August, 2023.
RECORD LOCATION
Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin

Have Questions?

If you didn't find the record you were looking for, or have other questions about historic preservation, please email us and we can help:

If you have an update, correction, or addition to a record, please include this in your message:

  • AHI number
  • Information to be added or changed
  • Source information

Note: When providing a historical fact, such as the story of a historic event or the name of an architect, be sure to list your sources. We will only create or update a property record if we can verify a submission is factual and accurate.

How to Cite

For the purposes of a bibliography entry or footnote, follow this model:

Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory Citation
Wisconsin Historical Society, Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, "Historic Name", "Town", "County", "State", "Reference Number".