A major shipper in Wisconsin Rapids, and the source of some billboard
lettering on Western Refrigerator Lines cars.
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Related
topics: |
| Sampson
Canning HO reefer Sampson Canning HO
reefer - Accurail
has produced a special run of WRX 11490 reefers lettered
for Sampson Canning Company. One source for these cars is
Mullet River & Southern Railway, 414 E. Mill St. Dept B
Plymouth, WI 53073, 920-893-9552, kcalvin@wi.rr.com
Industry List
- This list of industries located on the Green Bay Route comes
from the 1943 and 1953 editions of the Official Directory
of Industries published by the railroad. |
With the coming of prohibition in 1920, the Grand Rapids Brewing
Company had to close and the company went into bankruptcy. In 1922 Henry
Sampson Sr. bought the building at 1251 North First Street (the corner
of First and Oliver Streets) on the east side of Wisconsin Rapids He
operated a canning company with his son Henry Sampson Jr. in the
building. Originally named the Grand Rapids Canning Company, it
was later changed to the Sampson Canning Company. The canning company
was served by a spur off the Green Bay & Western RR, just west of
the roundhouse.
In 1929 GB&W subsidiary Western
Refrigerator Lines added a fleet of wood sided refrigerator cars to
their roster. Fifty of the WRX 11000-11999 reefers carried "Sampson
Canning Company" billboard lettering.
The billboard era ended in July 1934 when the Interstate Commerce
Commission ruled that cars could no longer be painted with the lessee's
name any larger than 12 inches. After January 1937 billboard reefers
would no longer be accepted for interchange between railroads.
Apparently some of the WRX "Sampson Canning Company" cars kept
their billboard lettering beyond that date, in violation of the ICC
ruling.
The building still stands in Wisconsin Rapids. I am unsure of
when the company went out of business.
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