Title

Chiquita Bananas Travel NYC

Description

Article from the April, 1953 issue of the New York Central Railroad Headlight Newsletter featuring the Banana Building on the Weehawken waterfront... Text of the article: BIG BUNCHES OF BANANAS, CALLED STEMS: ARE STACKED GENTLY IN REFRIGERATOR CARS Chiquita's Bananas Travel NYC It's OK to put them in the refrigerator after all-refrigerator car, that is YOUR old friend, Chiquita Banana, is a steady customer of the Central. Chiquita is now moving almost all her bananas for the northeastern United States through the Central's freight terminal at Weehawken, N. J., where her boss, United Fruit Company, is operating the world's biggest mechanical banana-handling facility. The Weehawken banana terminal can handle 8,000 stems (as the big bunches of fruit are called) of bananas an hour, moving them from ships' holds directly to waiting refrigerator cars supplied from NYC's adjacent Weehawken freight yard. The banana terminal can hold 72 cars on its inside tracks and has storage tracks outside for another 144. Each week-night a solid train of banana-loaded cars heads out of Weehawken, arriving next morning at Buffalo. From Buffalo, the cars of fruit are fanned out to various parts of the Central System and to other railroads. Fruit moves quickly from ship to rail Ships loaded with the tropical fruit dock beside the 1,000-foot-long terminal, which was built by the Central and leased to United Fruit on a long-term basis. As soon as a ship is tied up, giant gantry cranes dip down into the holds and the bananas start to travel up endless conveyor belts that deposit them inside the terminal building, on a novel device called a "curveyor." The curveyor is a form of belt conveyor that can travel 200 feet a minute, around curves, along loading platforms to the freight cars, and then back again to pick up more bananas as they come from the ship. Chiquita must blush to see bananas put in a refrigerator car, considering her repeated warnings on radio and television that you "should never put bananas in the refrigerator." Good reason for it There's a sound reason behind it, though. Bananas are picked before they are fully ripe. The idea is to get them to market just as they reach their prime. Warm temperatures cause bananas to ripen fast, while cold retards the process. But if they get too cold, they are spoiled. The lowest temperature bananas can safely stand is 52 to 54 degrees. Most home refrigerators are kept at temperatures considerably below this and thus would damage the fruit. In hot weather, bananas are kept cool in iced cars, so they won't be over-ripe when they reach your fruit stand. Temperature control for the fruit works both ways. When it's very cold outside, the cars are pre-warmed with small kerosene heaters before they are loaded. To prevent spoilage through freezing enroute, hot charcoal is kept in the bunkers of the cars, normally used for ice. Bananas nearest their peak ripeness when they arrive at Weehawken are taken by truck from the terminal to local area markets. The curveyor also prevents damage to the delicate fruit. The less handling the better for bananas, which bruise easily, with each bruise lowering the quality.

Subject

WHC156

Date

1953

Type

OT

Identifier

WHC156

Coverage

Weehawken, NJ [40.7663711,-74.02537149999999]

Tag

Railroad

Transportation

Waterfront

Rights

This digital image may be used for educational or scholarly purposes without restriction. Commercial and other uses of the item are prohibited without prior written permission from the Weehawken Historical Commission.