Pacific Fruit Express and Fruit Packing Operations

Fruit grown in the area along the mainline became an increasingly important commodity carried on CPRR and SP trains, prompting UP and SP to form Pacific Fruit Express. PFE was incorporated in 1906 and charged with procuring refrigerator cars and building and operating icing plants along the line. Extensive fruit packing operations took place at Colfax, Newcastle, and Loomis. Cooling for the refrigerator cars was supplied by ice harvested along the Truckee River in the Boca area, as well as icing plants that had been established at Roseville and Colfax. Mechanically refrigerated cars gradually replaced the icing operations, and the growth of fruit orchards in the central valley and tree disease eventually doomed the foothill fruit packing businesses, which faded from the scene in the 1950’s.