This is the first of four articles about the history of Kohrs Meat Packing Company, Red Ball Ltd HO scale model railroad kits, Bachmann Trains and a replica of a Kohrs Meat Packing Company reefer inspired from a Red Ball kit.
1872: Kohrs Packing Company began operation as a small butcher shop in Davenport, Iowa.
1920's/1930's: Kohrs processed hogs for Oscar Mayer.
Early 1930's: Kohrs leased 40' ice bunker refrigerator railcars, or reefers, from a company called National. They also leased 15 reefers from Standard Refrigerator Car Company of Indianapolis, numbered KOHX 1000 to KOHX 1014.
April of 1932: Ten National reefer railcars in the NX 2300 series were renumbered KOHX 2601 - KOHX 2610.
1935: The 15 reefers numbered KOHX 1000 to KOHX 1014 were still in service for Kohrs and owned by Harbor Tank Line of Chicago Heights, Illinois.
These reefers were given flashy billboard paint schemes. They had retained yellow sides and were given 3 foot tall black "KOHRS" letters in the company's squared Roman style font filling 13 1/2 feet of space to the left of the doors. The words: "DAVENPORT IOWA", reporting marks and car number were in the same style of Roman lettering but were only 12" tall. To the right of the doors were the 5' 9" diameter circular Kohrs Crown Meat emblem. The emblem featured a red outer ring bordered in green, the "KOHRS" name was in white letters bordered in black in the upper half and the much smaller full company name in black bordered white letters in the lower half. The inner circle of the emblem was white with the word "CROWN" in blue outlined white letters at the top, at the bottom was the word "MEAT" in green letters on a green bordered yellow banner in the middle. The crown was in between the two words and was colored black and yellow, topped by a green and yellow Maltese cross resting on a red cushion with yellow and green piping and tassles.
July 1938: The American Association of Railroads, or AAR, banned billboard railcars. Existing advertisment billboard railcars were repainted to a much more somber scheme that met the new standards. The Kohrs reefers were repainted with the yellow sides, no crown emblem and with black letters no larger than 9" tall. This was the end of the big, flashly colors and paint schemes on railcars.
Early 1980's: Kohrs Meat Packing Company closed as the new, larger, more modern Oscar Mayer facility went into operation.
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