It starts in Florida, somewhere. They are the first several refrigerated boxcars marked “Tropicana” on a freight train that also hauls containerized cargo, intermodal freight.

The Tropicana cars are headed toward New York, rather New Jersey, where they are cut off and broken down. Frozen orange juice concentrate and ultra pasteurized juice is then sent to all kinds of retail stores in several states.

I see the juice train and fancy the break down and redistribution of all that juice. I’m sure there’s grapefruit juice , maybe orange /pineapple blends, tangerine even, in the mix.

And it all ends up on store shelves.

Years ago, they made “industrial” films about trains and their cargoes that would explain what transportation was all about. That was before some smart people started talking about “logistics”. ( Probably to impress people they wanted to fuck.)

But that was the Old Days.

Box cars are disappearing, especially cars with railroad branding on them. Soo, C&O, Southern, Norfolk Southern, Seaboard, Atlantic Coast Line and, my favorite, Cotton Belt.

Next time you go the store, think about where that juice came from and how it got within your reach.