This 40’ wood reefer is brown with yellow sides and run on Bettendorf trucks. Built in July 1931, this wood-sheathed ice reefer was used well into the 1950s. Gustavus P. Swift was an influential figure in the development of the refrigerator car for shipping dressed meat. Before the mechanical reefer, wood construction was preferred over steel because wood was a better natural insulator and would not rust from melting ice.