I just got the email concerning the 2010 Golden Spike offerings. The info packet can be found here.

This year, they are doing both Master Line (reefer) and Industrial Rail (tank car) club cars. You can get one, the other, or both:

The Master Line car:


The Industrial Rail car:


I'm seriously considering getting both (the Industrial Rail car is only and extra $20 if you are already getting the reefer).

Oh, and they are also doing N and HO Golden Spike Club cars this year (these will be considered charter memberships).

Andy

I hope the loco for the 2010 club will not be as limited in geography as the 2009 version was. Looking foward to another demo model such as:
RSD4/5
ALCo C630

Aside from the cars, what are the advantages of such clubs?

I'm am for sure in for the beer reefer, cause I got that reefer madness yaknow. I wonder if we'll have to wait another 9 months for delivery after paying it?


Milwrd

Thanks for posting this, Andy.

Does anyone know if the Master Line Reefer will be a 36' or a 40'? I didn't see this information anywhere in the anouncement (that doesn't mean that it's not there, though ).

The scale cars pretty much are the advantage, IMHO. You get little extras, like club pins, newsletters, and catalogs, but $60 for an Atlas scale reefer delivered is a pretty good bargain. The Industrial Rail membership at $50 is not really a bargain, but for an extra $20 on top of the reefer, it just may be worth it.

The catalogs can be had elsewhere, and the newsletters generally don't contain a lot of stuff to make them worthwhile.

Andy

That's one sure fine beer reefer. I'd like to have one but am way too impatient to pay upfront and wait for months.

quote:

Originally posted by Scott M:
Thanks for posting this, Andy.

Does anyone know if the Master Line Reefer will be a 36' or a 40'? I didn't see this information anywhere in the anouncement (that doesn't mean that it's not there, though ).

The info package says that it is a 36' wood reefer.

Andy

quote:

Originally posted by beertrain:
That's one sure fine beer reefer. I'd like to have one but am way too impatient to pay upfront and wait for months.

I just consider it a pleasant surprise when it arrives, since I've mostly forgotten about it by then.

Andy

Finally a beer reefer from the Great State of Washington

quote:

Finally a beer reefer from the Great State of Washington

Didn't think they had beer in Washington.... just wine from apples...

A definite for us - we NEED the reefer.... always need reefers....

You're paying dues in a club and they send you communication and catalogs, then a prize - the reefer.....

Sort of like life insurance - you pay now but, hopefully, don't get anything until later.....

History of the 3 B's reefer

With a railhead at the door and a terminus to three railways, 3-B sought to modernize its delivery by adopting the concept of refrigerated box cars. The following is from the Daily Reveille of September 10, 1905:
REFRIGERATOR CAR MADE IN BELLINGHAM - The Bellingham Bay Brewery yesterday morning rolled out from its shops a brand new refrigerator car and at noon sent it on its maiden trip with a car load of beer for Cle Elum, where the company owns a large refrigerator.

The car was made in Bellingham and is one of the best refrigerator cars that can anywhere be found. The "box" is eight and a half feet high and nine feet wide on the inside. The car is 34 feet long. Its construction cost $1,027.
The sides are about ten inches thick. Between the outermost and the second walls is a three-inch space packed with hair. The inner side of the second wall is lined with paper, and between this and the next wall, or partition, there lies an air space which is separated from a second air space by a partition. A fourth wall made of ceiling* which is shellacked completes the structure in the sides of the car.

The top is built with a double roof, lined with paper. Joining this is an air space of paper. Behind the shellacked ceiling is four inches of saw dust which completes the structure of the roof.

Thorough provision for, protection has been made at the bottom in the construction of a double floor. The space between the floors is packed with a thick layer of charcoal.

The exterior of the car is painted yellow. "Bellingham Bay Brewery, Bellingham. Wash.," is lettered on one side of the door. On the other side "3-B Beer," and "Made in Bellingham." The designs on the side of the car also include a painting of the brewery's trade mark, the anchor, ship, wharf and train. The car has a capacity of 40,000 pounds.

* Ceiling refers to "beaded ceiling" which is also called beaded board or car siding. We now see these grooved boards used in homes for wainscoting.