How do you scrap a refrigerator car? - Trains Magazine

The lead paint problem would be common to scrapping just about anything - not only railroad cars or even refrigerator cars - the was painted prior to about 1977 (or whenever it was that lead paint started to be banned), so that can't be too much of a deterrent - otherwise, nothing from that time frame would get scrapped.  Proper masks and ventilation for the employees, and filters to trap and recover the lead particles to preclude release into the environment (= wind) would be what is needed.

 Likewise for the foam.  Again, there must be a lot of stuff with similar foam in it that gets scrapped.  If nothing else, "cold-cut" them apart enough with giant shears (common on demolition and scrapping equipment, like converted excavators, etc.) to be able to get the foam out manually and dispose of it, then finish the job with abrasive saws or torches, etc.

But what I really wonder is:  Might that insulation really be asbestos - common enough back in the day for "hot" applications (not sure about "cold" ones like this) - which would be a whole 'nother headache.  Again, neither rare nor impossible, but maybe cost-prohibitive ?  Just a thought.

For what it's worth, if the empty car weighs say 40 tons (net tons = 2,000 lbs.) = 80,000 lbs., most all of that would be steel - the insulation wouldn't weight much, although the wood or lining could be a few thousand pounds.  So 40 net tons would be about 36 gross tons (2,240 lbs.), so say 30 gross tons yield at $200/ ton (wild guess on my part - look it up in the Wall Street Journal's "C" section for a better figure) would yield about $6,000 per car.  I suspect that the actual cost of the scrapping operation (not including environmenetal protections) would be in the range of $500 to $1,000 per car - 1 guy with a torch could do it in about a day, or with the giant shear in a couple of hours. Since there's 12 of these cars, some economies of scale should kick in, too.  So your father's friend might want to look into this further.

- Paul North.

"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)