Tropicana Products was founded in 1947 in Bradenton, Florida by Anthony T. Rossi, an Italian immigrant, growing from 50 employees to over 3,000 in 2003.

By 1957, the ship, S.S. Tropicana, was used and could hold up to 1.5 million US gallons (1.2×10^6 imp gal; 5,700 m3) of juice to New York for its weekly delivery.

In 1970, Tropicana orange juice was shipped in bulk via insulated boxcars in one weekly round-trip from Florida to Kearny, New Jersey.

By the following year, the company was operating two 60-car unit trains a week, each carrying around 1 million US gallons (0.83×10^6 imp gal; 3,800 m3) of juice.

The unit train consisted of 150 100-short-ton (89-long-ton; 91 t) insulated boxcars, fabricated in the Alexandria, Virginia shops of Fruit Growers Express.

At Potomac Yard, in Alexandria, Virginia, Penn Central Transportation (PC) took over and operated under the overhead wire with electric locomotives most of the way to Kearny, New Jersey.