Plastic bottles filled with hot liquid such as fruit juices or the like are packaged in cases fed in line below the path of these bottles in the machine. Line pressure urges the bottles down an inclined ramp into a load station where the plastic trays are continuously filled with the bottles. The trays are indexed by a flight bar conveyor that lifts each tray turn at the load station. Overhead flight bar conveyor chains operate separator pegs that move downwardly between selected article rows to index groups of the softened hot bottles as they are loaded into the inline trays. Overhead separator discs are used in place of these flight bars and pegs for loading conventional plastic bottles or the like.