Yes, indeed it does–stops, changes crews, adds the Selkirks from out of the bowl, and goes on to CSXT.
I saw ARMN 725116 and ARMN 725141 today, both are stencilled R-70-24. However, 725141 did not have the Hydra-Cushion cylinder on it, 725116 did. I guess they must have replaced the cushioning device for some reason.
I saw a first today. It was an ARMN reefer that had a door changed, but they used a yellow door as the replacement.
I was looking at the pictures of the QFRNPP-11 that I took on Saturday and noticed that I photographed ARMN 766140 from both sides. It has had a door change on one side. The left side still has a door with the chevron latch bars while the right side has the newer type door with the horizontal latch bars. It makes an odd looking car, if you have photographs of both sides. I wonder how many plug door boxcars and reefers are running around like this.
These reefers are essentially very similar to what we use in trucking. The ARMN Reefers are virtually identical to our 53’ Trailers in terms of cooling needs and equiptment with obvious differences to accomodate rail transport.
I started off with a 45 foot Thunderbird series on a Polar American built trailer reefer and with that thing HOWLING with the belts flapping on the pullies makes a racket in the daytime… but a lullaby that floats me to sleep knowing that thing is working.
If it coughs once at 4 in the morning, I would be out of the bunk and on the cat walk with the tooll box and flashlight looking for the problem hoping it wont fail. I have lost sleep with those old units.
The new Reefers such as the Transicolds… they hum. You actually forget that they are operating until either a GPS assisted Qualcomm message gets sent to the nearest Facility that is equipped to take a reading on the status of your frozen cargo as you cross the USA. If need be they can send out a work truck and intercept you anywhere on the interstate system within hours.
I think they are also able to track and intercept the one reefer car in a train that is feeling “Poorly” and fix it on the spot. When them reefers carry California Produce at a nice comfy 38 degrees across a blazing hot salt lake that is reaching 160+ on the ground with the heat index, humidity and other factors combined… I am happy that they are going for the gold with the new ARMN reefers and not just settling for the cheap to please stock holders.
Bottom line, go for the brass ring on the quality equiptment. Yo
I saw an ARMN R-70-15 today for the first time since I saw the one at two different shippers in one week, as detailed in this thread. The reefer I saw today is ARMN 764049.
I have finally been seeing ARMN 767000 and ARMN 768000 series RPLs.
I have noticed that there are a considerable amount of ARMN reefers that have the wrong class painted on them. Yesterday I saw ARMN 762517 that had R-70-25 on it. I have seen ARMN 757493 that was incorrectly stencilled as an R-100-2, and I have seen numerous ARMN 766000 series RPLs that have R-70-20 on them.
Do the ARMN 110000 series RPs have any class? There is none painted on them.
In yet another appearent case of mislabeling, I saw ARMN 768045 classified as an R-70-19 today.
Yep–they’re misclassified, all right!
As for the 110000-series cars, the first 500 show up in the computer as being of class R-110-1. The others, as you say, have no class (in spite of looking every bit as good as the first bunch!).
Have you noticed all of the different sublots that these cars are being built under? The first 500 cars were Trinity Industries Lot 2898. Above that, I’ve seen 2898B, 2898C, 2898D, 2898E, and 2898F–not in order–but no 2898A. Still haven’t seen ARMN 111111, but did catch the 111110 once. I think 111147’s the highest number I’ve seen so far (for the rest of you folks, the series will eventually run as high as ARMN 111499).
Thanks, Carl. Now I have a couple of new questions. Today I saw UPFE 468328, it had a round roof (R-70-20 through R-70-25) and Hydra-Cushion underframe, however it was labeled an R-70-21. Obviously this is incorrect. Do you happen to know its actual class? I also saw ARMN 764044 (coupled to ARMN 764035). I they have high brake wheels. ARMN 764044 was labled R-70-16 and it looked like so was ARMN 764035. Are these a couple of the rare UP R-70-16s that were built with roofwalks or are they R-70-15s? Thanks for the help.
UPFE 468328 is a former SPFE R-70-20.
The 764000s are both R-70-15s, assuming (as I always have) that they were renumbered from the same numbers in the UPFE 464000 series.
Carl, it seems like somewhere you pointed out that there are reefers in the ARMN 725200 series even though cars in the VCY 25200-25399 series were never relettered for UPFE and asked if anyone has seen any ARMN 725300 series cars (I searched for the post but could not find it). I saw what appeared to be ARMN 725397 today. It was getting dark and the car was in a place where one could not get a good view of it anyway, so I am not too sure if this is the correct number. I guess it will not be too long before there are no more VCY reefers.
Yes, 725397 is one of five 725300s currently showing up.
I saw ARMN 111111 today.
Congratulations! I was wondering which of us would see it first.
Carl, are you ready for a good laugh? Today I saw ARMN 725011, it was stencilled as being class R-70-3.
Well, with a low road number like that…
Thanks for the chuckle!
Carl, I saw ARMN 764023 today (06/05/06). It appeared that it could have been fresh from DeSoto, MO. It was shiny, clean, and graffit free. Since it was built in 1965, I am guessing UP had its life extended.
As a bonus, they even had the corrrect class stenciled on it.
I also saw ARMN 762501 on the same train that also appeared it could have come directly from DeSoto. There were also a few ex-SP reefers that did not appear as thought they came directly from DeSoto, unfortunately.
I wish I knew what the age-limit rules were now–there’s no doubting the age of these cars. Could they be limited to on-line service? (I’m sure that wouldn’t be marked in some way). I shall have to watch these cars a little more closely.
The last I heard it was 40 years with 10 additional years if you follow specific rebuild requirements. After that no interchange allowed and the car would be stenciled as such with substantial penalties for each violation. I am sure someone else knows the specifics better than me. As always ENJOY