Carl, on my to work today, I saw a bunch of CRYX 2200 series cars that must have been going from one factory to another. They were all white with no data (except for reporting marks), doors or refrigeration units. They were headed north on a BNSF train. Unfortunately, I was driving south, so I could not get a good look at them or take a photograph. I am assuming that they are Gunderson.
Also, yesterday, I saw a car in the SPTX 481100 series (I seem to have not written down the number). It is an Ortner hopper car. Presumably it is a former SP 481000 series car. It looks like it was recently repainted and had no logo. SPTX is listed as Trinity Rail Management. Presumably UP sold them or returned them to their lessor, whichever is applicable. Do you know if these are the former SP cars?
My “intelligence” says that these CRYX 2200-series cars will be renumbered into the 5200 series (same final digits) when they’re completed at Portland or Springfield, Oregon. I’m seeing new cars in the CRYX 5100 series now; they’re getting a big batch of cars here (5000-5428, or something like that).
Haven’t seen anything lettered SPTX yet; will check on the possibility that they’re ex-SP when I get to work.
You’re right, Andrew–Trinity made all of the BNSF and ARMN “big-box” reefers that are out there.
The new Cryo-Trans Cars appear to be the Trinity Railcar Refrigerator Cars.
There was a huge number of SPFE Mechanical Refrigerator Cars on the GTW in the 1990’s. The SPFE and UPFE cars were commonly set out at the Pavilion Siding between Battle Creek and South Bend. Sometime in the late 1990’s they were all slowly replaced with other refrigerators or rebuilt.
Now most of the UP Mechanical Refrigerators are AMRN Chilled Express cars.
Andrew, everything Cryo-Trans has in the way of new reefers was built by Greenbrier companies–either Gunderson or Gunderson Concarril in Mexico (in the case of the 5000s, it’s both, with the bodies built in Mexico and the doors, refrigeration units, and paint added stateside).
There are other threads detailing the origins of many of the older ARMN reefers. The Chilled Express cars were all originally Fruit Growers Express cars. Those new 110000- and 111000-series cars were built by Trinity Industries (which, by the way, is somewhat different from Trinity Railcar Leasing).
I saw AOK 70027 today. It appeared to be a former SP B-100-39.
On a related note, has anyone seen those AKMD boxcars that are former SSW B-100-9R or B-100-11? I have not seen these in a while. Their number series is probably AKMD 1000-1049 or AKMD 1001-1050.
The Union Pacific and Southern Pacific fleet of Pacific Car & Foundry built Mechanical Refrigerators have seriously dwindled in the past 6 years. They must have been built in the 1960’s and are just too worn out to be useful.
Were all the active former Fruit Growers Express Refrigerator Cars built mostly in 1970’s or mostly in the 1980’s?
The ARMN Chilled Express Reefers always appear in large numbers on a westbound train in the afternoon. They eastbound moves must occur around midnight.
Which design came first the Gunderson Reefer or the Trinity Reefer?
Who copied what?
The new UP and BNSF Refrigerator Cars show up occasionally in the middle of CN trains, but there are no long strings of the new reefers.
On a similar subject on CN trains there are usually only one or two of the KCS Gunderson Auto-Max Auto Carriers in the middle of a manifest freight. Gunderson Auto-Max Carriers are never mixed with the other auto carriers on CN trains.
Age is catching up to a lot of these cars. As mentioned in an older reefer thread, most of the ex-SPFE cars remaining were rebuilt into UPFE series–and in the past several years a lot of the remaining UPFE cars have been rebuilt into the ARMN 760000s or 725000 series (those 725K cars are all nee-SPFE, via VCY).
The cars rebuilt into the ARMN 900000s were all built by FGE between 1969 and 1973. Here’s a trick: the second digit of the number on any of these “Chilled Express” cars (0, 1, 2, 3, or 9) is the last digit of the year in which it was built!
Actually that surprises me–I show AOK 70000-70029 as coming from CPAA 206000-206059–previously CR 221575-221634 and originally in SSW series 63450-63649. Dimensions shown for the AOK cars don’t agree with the B-100-39 cars (nearly half of those B-100-39s have been retired or otherwise disposed of).
These cars may also be victims of age; a lot of them (the series I show was 1001-1032) have disappeared. They were previously in the WCRC 10000 series, so other series of SSW and SP box cars might be included in their ancestry as well. (That WCRC 10000 series might have had two incarnations-- cars like these that remained “straight” box cars and the ones that were rebuilt for garbage service.)
I think (someone correct me if I’m wrong) that the first reefers with the tanks and mechanical units built off the end of the cars were the UPFE 22000 and 23000 series, built by Trinity. After that came the CRYX cars rebuilt from Gunderson-built cryogenic cars.
I don’t think it’s a question of anybody copying anything, any more than a low nose was the domain of any particular locomotive builder. It’s a case of two carbuilders giving the customers what they want.
After looking at the B-70-70 class, it does appear that this could have been it. I guess I was too busy writing down the number to get a good look at it. Unfortunately, my camera was in its bag, so I did not get a photograph either.
I have not seen any Oregon Steel Mills (CW) or North Star Steel (NSTX) gondolas in what seems like a few years now. North Star Steel closed its Arizona mill, then sold it to Nucor Steel, a few years ago, so I thought that would explain the lack of NSTX cars. However, according to my source, the CW cars still exist, while the NSTX car do not. I have been seeing light blue gondolas in the CHTT 360000 series that appear to have been patched. I am correct in my assumption that these are former NSTX cars? I wonder why I no longer see any CW cars.
Also, does anyone know why both of these companies’ cars were painted light blue? Were they leased from the same company and this company prefered light blue? Is it a coincidence that both companies prefered light blue?
Yes, those CHTT 360000s are definitely the former NSTX cars–not necessarily in order, though (I have the info somewhere upstairs). They were briefly lettered NOKL in the 360000s before being relettered CHTT, same numbers (some didn’t get the NOKL lettering). This occurred in about March of 2005.