If I remember correctly PFE existed up until UP swallowed SP, only it was a shell of its former self, it seems like it was only a paper company. Early on SP painted its reefers white. The logo would have been one of the following: orange PFE; stacked Pacific Fruit Express with the P, F, and E in orange; black out line of PFE; or stacked Pacific Fruit Express with the P, F, and E in black outline. I do not know the chronological order or if all paint schemes were used simitaneously. In the late 1980s, SP started using a color logo similar to the Sunset logo, but with SP in the center, as the only logo on its reefers. The S and P were in line on some logos while the P was a bit lower on others. I know the blue, red, green, and red and gray logos existed, there may have been more colors. From what I heard, it was a complete free for all as to which logo was applied.
By the way, up until a couple of years ago, I would still see an occasional orange reefer, so SPFE had orange reefers its entire existance. Also, orange UPFE reefes made it to the ARMN refurbishing program.
It starts on October 5, see the second to last post on page 5.
I never saw one in person. I have only seen photographs, and those cars are ugly. There was an article in the news section of Trains a few years ago about shipping
This doesn’t necessarily require a reply (Eric), but the reefer I saw was white with only the orange letters “P” “F” and “E” (capitals) and no other lettering like “Fruit Express” (and, I don’t believe, any “Sunset Logo” either). This was some years ago, but the one I saw seemed to have fairly clean white paint on it, and I think you implied these others were fairly old. FWIW…
Rip, the newest SPFE reefers were built in 1971. Even though the paint was fresh, these cars were getting close to twenty years old. Since you saw them “some years ago”, at least ten years have gone by since PFE vanished. In the first few years following the merger, UP rebuilt a lot of (S)PFE reefers and put them into UPFE series. And a goodly number of those have been rebuilt yet again and put into the ARMN upper-760000 series.
One fine afternoon I was driving through the Stockton yard when my eyes did spot a whole classification track full of UPFE reefers. Most were painted Armour Yellow, there may have been a few painted “PFE Orange,” but among them one really stood out. It carried UPFE reporting marks all right, but the entire body was painted a chartreuse color - sort of a yellowish green. Fortunately I had my camera along and snapped a Kodacolor exposure.
The style of lettering matched the Union Pacific standards perfectly, so I don’t think this chartreuse car was a wreck rebuild from a private shop. Maybe Union Pacific Fruit Express was trying something different and wanted to see how it would weather. Anyway, it was the only UPFE reefer that I ever saw painted that color.
Does anyone have any more information about this unique car and why it was painted that color?
I think a few UPFE cars were painted that color when UPFE was searching for its new identity. Glad you recorded it–although it isn’t exactly unique, it certainly qualified as rare then, and probably extinct now.