Has anyone seen any active or stored SPFE reefers lately?
UP has reefers inspected, repaired, and cleaned at one of its local train yards. Yet I have not seen many there since summer 2001. There was one stored there until March 2003 and this March a couple came to be cleaned, other than that I have not seen any since summer 2001. I have heard reports of other people seeing them (I don’t know if they were active or stored).
I know UP is rebuilding reefers, so I don’t know if they are stored surplus or have been rebuilt.
For those of you new to railfaning, a reefer is a refrigerated and insulated boxcar.
My January 2003 Official Railway Equipment Register showed only 20 SPFE reefers left. That was a year and a half ago…if any of those are still floating around it’d be almost miraculous.
Others have been rebuilt at various times. First they went into the upper 460000 series with UPFE reporting marks (467000s, 468000s, and 469000s…not all cars in those series were ex-SPFE, though). More recently, those reefers have been/are being rebuilt into the ARMN 767000s, 768000s, and 769000s.
Other ex-SPFE reefers were sold to Greenbrier, repainted blue, lettered “Golden West Service” and numbered in the VCY 25000 series. Some of those are still around; and groups of them have been lettered UPFE, but are still in blue.
Still others went through various reporting marks and numbers (FGMR, HLMX, and BNFE, all in the 13000s) before going to Amtrak for rebuilding to be used in their perishable express service that never got off the ground. I’m sure they’re around somewhere, but I’ve lost track of them.
I have heard about the Golden West Service program, but that was years ago (1991?). When you could still trace on UP’s website I found that UP changed 25000-25199 to UPFE, 25200-25399 are still VCY, I still see these regularly.
As for the ARMN reefers, I have seen 761000, 762000, 764000, 765000, 766000, and 769000 series but no others, except for the ex-FGE reefers.
As of March 31, 2004 SPFE 458705 and SPFE 459530 still existed.
A bit of history would help here. Ustawas, there was PFE = Pacific Fruit Express. Owned jointly (50-50) by UP and SP. Then there came to be a parting of the ways about 30 years ago, and the UP took a bunch (1/2) of the cars and painted a big “U” in front of the PFE. The SP did the same, but used an “S” instead. And PFE ceased to exist.
Then the UP takes over the SP. The rest shouldn’t be hard to figure out.
I have been reading Pacific Fruit Express, 2nd Edition by Tony Thompson, Robert Church, and Bruce Jones (Signature Press, 2003). Starting with the R-70-13s SP and UP bought the cars and leased them to PFE (page 212). According to the authors, SP and UP split the R-70-16 (50% each) and the R-70-20 (SP 2/3, UP 1/3) orders. SP bought the R-70-22 & R-70-24 while UP bought the R-70-21, R-70-23, & R-70-25. All of the rebuilt PCF reefers (ARMN) I have seen are the R-70-16, R-70-20, R-70-21, and R-70-25. It seems like SP got rid of the R-70-16s, so the only possibilty for SPFE reefers in the rebuild program so far is the R-70-20s. That means no R-70-22s or R-70-24s have been rebuilt. It was pointed out in an earlier post that only a few SPFE reefers existed as of 01/2003. Does anyone know what UP has done or is doing with the SPFE reefers? Are they sitting somewhere waiting to be rebuilt? Did they sell them (Unlikely, what other railroad has need of so many reefers)? Were they in such bad shape that UP decided to scrap them? Or are they sitting somewhere waiting for more produce traffic or for UP to decide what to do?
I remember, as a kid, when the trains went by my house, the majority of the reefers had the SPFE reporting marks on the CNW trains. On the NW trains there were more ARTX, ARMN or FGE reefers. Looking back now, as I know the UP had an interest in the CNW I find it ironic the SPFE cars were prevalent in my neck of the woods. Maybe they came off the SSW in E St Louis from the West Coast
As the UPFE number series becomes full, they have to dig out the old reporting marks that still have space available. ARMN and ARTX will probably get filled up from here on out.
The UPFE series will never become full–those cars are disappearing surprisingly fast, becoming ARMN 700000-series cars or being retired. As for the old SPFE cars, the ones that weren’t sold or transferred at various times also were relettered UPFE (and some ARMN by now).
With more of the big ARMN reefers coming on line now (series 110500-110749), it’s probably a matter of not too much more time before the only UPFE cars left will be the 23000-series big ones built in the late 1990s.
The January 2005 Equipment Register shows five SPFE and something over 2400 UPFE reefers of all types remaining. I didn’t attempt to add up the ARMN cars. (ARTX, forget about–they don’t exist, and likely won’t ever.)
I have not seen any SPFE cars with UPFE reporting marks unless they were repainted. I will have to start paying attention to the class stencil to see if there are any R-70-22 or R-70-24. Does the Equipment Register list any UPFE cars in the following series: 453501-454500 (R-70-16), 456001-456500 (R-70-18), 456701-456900 (R-70-19), 456901-457500 (R-70-20), 458701-459300 (R-70-20), 459301-459400 (R-70-22), or 459500-460100 (R-70-24)?
While I am not a fan of UP, it is somewhat sad to see the UPFE reporting mark slowly fade away as it is the last vestige of Pacific Fruit Express.
No–those series were SPFE. What happened is that the UP rehabbed some SPFE reefers in those series (particularly the newer ones) and put them in the UPFE 468000s and 469000s.
As an addendum to my previous comments, keep in mind the 40-year age limit that these PFE reefers are subject to. In six more years they’ll all be gone, probably even the ARMN 760000 series. The 900000-series “chilled express” reefers that began life as Fruit Growers Express cars will have to disappear in the 2009-2013 timeframe.
I asked about those reefers to see if UPFE was just restencilling the SPFE reefers. Judging by what you wrote, I am guessing rebuilding does not extend the allowed life span of the cars under FRA(?) rules. The R-70-16s were built in 1966, I am suprised UP had them rebuilt since they will have to be retired next year. 2011 will not be a good year, there will be no more PCF reefers around. At least Athearn is making models in July, so I can build a large fleet (I already have 16).
(For some reason, I’m having trouble posting this morning–it’s probably just me!)
Looking at my logs, I find that no SPFE R-70-16s were rebuilt and relettered UPFE.
Here is what I show:
From R-70-18: UPFE 468001-468093, 468125-468225.
From R-70-19: UPFE 468250-468271.
From R-70-20: UPFE 468300-468346, 469001-469100.
(It follows that the corresponding numbers in the ARMN 768000 and 769000 series are originally SPFE reefers.)
The blue “Golden West Service” VCY mechanical reefers are also ex-SPFE, as you know:
From R-70-20: VCY 25350-25386, 25388-25399.
From R-70-22: VCY 25241-25299.
From R-70-24: VCY 25000-25240, 25300-25349, 25387.
(VCY 25000-25199 were relettered UPFE)
My previous response in this thread was edited to reflect my actually having looked at the data!
This last edit was to correct a typo–nothing sinister!
Speaking as the man who gets to fuel many UP reefers in the Seattle and Tacoma areas most are ARMN. What ever type of rebuilding the reefers have gone under it did not included replacing the fuel gage on either side of the car. A personal gripe of mine.
Many do not work or are very inaccurate. The railroad requires Nr. 1 diesel or stoveoil for winter use. The newer larger cars are more diffcult to fuel requireing the fueler to climb on top of the tank and look down to see the gage. And yes I have my own blue flag.
According to UP there will be about 2600 ARMN reefers by December 2006, excluding the 110000 series. That means that currently there must be more UPFE than ARMN reefers. I am suprised, out here the ARMN reefers seem to outnumber the UPFE reefers. http://www.uprr.com/customers/ag-prod/exlane/index.shtml
I noticed that the ex-SP R-70-18s in the UPFE 468001-468093 and 468125-468225 series and R-70-19s in the UPFE 468250-468271 series have RP (not RPL) on them. Did UP remove the load restraints when they rebuilt them? I found nothing about this in Pacific Fruit Express, 2nd Edition so I am assuming it was done relatively recently.