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Union Pacific invests in refrigerated fleet
Had no idea UP still had a refrigerator fleet of this size. I wonder if it isn’t mostly for these potatoes, since the old Pacific Coast fruits & vegetables business, altho beginning a modest comeback, is a shadow of its former self.
hmm, The yard at The Dalles, OR is filled with white 57’ reefers, many with the door open or removed and missing the truck style reefer unit. It seemed as though they were going to scrap the cars.
I hoped some of this investment in UP’s refrigerator fleet would been to remove graffiti from thousands of these cars. The entire fleet has been vandalized. Not only would this be positive from a public relations standpoint it would also do likewise from a security standpoint. Graffiti is an accurate bartometer of the true level of railroad security. UP’s fleet conveys a lack of security.
Jim Norton: if you’re determination of security is the amount of graffiti on a rail car, then all railroads are unsecure. For whatever reason, douchebags like to tag rail cars, and it is impossible to stop. Why waste money repainting them?
Security concerning gaffiti, RIGHT and how does one address that. A lot of that occurs while a car is on a customer owned siding and the rr won’t bill the customer for that. The railroads have very few police officers on their payrolls anymore and the few they have are in major cities. Local police rarely care anything about railroads, their property or problems.
Daniel: The answer here is to not totally repaint these cars. That would only offer a fresh canvas. The best way to discouarge this vandalism is to partially paint over these tags. This is refered to as “plating” and the vandals hate this.
Unlike other rail cars, refrigerators have to be fueled. What better time for a worker to take about 3 minutes and paint a 3 ‘x 3’ square over one of these graffiti “masterpieces!”
Graffiti,… will never stop. It’s been part of railroad culture since… I’m sure in days of old, hobo’s marked up rail cars as well, although not as artistically. I don’t support graffiti, even as a creative outlet, it’s still vandalism, pure and simple. trespassing on railroad property without permission and defacing rail cars just to make a personal statement. As for the bigger picture, the article said “repair”. Possibly that implies the railroad is putting the equiptment back in working order or
upgrading it to comply with modern standards. Addressing the issue of graffiti, I’m sure would be a step to improve the company’s image in the public’s eye.
This is a particularly interesting development given that some years ago the industry wrote off the perishable market. Is this related to the RailEx traffic or is the market becoming broader? Anyone out there privy to these developments?
This is a particularly interesting development given that some years ago the industry wrote off the perishable market. Is this related to the RailEx traffic or is the market becoming broader? Anyone out there privy to these developments?
This is a particularly interesting development given that some years ago the industry wrote off the perishable market. Is this related to the RailEx traffic or is the market becoming broader? Anyone out there privy to these developments?
$271,111 each - that seems a little steep?
It is usually around the first of October here in New England when we begin to see the evidence of massive quantities of western “spuds on the move”. First, the markets start pushing 5 pound bags of “western russets” for $1.99, then a couple weeks later it is $1.79, then right after Thanksgiving it is often 2 bags for $3 or such. When this happens I say to myself “Thank you RailEx!”
Regarding graffiti, some 12 years ago when I was producing videos I actually had some dude who wrote me soliciting my advertising in his publication designed for graffiti “artists.” My response to him is not printable here.
A big potato harvest! Excellent. I’m sure that means Frito Lay will lower their potato chip prices, right?