Western Railroad Discussion > Refrigerated Boxcar Fleet

In the Journal of Commerce supplement Cool Cargos there was an article outlining the possible Reefer car shortage in the future.

We are aware of the companies such as Railex who use reefer boxcars and Mckay Transcold plans to launch a service next year.

An interesting point on car utilization was discussed. When the reefer is used in manifest service in mixed trains the utilization is less than one trip per month.
With express service---intermodal express trains----the utilization is two trips per month. A new reefer cost $270,000 each.

Union Pacific is the largest owner of reefer boxcars at approxmiatley 4000 cars with 3500 of those facing mandatory retirement in 2016. The Association of American Railroad will not allow equipment older than 50yrs to be interchanged between carriers. It is estimated it would cost the UP $1 billion to replace these reefer cars.

In order for an older reefer boxcar to run on intermodal express trains the modifications must be made to the braking system.

There are a total of 8,000 reefer cars in the total U. S. fleet with UP having est 4000 of these

FYI
Dale Smith



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/13 18:15 by mearsksealand.

From Surface Transportation Board 2012 Reports for BNSF and UP:

Mechanical Reefers: BNSF = 994 UP = 4,908 Total = 5,902
Non-mech. Reefers: BNSF = 2,117 UP = 1,793 Total = 3,910

Total: BNSF = 3,111 UP = 6,701 Total = 9,812

I couldn't locate current costs, but for mechanical reefers, probably more than $127,000 per car.

Because of the noted poor utilization rate in conventional loose car service, reefers have not been investable for decades. Only with the advent of the new generation high-cube mechanical/CO2 cars 10 years ago or so, was that equation thought to have changed. Not.

Only the high turns in dedicated “unit” trains make future investments feasible.

I don't claim to be a mechanical dept. expert (I'm operations) but I sincerely doubt the comment they state about having to retrofit the air brake systems for use in intermodal service. Freight and intermodal equipment mix in trains all of the time, with no ill effect on either one. Now, if they are talking about ECP braking, that's a whole different beast entirely.
I don't doubt that the Reefer fleet needs replacement, however. Most of these cars have been rebuilt at least 2 times, and are nearing the FRA retirement dates.

Could be wrong but, I thought the U.P. just purchased 225 new ARMN reefers recently. Anybody know for sure? Railex is big bu$ine$$ to Uncle Pete as is traffic from Con Agra. We see A LOT of CRYX reefers in the PNW.

Posted from iPhone

In the 1970s, PFE got two car trips per month. With guaranteed 6th morning delivery into eastern markets. From a vast network of branch line origins.

Nowadays, the "express" trains, operating only from two main-line gathering centers, provide 9th morning service.

And management thinks the rest of the business is not investable.

Such is progress. Not.

Best regards,

Rob L.

I, too, find this $27,000 per car figure highly suspect. Most automobiles cost more than that now.

UP has at least 1700 of the newer hi-cube mechanical reefers (which carry nearly twice as much in volume as the old ones): Series 110000-111499, and the recently-purchased 170000-170224. There may have been some retirements, but not many.

I, too, think that $27,000 is 'way low for the cost. There were some hi-cube box cars costing more than that in the 1960s!

Carl Shaver
Lombard, IL

The cost should be $270,000---typo error

UP did purchase new reefers this year

Dale Smith

rob_l Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the 1970s, PFE got two car trips per month.
> With guaranteed 6th morning delivery into eastern
> markets. From a vast network of branch line
> origins.
>
> Nowadays, the "express" trains, operating only
> from two main-line gathering centers, provide 9th
> morning service.
>
> And management thinks the rest of the business is
> not investable.
>
> Such is progress. Not.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Rob L.

Oh Boy... We have your velocity right here pal.

UGH!

J.

rob_l Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the 1970s, PFE got two car trips per month.
> With guaranteed 6th morning delivery into eastern
> markets. From a vast network of branch line
> origins.
>
> Nowadays, the "express" trains, operating only
> from two main-line gathering centers, provide 9th
> morning service.
>
> And management thinks the rest of the business is
> not investable.
>
> Such is progress. Not.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Rob L.

Rob,

Yup. Threw away a lot of business. This could be good money if they had any inkling of how to go get it.

J.

A lot of UP's oldest refers are in storage, and have been for a while. Being that the new cars replace the old on basically a 2-for1 basis, that dramatically reduces the number needed for replacement.

Which cars are facing the mandatory retirement in 2016?

Weren't the ARMN series recently rebuilt from the UPFE/SPFE fleet?

UPFE yellows seemed to disappear after 2005-06.

rob_l Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the 1970s, PFE got two car trips per month.
> With guaranteed 6th morning delivery into eastern
> markets. From a vast network of branch line
> origins.
>
> Nowadays, the "express" trains, operating only
> from two main-line gathering centers, provide 9th
> morning service.
>
> And management thinks the rest of the business is
> not investable.
>
> Such is progress. Not.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Rob L.

OUCH!! (but true)

What's the difference between a mechanical and non-mechanical reefer?

Posted from iPhone

MarsLight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What's the difference between a mechanical and
> non-mechanical reefer?
>
> Posted from iPhone


My understanding,

Mechanical = Diesel engine powering a refrigeration unit.
Non-Mechanical = Cryogenic, usually a CO2 jacket in the car.

What I don't get, is where are these Non-mechanical cars? I work in the industry (transportation) in a major eastern yard, and I haven't seen one in some time. All I see are the mechanical cars.

UP has just announced a 60 million share buyback (9.5 billion at todays prices). What they are really saying they have an extra 9 billion in cash with no place to invest it profitably in the business. Their internal financial rates of return requirement versus the public good (Because of the monopoly power derived from Staggers) would make a great discussion.

In the case of the two railroads, "non-mechanical" refrigerator cars are basically just insulated box cars (AAR Mechanical Designation RBL). Many of those cars are also getting long in the tooth, though they aren't as old as the former UPFE/SPFE mechanical cars.

Cryogenic refrigerator cars appear to have become all but extinct, for whatever reason. Even the Cryo-Trans roster is comprised almost exclusively of mechanical cars (some of these were converted from cryogenic cars).

There are TILX mechanical refrigerator cars that began life as BNSF and UPFE cars. And I believe that Greenbrier has a few cars (numbered 170225 and up) that are identical to the newest ARMN cars.

Carl Shaver
Lombard, IL

CShaveRR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the case of the two railroads, "non-mechanical"
> refrigerator cars are basically just insulated box
> cars (AAR Mechanical Designation RBL). Many of
> those cars are also getting long in the tooth,
> though they aren't as old as the former UPFE/SPFE
> mechanical cars.
>
> Cryogenic refrigerator cars appear to have become
> all but extinct, for whatever reason. Even the
> Cryo-Trans roster is comprised almost exclusively
> of mechanical cars (some of these were converted
> from cryogenic cars).
>
> There are TILX mechanical refrigerator cars that
> began life as BNSF and UPFE cars. And I believe
> that Greenbrier has a few cars (numbered 170225
> and up) that are identical to the newest ARMN
> cars.

For whatever reason, cryogenic (cold liquid) CO2 got real expensive years back, and CRYOTRANS dumped their CO2 systems in favor of mechanical.

By the way, where are we getting these nine-day schedule for these Railex trains? The Railex site calls them five-day schedules, and shows an arrival on the sixth day after departure for all of its trains to Rotterdam from either origin.

From my own experience (when, as a UP employee, I could follow these trains's progress), the Thursday-morning departures from Wallula would usually arrive in Chicagoland on Sunday, suggesting that CSX would probably get them to Rotterdam well ahead of the advertised schedule.

Carl Shaver
Lombard, IL

CShaveRR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> By the way, where are we getting these nine-day
> schedule for these Railex trains? The Railex site
> calls them five-day schedules, and shows an
> arrival on the sixth day after departure for all
> of its trains to Rotterdam from either origin.

You are counting from when it leaves the Railex consolidation center to when it arrives at the Railex deconsolidation center. Wrong metric. Count from when the produce left Railex's customer (in a reefer trailer) to when it arrives at the customer's consignee (in a reefer trailer). That's what PFE achieved with reefer carloads in 6 days. And what Railex/UP nowadays does in 9.

Railex is not acceptable service for things like melons, lettuce, and most tree fruit. It's only suitable for "hardware" like potatoes, onions and carrots, and sometimes for wine. So it will never make much of a dent in the 1,000 reefer trucks that leave California every weeknight all summer long.

Best regards,

Rob L.