Western Railroad Discussion > Private reefer fleets: CRYOTRANS & LINEAGE

I recently checked out these 2 companies offering private refrigerated railcars and insulated boxcars for perishable shipments.  Someone stated here that LINEAGE has bought CRYOTRANS, but both sites are still up and running.  What's interesting is that LINEAGE advertises 1400+ mechanical reefers, 1000 super-insulated boxcars, and another 1000 regular (?) boxcars.

On the other hand, CRYOTRANS advertises 1436 mechanical reefers, but only about 836 insulated boxcars.   CRYOTRANS thus seems to be the smaller company.

LINEAGE also has both 64' and 68' boxcars, whereas CRYOTRANS does not--they only have 64' insulated boxcars.

Does anyone know if these 2 companies have merged, or do they remain separate competitors?

And while we're at it, does anyone know how many reefers UP has?  BNSF??  Tropicana Juice???  I believe UP has retired almost all of their older 65' cars, and now only have HI-CUBE 64' & 72' cars.

Are there any other private fleets out there of reefers?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/22 23:34 by coach.

TILX has some ex BNSF reefers and CEFX has some reefers

coach Wrote:

> I recently checked out these 2 companies offering private refrigerated railcars and insulated boxcars for perishable shipments.  
> Someone stated here that LINEAGE has bought CRYOTRANS, but both sites are still up and running.  

A Google search for "Cryotrans" turned up these three articles on the first page of results:

https://www.refrigeratedfrozenfood.com/articles/99873-lineage-logistics-acquires-cryo-trans-and-its-fleet-of-refrigerated-railcars-for-temperature-controlled-transportation
https://www.logisticsmgmt.com/article/lineage_logistics_announces_acquisition_of_cryo_trans
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/lineage-logistics-acquires-cryo-trans-500-million

Lineage bought CryoTrans, this should remove any doubts;

https://www.lineagelogistics.com/news-stories/lineage-logistics-becomes-first-temperature-controlled-warehousing-provider-offer

Lineage has been adding insulated boxcars to it's fleet too, they look like the reefers without the refrigeration unit and end platform.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

This post certainly brought back some memories...

The CO2 Cryo-Trans cars were developed by Marvin Weiner, who operated Mt. Airy Cold Storage between Baltimore and Frederick, MD on Old Main Line Sub of the B&O/Chessie/CSX. In the early 90's, Mt. Airy was one of my accounts while working in the CSX Baltimore sales office and they were handling all of the Simplot french fries for McDonald's from Philly to Richmond. I enjoyed working with Marvin, he liked to name his cars and allowed me the honor. As I recently left T&E service, I selected Gladstone, my away-from-home terminal. CRYX 1197 has probably been turned into razor blades by now, the cold storage facility closed in '07 and I see he now runs the MHW Group (car management & leasing).  


 

The tradition continues., I have noted the new company cars also are named. Nice touch. Thanks for posting links.
RB

Ive been seeing alot of the Linage and Cryotrans reefers as of late up on my end on the NS.  I suspected Lineage bought out Cryotrans, but this confirms my suspicions. 

Thanks!

Michael Fair
Royal Oak, MI

Rivannaco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This post certainly brought back some memories...
>
> The CO2 Cryo-Trans cars were developed by Marvin
> Weiner, who operated Mt. Airy Cold Storage between
> Baltimore and Frederick, MD on Old Main Line Sub
> of the B&O/Chessie/CSX. In the early 90's, Mt.
> Airy was one of my accounts while working in the
> CSX Baltimore sales office and they were handling
> all of the Simplot french fries for McDonald's
> from Philly to Richmond. I enjoyed working with
> Marvin, he liked to name his cars and allowed me
> the honor. As I recently left T&E service, I
> selected Gladstone, my away-from-home terminal.
> CRYX 1197 has probably been turned into razor
> blades by now, the cold storage facility closed in
> '07 and I see he now runs the MHW Group (car
> management & leasing).  
>
>I worked for Marvin in the early 90's at mt. airy. ran the sw1 and worked the docks. he was one of a kind .
>