Nostalgia & History > Westbound Wednesday - UP Reefer Block On Donner In 2008

Years ago when SP ran over Donner, Summer season eastbound reefer blocks were a common site.
In later years, with UP running there, solid reefer trains were rare.
Here is a westbound reefer train, probably empties, from 2008 and in this Joe Ward photo
from June of 1967, and eastbound loaded train at the same location at Carpenter Road crossing
east of Colfax.
Regards, Jim Evans  

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UP and CSX collaborated Years ago on at least 1 Reefer Train out of Delano CA to Rotterdam NY. Think on CSX,it ran as Q090 or Q001. Have shots of it in Buffalo headed east and shots in Rotterdam when it arrived there. I was driving for Schneider at the time. Think they contained wine and Produce products. The shots from Buffalo were near Frontier Yard. Ben

Nice catch and video, Jim!

texchief1

ns2557 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> UP and CSX collaborated Years ago on at least 1
> Reefer Train out of Delano CA to Rotterdam NY.
> Think on CSX,it ran as Q090 or Q001. Have shots
> of it in Buffalo headed east and shots in
> Rotterdam when it arrived there. I was driving for
> Schneider at the time. Think they contained wine
> and Produce products. The shots from Buffalo were
> near Frontier Yard. Ben

I think this date is before those trains. The first Z train of reefers was out of Washington state, operated for RailEx. Later the California train was added. UP bought RailEx and turned into their Cold Connect line. Once UP took it over it seemed to not last very long and UP shut it down. Maybe that was why they bought it in the first place.

Before that it seems there was some experimenting with some reefer traffic that ran through to Selkirk on the CSX. The symbol east of North Platte to Chicago interchange was QNPSKP. I don't know what symbols were west of North Platte, maybe one out of Roseville.

It seems towards the end before those trains quit and the RailEx Z trains, the QNPSKP was rerouted via KC and St Louis to interchange with CSX.

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After that huge capital investment in rail cars and facilities, I still can't believe UP bought it all, and then shut it down.  An enormous waste of money.  It seemed to be working, but UP didn't seem to want to hustle much, given the slower time table vs. trains in the past (that were all loose car trains gathered from many packing houses!!!).

That is definitely the RailEx train. The Express Lane trains had more variety in the cars.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/25 00:20 by EricSP.