N737AA wrote: ericsp wrote: By the way, I saw ARMN 757493 (ex-SPFE 457493) today. It was heavily graffitied, but it was still nice to see it.I saw a whole bunch of those on a UP train waiting to come over the Mississippi River bridge in East St. Louis Illinois. I guess they were going to the UP yard near Busch Stadium.Mike in TulsaBNSF Cherokee Sub
ericsp wrote: By the way, I saw ARMN 757493 (ex-SPFE 457493) today. It was heavily graffitied, but it was still nice to see it.
By the way, I saw ARMN 757493 (ex-SPFE 457493) today. It was heavily graffitied, but it was still nice to see it.
I saw a whole bunch of those on a UP train waiting to come over the Mississippi River bridge in East St. Louis Illinois. I guess they were going to the UP yard near Busch Stadium.
Mike in Tulsa
BNSF Cherokee Sub
ARMN reefers, SPFE reefers, or all kinds of reefers? If they were not ARMN, they may have been headed to DeSoto, MO for the ARMN conversion.
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
The 57' reefers I see today are mainly the former PFE classes R-70-16 (1966) through the R-70-25s (1971), and the former FGE cars. There are also perhaps 100 to 400, depending on how full the number series are, R-70-15s (1965) around. All of the cars from the R-70-15, R-70-16, and R-70-17 cars I have seen are former UPFE cars. There are some former SPFE R-70-18, R-70-19, R-70-20, R-70-22, and R-70-24 around. Former UPFE R-70-16, R-70-20, R-70-21, and R-70-23 seem to dominate the PC&F built cars.
Also, there are some former BAR cars from probably 1965 though about 1970 around. They are in the R-70-27 through R-70-30 series. There are also some former ARMN (MP) cars in the R-70-26 series (which are currently undergoing the ARMN upgrade/refurbishment). Of course the class stencil on ARMN cars are inaccurate many times.
UP is still running cars from 1965. Cars built prior to 1975 are restricted to 40 years of interchange service, so UP must be doing something to extend their life. It seems like I heard this is called a Rule 88 rebuild. I have also seen some R-70-15s that appeared to have been recently undergone the ARMN upgrade/refurbishment, so I guess UP is expecting to get a few more years of service out of them. Without the extension, the 57' reefers currently in service would have to be retired from 2005 to 2013. If the rebuild extends the life by ten years, they will have to be retired from 2015 to 2023 (assume all have had or will have this rebuild). Hopefully there will be PC&F reefers around in 2021.
The PFE class R-70-13 (450001-450250) were the first PFE cars of this length. They were built in 1963. The R-70-25s were the last PFE cars (57' or any length), they were built in 1971. All of these PFE cars were built by PCF. PCF also built reefers for other companies.
The UPFE reefers in the 461000s, 462000s, and 463000s are all rebuilt reefers and are old than the cars in the 460000s.
FGE's cars are about the same length, there were built from 1969-1973 if I remember correctly.
If you do a search, you will find a few reefer threads.
The only builder of 57' Mechanical Refrigerators built in the 1960's was Pacific Car & Foundry, as far as I know.
Signature Press or Four Ways West might have published a book on Pacific Car & Foundry.
Andrew
Watch my videos on-line at https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewNeilFalconer
PFE's earliest mechanical reefers of this size would have been numbered beginning with 450001, and the 1964 date you mentioned wouldn't have been too far off. The first examples for other companies (Santa Fe, WFE, Burlington Refrigerator Express, and possibly others) would have been built at about the same time. The very oldest cars had roof walks (to drag another thread's premise back into this). Eric may have some information to add when he reads this.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
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