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The fuel in them wasn't the problem. Most UPFEs and BNFEs were built from '64 to '74. No new mechanical reefers were built until 2002. Cyrogenic reefers starting being built in the early 90s; they were safe, nothing mechanical to break down, but the CO2 got to be very expensive. But on the mechanicals, the old Detroit Diesel motors in them would break down constantly. It is a hard life. On the reefers I would see carrying frozen meat or fish for a PA pet food plant, the temperatures were set to the max, -20 below zero. Some of the frozen fish cars were from as far away as Long Beach, Ca. Picture those cars rolling thru the desert, at 110 degrees outside, sometimes sitting in the sun... They were isulated well, but those things were running constant for the 2 plus weeks it would take to get to our shortline. Sometimes the engine compartments you could see had been flooded with oil from some recent failure blowout, other times, the smell of antifreeze. Just plain old. UP and BN did spend a lot of time fixing them, but like that first old car you may of had as a kid, eventually the repairs are just too much. UP's fully rebult ARMNs, are a step in the right direction. Besides the nice new paint that everyone notices, the more important thing is that motor. The DD's are gone, all replaced by the same motor the truckers use, Carriers. (Trucks also use others, but the reefers all have Carriers that I've seen so far). The brand new cars high cube reefers though, are the way to go for frozen food, especially boxed anything like frozen french fries, which we also got a few hundred of, late 90s till present. But plenty of cars with fuel in them shut down all the time, middle of nowhere. The new and/or rebuilt cars, with their satelitte tracking, tell the carrier that such and such a car, rolling thru MiddleofNoWhereVille, Midwest, is shut down. They now have a much better chance of saving that load. You also could not trust the temperature or fuel gauges, which many times could be way off. It has gotten so much better, very much so, in the last 5 years.
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