Post-2000 Refrigerator Cars -- The BNSF And ARMN Cars

As I noted in my last post and in the comments, there's not much information on the post-2000 US refrigerator car fleet. Some poking around the web has brought out some worthwhile information. If anyone can point me to more complete information on such cars, or expand on what I can publish here, I'll greatly appreciate it. Formerly, publications like RailModel Journal and Mainline Modeler kept the community fairly current, but clear and well-organized information like what those magazines used to provide doesn't seem to be available any longer.

This article discusses the BNSF fleet, an order placed with Trinity in late 2000 for 700 cars. This was the first large order of reefer cars built in the past 35 years.

The new cars are about as big as a boxcar can possibly be, Wood says. They are 82 ft 2 in long between the coupler faces and 76 ft 9 in between the end sills. They are as wide as physically possible and 16 ft 11⅞ in exterior height. Inside, the cars are 72 ft 3 in long, 9 ft 2 in wide, and 12½ in high. The plug doors — what would be called a sliding pop-out door by a truck body builder — are 12 ft wide and 11 ft 3½ in high. Estimated tare weight is 105,000 pounds, which provides a payload of 181,000 lb based on a gross rail load of 286,000 lb.

BNSF series 793000-793809 was built by Trinity, Feb-01 to Sep-02. Here is a car from this order, BNSF 793683:

Notice that the paint scheme includes frosty decorative trim along the roofline. BNSF 793810-794699 were built by TrinityRail, Jun-Oct 2004.

The details of the higher-numbered cars appear to be similar, but they lack the frosty paint decoration on the roofline. Both series carry the early BNSF logo.

Union Pacific also started a project to upgrade its older mechanical reefers and acquire new cars in 2000-2001. It upgraded former Pacific Fruit Express cars, acquired other used cars from Fruit Growers Express, and ordered new cars from Trinity. UP changed the reporting mark for its refrigerator car fleet to ARMN, which was a former Missouri Pacific-American Refrigerator Transit reporting mark. It changed the color to white, which had been used late in SPFE, but had been yellow under UPFE and FGE.

The ARMN 760000 series was used for rebuilt former UPFE cars, which carry the same final five digits as their last UPFE number--some of which were previously SPFE cars. that had gone into the UP in 1996. These had their previous mechanical refrigeration units replaced with Carrier trailer-style units that are the same as those used on refrigerated trailers. Here is a view of the replacement Carrier unit mounted in the space of the former PFE mechanical equipment:

Here is an overall view of these cars:

Although Athearn has a well-known bluebox model dating from the 1970s of the original PFE style cars, it has not done a model of the upgraded PFE cars. However, it has done a Genesis model of others in the 900000 series, discussed below. However, it's possible to use an undecorated Athearn PFE style bluebox model, remove the end roof panel, add a new styrene interior end, and install a Carrier #4555 unit from BLMA. This can then be painted and lettered with MicroScale set 87-1354. BLMA made both a #4554 Thermo-King and #4555 Carrier unit in HO that could be used to model modern reefer cars, but it appears that these are no longer available since the Atlas takeover of BLMA.

The ARMN 900000 series cars is made up of former FGE, WC, and BNSF cars branded "Chilled Express".

Only cars in this series have the Chilled Express brand applied. Because they came from several different sources, they vary in detail and general appearance.

Note that 933907 has a different sill shape from 912139. Also note that a box of some sort appears on the roof of 933907, which seems common to all or most cars in the 900000 series. These cars also have Carrier refrigeration units replacing the originals in a compartment with the roof panel removed:

Athearn has done models of a version of these cars in N and HO that appears to be accurate, but again, the 900000 series cars have detail differences. I believe it may be possible to track down budget models of FGE mechanical reefers from one of the Chinese or Yugoslav makers that might also be used to convert into an ARMN car, but I'm not familiar with these.

In 2002, the same period when BNSF was upgrading its refrigerator car fleet, Union Pacific ordered new cars from Trinity in the ARMN 110000 series. ARMN 110000-110499 were built by Trinity, Sep-03 to May-04. ARMN 110500-110999 built by TrinityRail, Nov-04 to May-05. ARMN series 111000-111499 built by TrinityRail, Jun-Dec 2005. These are described as nominal 64-foot cars, which I think refers to interior length. These are shorter than the BNSF nominal 72-foot cars. Reviews in the model press describe "phases" of these cars, referring mainly to whether grab irons or ladders are used on the B end sides.

Here's a photo of a car in the 110000 series:

Models of these cars have been made by BLMA and ExactRail. Here is an MR review of the BLMA car, and here is an MR review of the ExactRail car. However, it's important to note that the ARMN cars on which these models are based are nominal 64 foot length, while the BNSF and other similar cars are nominal 72 foot length. Thus simple repaints of ARMN style cars will just be stand-ins.

However, UP moved after these cars to new ones of the now-standard 72-foot length. ARMN series 170000-170224 was built by Greenbrier in January 2013. So far, I've been able to photograph just one of these cars:

Although the length is now the same as BNSF cars, detail differences would make a BNSF car repainted for ARMN just a stand-in, and vice versa. However, as far as I'm aware, there are no commercial models of post-2000 nominal 72-foot cars.

I'll discuss other post-2000 cars, definitely TILX and CRYX, in a subsequent post.