Recent Post-2000 Refrigerator Car Model Announcements

I've been interested in the post-2000 refrigerator car fleet for some years. I posted on BNSF and Union Pacific/ARMN cars here, and on CRYX cars here. Up to now, the only models of these have been Walthers kit and ready-to-run models of CO2-based cars from the 1990s that barely lasted into the 2000s, plus high-end models of Union Pacific/ARMN cars from BLMA, subsequently Atlas, and ExactRail, now ScaleTrains.

About a week ago, Walthers announced on its New Product Express YouTube channel that it would be running models in its mid-level Mainline range of what appear to be the same prototypes as the BLMA/Atlas and ExactRail/ScaleTrains cars.

The modern reefer announcement starts at about 14:10. Exactly which prototype these are is a little confusing. Walthers calls them 72-foot cars, but it isn't clear whether this is 72 feet inside length, which would be BNSF, TILX, and late UP cars, or 72 feet over sills, which would be 64 feet inside length, which would be the already-modeled UP/ARMN cars in the 110000 and higher number series. Illustrations off the Walthers site, as well as the YouTube announcement, indicate the cars will be lettered for BNSF, ARMN, CEFX, TILX, and CGFX, but the description on the video says they are "based on a reefer introduced in 2019 and now in service nationwide."

However, the BNSF and ARMN cars in the paint schemes shown in the video date from 2000-2002. CRYX has somewhat later cars, but from information I've seen on Facebook, CRYX will not license its artwork for use on models, so no CRYX cars will be in the Walthers run. I'm not sure what Walthers means when they say their prototype was introduced in 2019.

In any case, I'm left a little puzzled about just which prototypes are closest to the Walthers Mainline cars. Here are two illustrations from the Walthers site:

The UP/ARMN prototype is 64 feet inside length, while the BNSF prototype is 72 feet inside length. This means that one model should theoretically be longer than the other.

However, they are pretty clearly the same length in proportion in the photos. My guesstimate based on overall proportion is that the models are both based on the UP/ARMN cars. Although these have already been run from two makers commercially, the Walthers versions will be more in a mid-range price, and they'll have additional paint variations. So it looks like BNSF modelers will have a car lettered for BNSF, but it won't be as prototypical.

But ScaleTrains also announced a BNSF modern reefer this past April, which should arrive December 31. The photo below is from their site:

This means that BNSF modelers will have more accurate cars with this run, but so far, only the earlier paint scheme shown in the photo has been announced, but not BNSF 793810-794699, which were built by TrinityRail, Jun-Oct 2004, like the photo below:

These have different side sills and lack the frosty paint decoration at the roof. The ScaleTrains BNSF cars will be high-end models available with sound and lighted control panel, or without.