Good afternoon...I was browsing through woo woo woo woo woo woo and noticed that Intermountain has produced a BN Wood Refrigerator car. woo woo woo - Intermountain N 67727-06 40' Wood Refrigerator Car, Burlington Northern #71965 Can someone tell me about what years these would have been run as BN and what locomotives would have pulled them? I know that BN was formed in 1970, but that seems really late to be having wood reefers. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Well, the car you have mentioned was still in service in 1974. Here is a link to it http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=4366 as you can see it is well weathered. What a great weathering project. That's all the info I can add I'm afraid. Cheers, Alan.
Techinally speaking, the car above was still owned by Western Fruit Express, which was, as you might expect, a subsidiary of the Burlington Northern. The "X" in the reporting marks, designating a private owner, is the tipoff. The WFE was owned by the Great Northern and was affiliated with the Fruit Growers Express in the sense that they shared some offices (in Washington, DC) and officers. Just like other freight cars following the merger, when it was time to repaint, the BN decoration was to be used. It sure was pretty unusual to have a wood sheathed car with the big BN herald, and perhaps keeping that prototype photo evidence around isn't a bad idea. There is a photo of WFBX 71923, also in BN paint as of February 1973 and much cleaner looking! in the book "Classic Freight Cars Volume 3", page 41. I don't recall the exact date, but eventually what was left of the WFE fleet was absorbed into the BN proper and the "X" was removed from the reporting marks, for example "WHIX" would have become just "WHI" (another photo in the Classic Freight Cars book shows this).
I doubt that anyone knows the actual number that were painted in the BN scheme but a few were. Some were also repainted in the GN Big Sky lettering that was introduced in 1967. By this point in time the older ice reefers (both wooden and steel) were basically only used for shipping apples/potatoes/onions and other farm crops that needed to be ventilated in the summer. Or protected from freezing temps when shipping lasted into the late fall. .
