Cryo-Trans Refrigerator Cars

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This page was last updated on April 3, 2026.

Cryo-Trans Inc.

(Sources include a wide variety of internet searches, including the abandoned Cryo-Trans website, along with various issues of the Freight Car Journal.)

Cryo-Trans, Inc. is a major player in North American rail logistics, specifically known for operating the continent's largest private fleet of refrigerated and insulated rail cars. Headquartered in Owings Mills, Maryland, the company played a pivotal role in the transportation of frozen foods—most notably frozen french fries—since its founding in 1985. Since that time, Cryo-Trans had evolved into a major source for a 100-ton capacity refrigerated car with its patented CO2 railcar refrigeration technology.

During the early 1980s the availability of mechanical refrigerated rail cars owned and/or operated by the nation's railroads was becoming a critical issue that confronted the ever-expanding frozen food industry. Rising fuel prices, escalating truck equipment costs, and driver shortages increased the shippers' dependency on the truck transportation that had replaced the railroad systems as an effective mode of transportation.

The railroads have maintained a posture of declining interest towards the replacement of, or adding to their refrigerated car fleets. A couple of reasons are cited for this attitude on the part of the railroads. The first reason was the high cost to maintain the typical mechanical refrigerator rail car. A second reason is the high cost of new equipment replacement. As a result, the availability of mechanically refrigerated boxcars had declined more than fifty percent since late 1970s and the numbers continued to dwindle at a rate of three to five percent per year. As a result, finding an alternative to the mechanically refrigerated railcar became an industry top priority.

From Freight Car Journal #44, 1992, page 19.

Then there is that whistle-worthy development, AFFCAR's cryogenic reefer, the CO2 "snow"-on-ladings concept. Ten tons of such "snow" on a load of frozen food reached a temperature of -85 degrees F and resulted in the American Frozen Food Cyrogenic Association for Railcar Research (AFFCAR). A Canadian joined in and formed "Con Cool. " Interest within the railroad industry enabled some $260,000 to be raised for extensive, advance testing. An elaborate refrigeration car (AFFX 2001) was built, utilizing storage tanks of liquid CO2. This was injected on lading as needed, a few seconds at a time.

The Association then obtained two used 50-footers from affiliate BN and converted them into overhead bunker reefers, not unlike those Canadian 210100's. Thus, in October 1984, AFFCAR had three units, the one injector model AFFX 2001 and two bunker cars, AFFX 2002 & 2003. These reefers were tested carefully with various ladings during transcontinental moves, being monitored every few hours. The trials were an unqualified success, and principals planned for a fleet of 75 cryogenic bunker reefers. Will this, then, turn out to be the development of rail-related refrigeration for the 1990's?

The first Cryo-Trans rail cars were delivered in 1986, with several new groups added after that. The first cars were unique in that they used carbon dioxide (CO2) to maintain the cold temperatures. In 1998 Cryo-Trans abandoned the CO2 technology and maintained a fleet of mechanical refrigerator cars. Cryo-Trans was sold in 2021 to Lineage Logistics, a large multi-national logistics conglomerate, and later in 2021, Lineage began receiving more new mechanical refrigerators cars.

At its peak, Cryo-Trans operated a fleet of over 2,200 owned rail cars, and managed over 40,000 shipments annually.
Due to the rising cost and sourcing challenges of CO2, Cryo-Trans pivoted away from cryogenic technology. Starting in the late 1990s, they began converting their fleet to mechanical refrigeration and purchasing new, high-capacity mechanical reefers.
The primary cargo was frozen vegetables (especially french fries), poultry, and dairy.
Cryo-Trans was an innovator of rail car technology when it adopted two-way GPS for remote temperature control and "Cycle Sentry" fuel-saving modes for its mechanical fleet.
Rail transport via Cryo-Trans was estimated to reduce transport costs by 15–40 percent compared to trucking while lowering carbon emissions.
One of their first rail cars, the CRYX 1000 "Alexandria," is actually preserved at the B&O Railroad Museum, where it serves as an exhibit on the history of refrigerated transport.

Cryo-Trans Established

"In 1985, Mr. Marvin H. Weiner formed a sole proprietorship named "Cryo-Trans" for the purpose of developing a business involving the leasing of cryogenically refrigerated railcars. Cryo-Trans was incorporated to form Cryo-Trans, Inc. in 1987. Mr. Weiner is the chief executive officer and president of Cryo-Trans, Inc. Cryo-Trans' cryogenically refrigerated railcars are referred to as CRYX railcars. Mr. Weiner is also the president of Mt. Airy Cold Storage ("Mt. Airy"), a frozen food storage facility used by frozen food processors which is located in Mt. Airy, Maryland." (General American Transportation Corporation, Plaintiff vs. Cryo-Trans, Incorporated, Defendant; 893 F. Supp. 774; 1995)

From Marvin H. Weiner's obituary.

In the 1970s, after losing faith in the global meat trading industry, Marvin made the first of several critical decisions to transform the family business to focus more on large-scale storage and transport of a wide range of perishable refrigerated and frozen products. He created a company called Mount Airy Cold Storage and built large-volume cold warehouses in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Interacting with numerous companies that dealt with shipping frozen foods around the country, Marvin recognized that the future of this industry lay in shifting the movement of these products from trucks to railway cars. After concluding that there needed to be a better solution for cold transport by train, he boldly embarked upon a quest to develop a highly specialized rail business. Working with engineers and experimenting with different possible designs, Marvin and his team of industry experts invented a model for a cryogenically refrigerated railcar.

In the 1980s, Marvin created a company called Cryo-Trans, which developed a logistics system for operating these refrigerated railway cars. Marvin was particularly proud to give his customers the opportunity to personalize these cars with names of their own choosing. Many were named after a favorite city, lake, or river, but there was often light-heartedness in the naming such as the "Whoville" train, or the more thoughtful name "Parkland" with the Stoneman Douglas High School emblem painted on the door. Cryo-Trans grew from Marvin's dream into the nations' largest privately owned lessor of more than 2,200 mechanically refrigerated and insulated rail cars with more than 40,000 annual rail shipments.

(Marvin Howard Weiner died on September 6, 2022 at age 83. He was a resident of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the time)

(In February 1981, Marvin Weiner bought the abandoned, former B&O spur in Mount Airy from CSX, which had abandoned the spur in 1980.)

CO2 and Larger Cars

The company was established in 1985 to solve the problem of frequent mechanical failures in railroad-owned refrigerated cars. Its original innovation was a cryogenic cooling system that used liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) to maintain sub-zero temperatures.

How CO2 refrigeration works

The Cryo-Trans cars used cryogenic refrigeration (carbon dioxide; CO2) as a unique way to keep food frozen during transport. While standard refrigerated rail cars use mechanical engines and moving parts, the Cryo-Trans design used liquid carbon dioxide.

Liquid carbon dioxide is pumped into a bunker at the top of the rail car.

The liquid CO2 quickly turns into a mixture of gas and "snow" (dry ice).

As the snow turns back into gas, it flows through channels in the walls of the rail car, wrapping the food in a "cold envelope" without the need for fans or engines.

Because there are no moving parts, these cryogenic cars are much cheaper to maintain and operate than traditional mechanical versions.

The particular technology used by Cryo-Trans was originally invented by Ralph P. Hill for the company Lamb-Weston before being acquired by Cryo-Trans. A legal conflict in 1995 began when General American Transportation Corp. (GATC; GATX) built a competing cryogenic rail car called the "Arcticar" and asked a court to rule that the Cryo-Trans patent (US4704876; 1987) was invalid.

By the time the case went to court, GATC had already leased 80 of these competing cars to food processors. However, the court ruled in favor of Cryo-Trans, finding that GATC had essentially created a "carbon copy" of the Cryo-Trans proprietary design.

Cryo-Trans introduced the 72-foot "super insulated" refrigerated boxcar, which offered significantly higher cubic capacity (up to 7,780 cubic feet) compared to standard 50-foot or 60-foot cars. These larger cars allowed shippers to move more product per railcar, reducing overall transportation costs.

In early 1986, Cryo-Trans introduced to the industry a refurbished cryogenic insulated and refrigerated Plate "C" railcar, successfully transporting frozen product from the Pacific Northwest to the East Coast. From the single prototype test car in early 1986, Cryo-Trans quickly grew its fleet to more than 200 Plate "C" cryogenically-cooled rail cars. The Plate "C" cryogenic car contained a capacity of 4,825 cubic feet in contrast to the typical mechanical refrigerated Plate "C" railcar with an average of 4,200 cubic feet.

Shortly after the introduction of its Plate "C" fleet, together with engineers of the Greenbrier Companies' Gunderson railcar manufacturing unit, Cryo-Trans designed a new Plate "F" 68 foot interior length high cube car with a 6,902 cubic foot interior capacity. Compared to the 4,825 cubic foot interior of the Plate "C" refurbished railcar, the new Plate "F" car effectively increases cubic capacity by 50 percent and nearly 70 percent over the 4,200 cubic foot mechanically refrigerated railcar. With a 6,902 cubic foot interior capacity and an allowable gross vehicle weight capacity of 263,000 pounds, Cryo-Trans' Plate "F" rail cars provide up to 70 percent more cargo space and a weight carrying capacity of up to 40 percent more than the 50 foot conventional mechanically refrigerated railcar.

For Cryo-Trans Plate "F" equipment manufactured after 1995 with the AAR's new Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) standards, the allowable GVW is increased from 263,000 pounds to 286,000 pounds. The upgraded GVW standard on newly built Plate "F" rail cars translates into an increase in weight carrying capacity of up to 60 percent more than the 50 foot conventional mechanical car. At the time Cryo-Trans operated a fleet of more then 515 cryogenic rail cars.

Cryo-Trans, Inc. built its first patented cryogenic railcar in 1986 which revolutionized the frozen food rail transportation industry. In the next ten years the company built and leased 500 cryogenic cars.

Cryo-Trans, Inc. introduced its patented cryogenic railcar by converting two hundred 60-foot Plate "C" rail cars that revolutionized the transportation of frozen French Fries. (Cryo-Trans took its name from its innovation of cryogenic transportation.)

Cryo-Trans designed a new "prototype" interior length 64-foot Plate "F" cryogenic railcar (the "CRYX 1200"). This raised the interior inside height 2 feet and the interior length 4 feet allowing for two additional layers of product throughout the car and four more pallet spaces, significantly lowering the cost per pound for refrigerated rail transportation.

Operations and Ownership

In January 2021, Cryo-Trans was acquired by Lineage Logistics (now Lineage, Inc.) for a reported value of over $500 million. This move integrated North America’s largest private rail fleet with Lineage's global network of temperature-controlled warehouses.

Beyond owning cars, Cryo-Trans was a major service provider. They managed third-party fleets (such as for McCain Foods) using proprietary GPS and satellite-based tracking systems. This allowed for real-time monitoring of box temperatures and car locations.

Reporting Marks: Cryo-Trans = CRYX; Lineage = LINX.

Corporate Headquarters Locations

Cryo-Trans, Inc., has been a fixture in the Owings Mills, Maryland (Owings Mills and Reisterstown) area for decades.

Cryo-Trans was founded in 1985 by a Maryland-based frozen food distributor who was frustrated by the spoilage rates in standard railroad-owned reefers. The company's growth in Owings Mills mirrors the rise of their "Cryogenic" car technology, which used liquid CO2 before they shifted to mechanical refrigeration around 2000.

In several historical filings, Cryo-Trans is often associated with the MHW Group, which was the parent logistics firm based at the same Redland Court address in Owings Mills. The MHW Group was founded by Marvin H. Weiner (1939-2002) in

While often associated with Owings Mills in general trade press, their specific offices have transitioned between several nearby addresses. Only the Mount Airy location was adjacent to a rail spur. Owings Mills is about 17 miles northwest of Baltimore, and Reistertown is about six miles northwest of Owings Mills. Mount Airy is about 37 miles northwest of Baltimore, and is on the former Western Maryland mainline.

Redland Court (Long-time Headquarters): For many years, the company was located at 500 Redland Court, Suite 305, Owings Mills, Maryland. This office building is situated in the Redland Corporate Center, just off Owings Mills Boulevard and near the I-795 corridor.
Red Run Boulevard: More recent records (and following their 2021 acquisition by Lineage Logistics) often list them at 11620 Red Run Boulevard, Reisterstown, Maryland. This location is just a few miles north of their original Owings Mills site.
Mount Airy (Early 1990s): According to federal court records from the 1995 patent infringement trial (General American Transportation Corp. v. Cryo-Trans, Inc.), the company's principal place of business was originally listed in Mount Airy, Maryland, before the move to the Owings Mills/Reisterstown area.

Cryo-Trans Timeline

July 1962
[photo caption] "First refrigerator car designed for cryogenic cooling, built by North American Car for Rath Packing, has Air Reduction Sales' maintenance-free liquid nitrogen unit with no moving parts." (Trains magazine, July 1962, page 11)

1985
"Cryo-Trans, Inc. introduced its patented cryogenic railcar by converting two hundred 60' Plate "C" rail cars that revolutionized the transportation of frozen French Fries. Hence the origin of our name Cryo-Trans!" (Cryo-Trans website)

The original Cryo-Trans cars are rebuilt Pullman-built cars bought from the Santa Fe. They have 200 of them. The first Cryo-Trans car (CRYX 1000 "Alexandria") was rebuilt from a FGE mechanical reefer.)

1987
Cryo-Trans designed a new "prototype" interior length 64' Plate "F" cryogenic railcar (the "CRYX 1200"). This raised the interior inside height 2' and the interior length 4' allowing for two additional layers of product throughout the car and four more pallet spaces, significantly lowering the cost per pound for rail transportation.

1987
"Cryo-Trans acquired a number of former ATSF Bx-132 RBL reefers that were rebuilt by CEECO (Washington) into carbon dioxide cooled refrigerator cars." (Freight Car Journal, #24, 1987, page 4)

November 1987
Dan Olah describing an undated visit to CEECO -- "The paint shop includes a sandblasting room and a 175-foot-long paint room. In the latter stood a plug-door 60-foot refrigerator car in gleaming white paint. Painters were applying an orange stripe along the bottom of the carbody, and other workers were taping stencils to the sides for spray-lettering The car, CRYX 1000 was getting more than paint, a cryogenic cooling system was being installed. Carbon dioxide, rather than a diesel-powered refrigerating unit, was to be employed to keep the contents cold." (Trains magazine, November 1987, page 44)

1988
"Cryo-Trans received a new-built refrigerator car in October 1987. The car, built by Gunderson in August 1987 is the first refrigerator car to be built since 1982. It is also the first new built (not converted) CO-2 cooled car and has a new AAR designation. "RC". CRYX 1200 is a 173 RC, 89,800 pounds lightweight, 63-8" IL. 6446-cuft , Plate F car with a 12' plug door. The car is named 'Colorado Springs.'" (Freight Car Journal, #26, 1988, page 4)

1989
Cryo-Trans is receiving another batch of fifty-two cars converted by CEECO to AAR "RC" cryogenic refrigerators. The newer cars have a new slogan on the right side of the car, 'Protecting Today's Perishables For Tomorrow'." (Freight Car Journal, #30, 1989, page 7)

1990
223 new Plate "F" cryogenic cars were built with an increased interior length of 68' allowing for another additional four pallets. The last cars were delivered in 1997.

1991
"Cryo-Trans has added another 100 cryogenic refrigerator cars to its fleet numbered CRYX 1223-1322. These have no geographic name on the door and instead of having the "Protecting Todays Perishables For Tomorrow" lettering on the right half of the side there is a "Carnation" trademark lettering." -- C. W. Shaver. (Freight Car Journal, #40, 1991, page 4)

April-May 1991
CRYX 1273-1342 (70 cars) built by Gunderson in April and May 1991, capacity 6902 cubic feet (Freight Car Journal, #42, 1992, page 14)

July 20, 1995
"GATX unit to appeal ruling - General American Transportation Corp. was found guilty in federal court of patent infringement and ordered to pay a $9.7 million fine. The company, a unit of Chicago-based GATX Corp., which leases rail tank and freight cars, was found guilty of infringing a patent belonging to Cryo-Trans Inc. covering a carbon-dioxide-based cooling system for railroad cars. The company said it would appeal." (Chicago Tribune, July 20, 1995)

September 7, 1995
From The Oregonian, September 7, 1995.

Cryo-Trans Wins Suit Involving Rail Car Patent. -- Cryo-Trans Inc. has won a $9 million judgment against General American Transportation Corp. of Illinois for infringing on a Cryo-Trans patent on a cryogenically cooled rail car.

Privately held Cryo-Trans is based in Mount Airy, Md., and has an office in Lake Oswego.

Marvin Weiner, Cryo-Trans' president and chief executive officer, said Ralph P. Hill of Portland developed the design, and Cryo-Trans acquired the patent from his employer, Lamb-Weston.

Cryo-Trans said the company's rail cars are cooled by carbon dioxide and use no moving parts, while other rail cars commonly used to ship frozen foods use a mechanical refrigerator.

Cryo-Trans leases 331 rail cars to frozen-food businesses across the United States. After building a competing car, General American asked a federal court to declare Cryo-Trans' patent invalid. Portland attorney James P. Donohue represented Cryo-Trans in the case.

While the case was pending, General American leased 80 rail cars to Northwest food processors. The court held that Cryo-Trans' patent was valid and found General American liable for copying Cryo-Trans' proprietary design. Weiner declined to disclose any information about his company's finances but said the settlement was significant.

(Read more about the GATX vs. Cryo-Trans law suit at Justia Law; includes interesting notes about the history of Cryo-Trans and the history of the cryogenic refrigerator car)

1998
Due to a substantial CO2 price increase, Cryo-Trans made a decision to convert each of the 223 rail cars to mechanical refrigeration. The car length was shortened to accommodate the mechanical refrigeration system. The program continued through 2000.

December 13, 2002
From The Oregonian, December 13, 2002.

Gunderson, a division of Lake Oswego-based Greenbriar Cos., intends to add 360 new employees in coming months to deal with new orders and surging demand for railroad cars. The maker of rail cars and marine barges announced Thursday that it's been hired to build 100 new refrigerated boxcars and modify 106 existing cars into refrigerated units.

The customer, Cryo-Trans of Owing Mills, Md., will pay Gunderson nearly $20 million for the cars and expects delivery within 10 months, said Gunderson spokesman Mark Rittenbaum.

To help meet that deadline, Gunderson intends to hire 100 workers at its Northwest Portland plant and 30 at each of its facilities in Springfield and Finley, Wash., near the Tri-Cities. That's in addition to 200 vacant positions that the company announced two weeks ago it would begin filling.

December 19, 2002
From Tri-City Herald, December 19, 2002.

Gunderson Northwest has contract to refit 100 cars with refrigerator systems. -- Gunderson Northwest will add 30 jobs to its Finley rail car repair facility in the next two months as part of a contract to refit 100 boxcars with diesel-fueled refrigerator systems. The new hires will join the 69 people now working at the facility. About 20 of the jobs should be permanent, and the remainder will be ended after the contract ends in August.

Gunderson Northwest is owned by Gunderson Rail Services, a division of The Greenbrier Companies Inc. Lake Oswego, Ore.-based Greenbrier is a rail car and barge manufacturer and leasing company with operations in North America and Europe.

The new hiring comes as part of a $20 million deal between Greenbrier and refrigerated boxcar leasing company Cryo-Trans Inc. to build and modify more than 200 rail cars with nose mount refrigeration units and global positioning systems.

The 40-acre facility is part of the Port of Kennewick's Twin Tracks site in Finley, so named for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific tracks in the area.

2003
Cryo-Trans, with innovative engineering, expanded the interior length of its Plate "F" mechanical refrigerated railcar to 72', thereby increasing the number of pallets to further lower the delivered per hundred weight cost.

May 2005
The MHW Group, based in Owings Mills, Maryland, established Cryo-Trans Logistics to link the over-the-road trucking network with supply chain services provided by the MHW Group. These include two public refrigerated warehouses, Mount Airy Cold Storage in Mount Airy, Maryland, and Chambersburg Cold Storage in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; two privately operated refrigerated facilities in Darien, Wisconsin, and Waseca, Minnesota, and Cryo-Trans Inc., a privately owned lessor of mechanically refrigerated rail cars. (FleetOwner, May 1, 2005)

November 2005
From a Greenbrier press release dated January 19, 2006.

Cryo-Trans, Inc. a major leasing company specializing in the development and leasing of railroad freight cars for transporting frozen and perishable products, announced it placed an order in November 2005 for 429 new refrigerated boxcars. These state-of-the-art rail cars ordered from The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. have an interior length of 72' and have the highest cubic capacity in the industry, at 7,765 cu. ft. The cars will be delivered later this year.

Cryo-Trans officials attribute Greenbrier's expertise in building these highly specialized cars and its reputation for innovative, quality products as reasons for placing the recent order with Greenbrier. Greenbrier has built or modified over 1,000 rail cars for the frozen foods market since the mid-1980s.

Shells for the 429 new rail cars will be provided by Greenbrier's railcar facility in Sahagun, Mexico. The rail cars will be outfitted at Greenbrier's Gunderson Rail Services locations in Springfield, Oregon, and Finley, Washington. The outfitting includes the installation of insulation, refrigeration units, satellite sensors, the application of side plug doors and painting of cars. Installation of the newest and most advanced two-way satellite Global Positioning Systems (GPS) on the rail cars will allow Cryo-Trans to operate and manage its high-tech temperature controlled rail cars remotely via the internet.

The Greenbrier Companies, headquartered in Lake Oswego, Oregon, is a leading supplier of transportation equipment and services to the railroad industry. In addition to building new railroad freight cars in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico and to repairing and refurbishing freight cars and wheels at 17 locations across North America, Greenbrier builds new railroad freight cars and refurbishes freight cars for the European market through both its operations in Poland and various subcontractor facilities throughout Europe. Greenbrier owns approximately 11,000 rail cars, and performs management services for approximately 131,000 rail cars.

Cryo-Trans is part of the MHW Group family of companies, an asset based supply chain solutions company, headquartered in Owings Mills, Maryland. MHW Group operates two public refrigerated warehouses: Mount Airy Cold Storage in Mount Airy, Maryland, and Chambersburg Cold Storage in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and a third public refrigerated warehouse, Perryville Cold Storage in Perryville, Maryland (scheduled for completion in December 2006), two privately operated refrigerated facilities in Darien, Wisconsin and Waseca, Minnesota, Cryo-Trans Logistics (a full service truck brokerage company), and Cryo-Trans, Inc. the nation's largest privately owned lessor of mechanically refrigerated rail cars with a fleet which, by the end of 2006, will be in excess of 875 state-of-the-art GPS-controlled, mechanically refrigerated rail cars and super-insulated box cars.

November 2005
Miles Fiberglass & Manufacturing company, North Clackamas County, Oregon, with a second facility in Oregon City, Oregon. In November 2005, the Miles company received an order from Cryo-Trans, Inc., for 429 rail car liners. (The Oregonian, September 15, 2006)

April 2006
Cryo-Trans Inc., a reefer leasing firm, ordered 429 cars from The Greenbrier Cos. Inc., with delivery expected in late 2006. Shells for the cars, which will have a 72-foot interior length and capacity of 7,765 cubic feet, will be assembled at Greenbrier's Sahagun, Mexico, shop and finished at plants in Springfield, Ore., and Finley, Wash. Car features include a temperature-management system controlled through the Internet." (Trains magazine, April 2006, page 15)

October 2006
During the previous month of October 2006, one customer of Cryo-Trans, Martin-Brower of Manassas, Virginia, received two Cryo-Trans car per day, containing McDonald's frozen French fries and hash browns. the shipments had begun in October 2004, and during that time, shipping by rail had removed 1,800 tucks from Virginia's congested highways. Prior to beginning rail shipments, and since it opened its distribution center in 1979, the Martin-Brower company had been received frozen potato products by truck. (Manassas Journal Messenger, November 1, 2006)

2007
Mount Airy Cold Storage was a refrigerated warehouse and distribution center along the old B&O rail line through Mount Airy. In 2007, the owners (MHW Group based in Owings Mills, Maryland) closed the operation and began demolishing the building. Mount Airy Cold Storage was the initial East Coast terminal for Cryo-Trans shipments.

(Since 1987, Mount Airy Cold Storage, with offices in Owings Mills, had also been located in Reisterstown, Maryland,

August 2007
MHW Group opened a CSX Transportation-served public cold storage facility in Perryville, Maryland, about 39 miles northeast of Baltimore. Located near Interstate 95, the facility was designed to accommodate high-volume rail and truck traffic, and provide rail-to-truck cross-dock services to customers without direct rail access. The facility featured 33 truck dock doors, eight rail doors, a rail-car storage track with capacity for 50 cars, a 60-foot refrigerated dock and trailer staging area. At the time, MHW Group operated refrigerated cold storage facilities, refrigerated rail-car leasing company Cryo-Trans Inc. and trucking provider Cryo-Trans Logistics. (Progressive Railroading, August 29, 2007)

(The Perryville facility, located at 300 Belvidere Road, was vacated and sold in 2019 to Americold, along with a second MWH Group facility in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, for a reported $54 million. The Chambersburg facility, also rail-served, had been built in 1994.)

2013
Cryo-Trans introduced a new 68' interior Plate "F" Insulated railcar.

2017
The CRYX 1200, featuring an interactive display of the history of refrigerated rail cars, is placed on permanent display at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.

2018
The Cryo-Trans mechanical refrigerated rail car fleet had grown to 1,436 rail cars. The Cryo-Trans insulated box car fleet had grown to 842 rail cars, bringing the total to 2,278 rail cars.

Sold To Lineage (2021)

January 2021
Lineage Logistics LLC acquired Cryo-Trans, North America's largest provider of temperature-controlled rail cars, further expands the company's transportation solution with the addition of rail. In January, Lineage announced plans to acquire Cryo-Trans, which is best known for owning and operating North America’s largest private fleet of refrigerated and insulated rail cars, more than 2,200 of them. The reported purchase price was $500 million.

Lineage Logistics LLC is a large multi-national corporation with a presence in Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Spain, England, Wales, Canada, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and a large presence all across the United States.

Lineage Logistics LLC represents the largest network of temperature-controlled warehouses globally, with more than 330 strategically located facilities offering nearly 2 billion cubic feet of capacity and spanning 15 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and South America. Lineage also offers transportation solutions, including less-than-truckload (LTL) consolidation, port logistics, customs brokerage, import-export, drayage and last-mile delivery.

September 2021
Lineage began receiving new LINX cars built in Mexico, beginning in Fall 2021. The order includes 61 new reefers, and next will 150 60-foot insulated cars.

Lineage is painting the former Cryo-Trans cars, and applying a new LINX reporting mark, replacing the previous CRYX mark. The new all-white paint scheme includes the Lineage logo and a green horizontal stripe along the roof line. Lineage has retained the car names, unique to the Cryo-Trans fleet.

In 2021, Lineage Logistics acquired Cryo-Trans and placed more orders for the Greenbrier 72 IL 7780 Reefers, which have 7,780 cubic feet capacity and a 72'-3" inside length. The new deliveries came with different features and slightly changed exterior details, including a more prominent notch for the end step on the B-end. The platform and cage around the refrigerator unit changed, and the truck centers are slightly closer. Lineage Logistics continued the tradition of applying a colorful paint scheme and individual car naming.

August 2025
"Cryo-Trans is owned by Lineage now. UP isn't shutting down Cryo-Trans. My guess is to why UP now has ownership/reporting marks on some Cryo-Trans reefers is that these were the one's that Railex had when it was operating (so now officially owned by UP when UP bought out Railex). The big white painted over blank space on the ARMN reefer is where the former Railex logo was located." (anonymous on internet)

August 24, 2025
"Going To Scrap -- CRYX 3035, 3187, 3194, 3220. Many of the original Cryo-Trans reefers originally built in the early 1990's as cryogenic reefers then rebuilt in the 2000's as mechanical reefers are being sent off to be scrapped. Years of water collecting in the space under the floor used as cooling space has rotted out the sub flooring. Not only has the age of the cars caught up with them, so has the limited space compared to other modern reefers. When rebuilt as mechanical reefers, the end wall was moved inward several feet to make room on the frame for the fuel tanks and reefer unit. So when originally built by Gunderson as Cryo-reefers they had 6902cuft, but that was reduced to 6495cuft when rebuilt as a mechanical reefers. That doesn't compare well to the 7780cuft purpose built mechanical reefers Cryo-Trans started to receive late in 2002. Lineage (owner of Cryo-Trans) have been removing the reefer units, fuel tanks and platforms from the cars, before shipping them off. But not all of the 3000 series cars are being scrapped, only the ones in the worst shape." (Ted Curphey, Trainorders.com)

Rail-Served Cold Storage Today

A comprehensive report in September 2024 of the Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) that had entered the cold storage business sector, found that cold storage was an essential business, with high barriers to entry and strong growth potential.

The report focused on the two main public players (Lineage and Americold), with the following brief points.

Lineage Logistics: The report highlighted Lineage as a dominant force and a primary driver in the sector:
The report noted Lineage's 2024 IPO as the largest of the year and the largest REIT IPO in history, raising approximately $5 billion.
In 2024 Lineage held a 30 percent market share in North America, making it the largest operator.

The report found that Lineage was more focused on "last mile" facilities (close to population centers) compared to its competitors. Because of this strategically located real estate, Lineage had a higher value than its competitor, Americold.

Lineage had been successful at the consolidation of a fragmented market, having acquired several of the top 10 companies that existed in 2019.
While MHW Group and Cryo-Trans were not mentioned by name in the report, they were intrinsically linked to results based on their acquisition as part of the overall consolidation by Lineage.
Lineage Logistics acquired MHW Group (and its subsidiary Cryo-Trans, the largest owner of refrigerated rail cars in North America) in early 2021.

The report emphasized the importance of transportation and rail links in the cold chain. It specifically mentioned a strategic partnership between Americold and CPKC Rail to move frozen products between Mexico and the US, with CPKC Rail being Canadian Pacific Kansas City Rail, a Class I railroad formed on April 14, 2023, by the merger of two historic companies: Canadian Pacific (CP) and Kansas City Southern (KCS).

Lineage's ownership of Cryo-Trans was found to be the real-world result of the overall consolidation taking place in the cold storage industry. By owning the rail assets (Cryo-Trans) formerly under MHW Group, Lineage fulfills the report's description of a "sophisticated operator" providing transportation and associated services to create a seamless, end-to-end cold chain.

(Link to the report)

Cryo-Trans Car Names

Cryo-Trans applied names to the doors of their cars. "CryoTrans allowed customer employees to name the cars. Some were named after favorite vacation areas. The names had no relation to service origins or destinations. It was a goodwill measure." (anonymous on internet)

"The cars are named for people, places and even roads. Lineage continues the naming practice, although it gets a little complicated if the door needs to be replaced. I know of one car that had the door replaced and the name spray painted on in black. The original cars had more localized names of towns, yards even junctions the cars regularly traveled through. New cars have more far flung names from around the world." (Ted Curphey, Trainorders.com)

"Over the years I became friends with the former fleet manager for Cryotrans. She is now retired but upon my request will send me updated lists of the roster/names etc. The names are chosen by employees and customers and before she retired, she let me name three: 5288 Castroville, 5289 Prunedale and 5290 Point Lobos. Unfortunately for me they are on lease to a company in the PNW and have never made it down to the coast. I keep a database of those I see and have seen all over the country but they are few and far between here in the Salinas valley since 99% of everything goes out by truck now." (Carol Voss, Trainorders.com)

"The CO2 Cryo-Trans cars were developed by Marvin Weiner, who operated Mount Airy Cold Storage between Baltimore and Frederick, Maryland on Old Main Line Subdivision of the B&O/Chessie/CSX. In the early 1990s, Mount Airy was one of my accounts while working in the CSX Baltimore sales office and they were handling all of the Simplot french fries for McDonald's from Philadelphia to Richmond. I enjoyed working with Marvin, he liked to name his cars and allowed me the honor. As I recently left train service, I selected Gladstone, my away-from-home terminal. CRYX 1197 has probably been turned into razor blades by now, the cold storage facility closed in 2007 and I see he now runs the MHW Group (car management & leasing)." (anonymous on internet)

Cryo-Trans (CRYX) Fleet Roster

Roster listing of Cryo-Trans refrigerated rail car series.

(Cryo-Trans Roster, includes links to other CRYX and LINX rosters)

Photos

Fallen Flags.com -- Cryo-Trans (CRYX) photos at George Elwood's Fallen Flags website. Includes car names.

RailCarPhotos.com -- Search on CRYX and LINX reporting marks.

RRPictureArchives.net CRYX Photos -- A listing and links to Cryo-Trans (CRYX) car photos. Includes car names. (Possible delayed loading due to security issues.)

RRPictireArchives.com LINX Photos -- A listing and links to Lineage Logistics (LINX) car photos. Includes car names. (Possible delayed loading due to security issues.)

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