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High-Cube Plate F Refrigerator Cars

This page was last updated on April 14, 2026.

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Other High-Cube Plate F Refrigerator Car Operators

BNSF

BNSF 793000-794699 (1700 cars), built in 2001 and 2004 by Trinity, are R660 RP mechanical refrigerator cars with 7883 cu. ft. and 72'-2" IL, and are very similar (if not identical) to the Greenbrier-Gunderson cars built for CRYX and LINX.

May 2001
The following is summarized from Refrigerated Transporter, May 1, 2001.

BNSF announced the purchase of its first refrigerators cars in 35 years, since 1966. An order placed in late 2000 for 700 new refrigerated "boxcars." By being the first railroad to place these new cars in service, BNSF was illustrating its commitment to capturing additional perishables traffic. At the time, the total refrigerated boxcar fleet in the U.S. was 8,000 cars. BNSF controlled 25 percent of that capacity with a fleet of 2,000 cars. When the new car order was completed in June 2002, the railroad's share was even larger, because the new cars were almost twice the size of cars in the existing fleet.

Describing its existing fleet:

• BNSF used its existing fleet of refrigerated boxcars for only eight loads a year. In terms that highway or intermodal carriers use, this is only four turns a year. The cycle time from the start of one load until the next load was 44 days. Transit time for a typical load is only eight to 10 days.
• The rest of the time between loads is administrative. The car must be cleaned and inspected before every use. If the consignee did not clean the car properly at unloading, it must be sent to a wash facility, which can take several days. BNSF had three washing locations, and they are spread as far apart as Alabama and the Dakotas. Not only was washing time-consuming, it was expensive. The average cost of washing a refrigerated boxcar was $650, and that's just for the inside. The railroad does not wash the exterior.
• Inspection and repair also consumed several days. Empty cars were sent to one of several inspection facilities operated by Western Fruit Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of BNSF. During the inspection, the car was checked thoroughly to ensure that brakes, suspension, and box integrity met BNSF standards. The refrigeration unit was inspected as well. If any repairs were indicated by the inspection, this added time to the period between loads.
• Cars were inspected every 1,000 miles while under load. This was a much more cursory inspection, essentially a walk-around to ensure that the doors were closed properly, that the unit had sufficient fuel, and that the couplers and brakes appeared to be in good working order.
• On the BNSF, approximately 33 percent of the traffic was meat, fish, or poultry — either frozen fish moving from the coasts to the interior of the country, or frozen meat and poultry from the producing areas to coastal ports for export. Another 40 percent was frozen vegetables, particularly frozen potatoes. Fresh produce comprised about 20 percent of traffic, and goods categorized as dairy and other made up the remaining 7 percent. This last category consisted mostly of butter and cheese.

BNSF projected a car-life of about 40 years, so any mistake made in that planning would last a long time. The refrigeration units, which would run 1,000 to 1,200 running hours annually, would be replaced on a shorter cycle, after eight to 10 years.

The new cars were a joint development project that includes BNSF and its shippers, the car builder Trinity Industries and a number of its suppliers, and Carrier Transicold. Trinity Industries knew that conventional steel boxcars were not the best solution for holding perishables at precise temperature. However, using only composites for car construction was not seen as a workable solution either. The result was a steel car with composite components, particularly the roof.

Trinity Industries has 78 facilities and 12 million sq ft of manufacturing space in 22 states plus operations in Mexico and Brazil. Operating from its headquarters in Dallas, Texas, Trinity was a major supplier to transportation, construction, and industrial concerns. The company specialized in construction of freight and bulk rail tank cars.

Trinity used conventional steel for the basic car structure. The composite roof was developed by Molded Fiber Glass Company in Ashtabula, Ohio. This removed weight from the car while improving its thermal efficiency. Special adhesives and fasteners were used to join the roof to the body of the car in a way that accommodated the different thermal expansion characteristics of steel and plastics. Additional composite material was used for the interior lining. U S Liner in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, developed a textured interior liner panel that enhanced air circulation without using the standing rib design of earlier car liners that are subject to so much damage during loading and unloading.

The new cars were about as big as a boxcar can possibly be. They were 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 11 in exterior height. Inside, the cars are 72 ft 3 in long, 9 ft 2 in wide. The plug doors were 12 ft wide and 11 ft 3-1/2 in high. Estimated empty weight was 105,000 pounds, which provided a payload of 181,000 pounds based on a gross rail load of 286,000 pounds.

The 9 ft 2 in interior width was a special request from shippers of frozen French fries. That width gave them the capability to place two pallets in the car side-by-side and then hand stack more cartons alongside the pallets. French fries are cube critical in rail cars. Refrigerated boxcar loads of fries always filled the cubic capacity of a car before the load reached the car's weight limit.

The interior space required by the frozen potato shippers benefited other shippers as well. For instance, one of the new boxcars could hold approximately 5,000 cartons of oranges. This was a significant load capacity compared to the roughly 1,200 cartons that fit in a highway trailer. The new boxcars are called F-plate cars in railroad parlance. For comparison, the typical 57-ft boxcar was known as C-plate cars.

Although the new BNSF cars are as large as possible, they are cooled by standard highway trailer refrigeration units, mounted to the A-end of the car. The refrigeration units were capable of cooling the big cars down to -10 degrees F. They also provided heat if needed. Cars were vented for proper airflow around produce such as apples that build up ethylene gas as they age.

Carrier Transicold Ultima 53 refrigeration units could be used for such large boxcars because the cars were well insulated, rigid, and have advanced air-handling systems. Rigidity played a big part in maintaining temperature control. If the car did not flex as it moves, it leaked less, requiring less refrigeration input. The second factor in using a highway refrigeration unit on a rail car was air delivery. A false ceiling, or plenum delivered chilled air from the refrigeration unit evaporator outlet to every part of the car. Sensors at the boxcar door and at each end of the car provided an accurate snapshot of unit efficiency at all times.

BNSF expected substantial maintenance savings from these highway units, because, unlike conventional boxcar refrigeration systems, they ran only when required. Earlier railcar refrigeration systems operated constantly, alternately cooling or heating to maintain the appropriate thermostat set point.

The start/stop function of the trailer-type refrigeration units saved fuel as well as decreasing running hours. The new cars carried 350 gallons of diesel fuel, enough for 17 days of normal operation. Just as important as fuel efficiency was the fact that BNSF could check boxcar fuel level while the train is in transit. Satellite communication with the refrigeration unit allowed operations personnel to monitor unit performance from a distance.

The satellite communication system in combination with start/stop operation and electronic unit control systems was the key to improved utilization of the new equipment. By reducing the amount of time the new boxcars spent at inspection stations, BNSF projected almost double utilization from eight loads a year up to 14 loads. This improvement would cut average load cycle time down to 26 days from an average of 44 days for the existing refrigerator car fleet.

The super insulated car and a trailer-type refrigeration unit allowed significantly reduced inspections. With the microprocessor control system on the Carrier Transicold refrigeration units, BNSF could run a complete preventive maintenance inspection without actually touching the car. Often the only requirement for car maintenance would be topping off the fuel tank, and that could be done by sending a tank truck to meet the car the next time it loads. The remote trip inspection routine of the refrigeration units could be run as soon as a car is unloaded or while it is being repositioned for another load.

The new car design, along with operational changes due to reduced inspection, and the use of hub-to-hub operations, would help BNSF reduce cycle time between loads. Hub-to-hub operation was much more efficient than dock-to-dock movements. A good example was westbound loads that terminate at the Port of Seattle. BNSF operated a terminal in Quincy, Washington, about 250 miles east of Seattle. Moving a car from Quincy to the Port of Seattle and back to Quincy takes an average of six to eight days. To remove those days from trip cycle time, BNSF negotiated short haul intermodal container service. Instead of moving rail cars to the port where freight must be unloaded and placed in containers, BNSF moved empty containers to Quincy where the products were transloaded from railcars to shipping containers. This would release railcars for eastbound loads quicker and provide the ocean carriers with containers ready for sailing. The best part of the plan was that it used an existing train. No new service would be needed.

The BNSF 73'  Super Reefers (mechanical) were designed with assistance from JR Simplot.

 

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