Mechanical Refrigeration

Index For This Page

This page was last updated on May 10, 2026.

(Return to The Mechanical Refrigeration Page)

Burlington Northern Mechanical Refrigerator Cars

The mechanical refrigerator car fleet of Burlington Northern included mechanical refrigerator cars from both Western Fruit Express (GN) and Burlington Refrigerator Express (CB&Q).

Burlington Northern's refrigerator car division was Western Fruit Express (WFE), inherited from Great Northern in the 1970 BN merger. BN also inherited Burlington Refrigerator Express (BRE) from CB&Q, which was consolidated with WFE after the merger. WFE and BRE were previously partners with Fruit Growers Express (FGE) and jointly managed their shops, car fleets, and accounting. That partnership ended after the 1970 BN merger, although the actual separation took about five years.

In 1970, when the Burlington Northern was created, its member railroads owned nearly 2,800 mechanical refrigerator cars. That was about 10 percent of the refrigerator car fleet then in service across the United States. Almost half of those cars came from the Great Northern, more than a third from the Northern Pacific, and the rest from the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. The fourth merger partner, the Spokane, Portland and Seattle, owned no refrigerator cars. In the 1920s, both the Great Northern and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy had set up separate companies to run their refrigerator cars: Western Fruit Express (owned by the Great Northern) and Burlington Refrigerator Express (owned by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy). Management and account was consolidated with the fleet of Fruit Growers Express. The Northern Pacific operated and managed its refrigerator cars directly. The mechanical refrigerator cars built for the three companies totaled 1,361 for Western Fruit Express, 403 for Burlington Refrigerator Express, and 1,026 for the Northern Pacific.

Both Western Fruit Express and Burlington Refrigerator Express ordered their first mechanical reefers from Fruit Growers Express shops in Alexandria, Virginia, with nearly one hundred cars delivered between 1952 and 1955. Western Fruit Express continued receiving additional cars from FGE for several more years, but Burlington turned to its own Havelock car shops in Lincoln, Nebraska, for later production. Starting in 1963, Western Fruit Express placed orders with Pacific Car & Foundry. That same contractor was used exclusively by the Northern Pacific, which had received its first mechanical reefers in 1955.

(The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q) Railroad's Havelock shops were established in 1890 in Havelock, Nebraska, a town northeast of and now part of Lincoln, Nebraska. The site was founded to build and repair locomotives and freight cars. Havelock shops were developed on 300 acres of land gifted to the railroad in 1890, located in the then-independent town of Havelock. Groundbreaking for the initial massive two-story brick structure (400 x 130 feet) began in June 1890, with blacksmith and boiler shops added shortly after. The shops became a major center for rebuilding and constructing Burlington's rolling stock, and still serves as a key wheel repair facility for BNSF.)

Some of the early mechanical refrigerator cars were 40 feet long, but 50 feet soon became the standard for all three companies. From 1963, the length increased to 57 feet, except for Burlington Refrigerator Express, which switched to the larger size in 1966. The companies used different refrigeration units: Western Fruit Express favored Frigidaire and Carrier, while Burlington Refrigerator Express mainly used Trane and Thermo-King units. The Northern Pacific installed only Trane equipment from 1961 onward. Starting in 1963, Western Fruit and Northern Pacific cars were built with cushion underframes. Burlington added the cushioned underframes to its last two batches of cars, built in 1966.

June 1, 1970
"St. Paul (AP) - Merger of two subsidiary refrigerator car companies of the Burlington Northern Railway was announced Monday (June 1, 1970). Joined were the Western Fruit Express Co. and the Burlington Refrigerator Express Co. Both were wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Great Northern and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy prior to the March 2 merger of the parent companies with the Northern Pacific. The merged subsidiary will carry the name of Western Fruit Express Co. (Fargo Forum, June 2, 1970)

August 16, 1974
"Workmen at Burlington Northern's Everett and Spokane shops recently converted 80 old ice-cooled refrigerator rail cars, that once carried potatoes and other fresh produce, into cars for carrying 2x4 studs and other lumber products (a shift from "spuds to studs," according to BN’ recent newsletter). With the ice bunkers and fans removed from the cars cargo space is extended from 36 to 42 feet, adding about 5,000 pounds to the car carrying capacity." - "U.S. railroads switched to building mechanically - refrigerated cars following World War II and stopped providing ice for the older cars last September, although BN used the old cars with ice until January of this year to help move the 1973 fruit crop. Since September, however, it has been impossible for BN to get ice for its cars when they interchanged with other lines on their travels." - "BN and its Western Fruit Express subsidiary operate 2,934 ice bunker cars, 3,222 larger and newer mechanical refrigerator cars and 793 refrigerated piggyback vans." (Everett Washington Daily Herald, August 16, 1974)

January 1, 1976
"Western Fruit Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of Burlington Northern, Inc., has elected a new president and announced it will transfer its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to St. Paul Jan. 1. The moving of headquarters to St. Paul will terminate a joint management that has been in effect since 1923 between Western Fruit and Fruit Growers Express. The consolidation of management in St. Paul reflects the changed conditions in the refrigerator car line business and will enable Burlington Northern to provide more direct control of the refrigerator car fleet and better service to shippers of perishable freight." (Minneapolis Star Tribune, September 5, 1975)

(The change of headquarters was the result of a new president for Western Fruit Express, Thomas J. Lamphier who replaced J. J. Quin, who had been WFE president for 16 years. The change in presidents was to take place on October 1st. - Minneapolis Star Tribune, September 5, 1975)

During the period 1923 to 1976, the refrigerator cars of Western Fruit Express, originally owned as a subsidiary of Great Northern, were managed by Fruit Grower Express, a consortium of Eastern railroads (from 1926 Burlington Refrigerator Express, originally owned as a subsidiary of Chicago, Burlington & Quincy). The mechanical refrigerator cars of the two companies were built by FGE in their shops in Virginia. During the 1960s, the three companies (Fruit Growers Express, Western Fruit Express and Burlington Refrigerator Express) shared a common president and CEO. The three companies together owned 23,500 cars.

Burlington Refrigerator Express (BRE)

Burlington Refrigerator Express (BREX)

"Burlington Refrigerator Express (BREX) was a railroad refrigerator car leasing company that was formed on May 1, 1926 as a joint venture between the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) and the Fruit Growers Express Company. The move helped FGE expand its business into the Pacific Northwest, and added almost 2,700 ice bunker units to the existing car pool already under lease by the Burlington to the FGE and Western Fruit Express (WFE)." (Jerry Britton's BREX web page)

The following comes from Tyrone Johnsen, dated May 3, 2012.

The Burlington Refrigerator Express Company was established to provide refrigerator cars and the associated protective services for the transportation of perishables for its owner the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad. The Burlington Refrigerator Express company began operation in 1926 and ended in 1970 when the CB&Q merged into the newly formed Burlington Northern and the BRE cars and facilities were transferred to the Western Fruit Express Company.

In 1932 the CB&Q subsidiaries the Colorado & Southern, the Fort Worth & Denver, and the Wichita Valley all joined the Burlington Refrigerator Express. Although owned by the CB&Q, the BRE was run by the same management as the separately owned Fruit Growers Express Company, the Western Fruit Express Company, and the National Car Company. The four companies were operated as a system sharing cars and facilities.

The Burlington Refrigerator Express provided and maintained a fleet of refrigerator cars, a shop to perform major maintenance of refrigerator cars, and facilities to store supplies and servicing of those cars with ice, heaters, and fuel within the CB&Q territory. The same protective services were performed by the Western Fruit Express in the GN territory and by the Fruit Growers Express in the territory of the Eastern roads, including PRR, B&O, Southern, ACL, and other Eastern railroads. New York Central System had its own Merchants Dispatch Transport refrigerator car company. The system arrangement between the BRE and the FGE and the WFE permitted a better supply of cars to meet peak harvest seasons and better utilization of those cars over the year.

The CB&Q territory also included a large number of packing plants and large numbers of packing house shipments which resulted large traffic of National Car Company and their leased refrigerator cars. Perishable shipments were generally toward the larger urban areas and the greatest was the northeastern U.S. from Chicago across to New York City and Boston.

Initially the Burlington Refrigerator Express cars consisted of wood-bodied refrigerator cars with ice bunkers which came from the CB&Q and later some from the C&S and FW&D. The BRE operated these cars into the 1950s; some cars still had wooden roofs and truss rod under frames. The first BRE steel sheathed ice-bunker refrigerator cars came in 1937, but additional all steel cars were not added until 1949. The last two groups of ice bunker cars were built in 1951-1952 and were the first with plug doors. The ice bunker refrigerator cars lasted into the 1960s but were being replaced by the new mechanical reefers. In 1953 the BRE would receive the first of their mechanical refrigerator cars. These cars were longer at 55 feet and subsequent cars would grow to nearly 68 feet. The standard mechanical reefer car reporting marks were changed from BREX to BRMX and BRCX.

The BRE shops were in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, located on the Missouri River. The Plattsmouth location was closed in November 1966 (or 1968) and the repair and rebuilding work transferred to CB&Q's Havelock shops located six miles northeast of downtown Lincoln, and about 48 miles due west of Plattsmouth.

(Read more about Fruit Growers Express)

The first BRE mechanical refrigerator cars may have been among the 150 cars being built by FGE in its Alexandria shop starting in June 1954.

BRE Mechanical Era

BREX 1955 ORER:

BREX 1958 ORER:

Total of 103 cars; listed as RP Mechanical Refrigerator designation.

BREX 1965 ORER:

Total of 383 cars; listed as RP Mechanical Refrigerator designation.

BREX 117-119 were built as experiments in 1955 to test different mechanical refrigeration equipment. They were joint projects of FGE and the CB&Q Havelock shops. BREX 117 had Waukesha equipment; BREX 118 had Thermo King equipment; BREX 119 had Trane equipment. BREX 117 was built by FGE at Alexandria, Virginia, in June 1955; BREX 118 was built by FGE at Alexandria in September 1955; BREX 119 was built by CB&Q at Havelock in June 1956.

Based on internet searches of the available records, BREX operated two main number series of mechanical refrigerator cars. These cars were equipped with mechanical refrigeration systems (such as Frigidaire, Trane, and Thermo King units), distinguishing them from the company's large fleet of traditional ice-bunker reefers.

BREX 120–149 (30 cars), built in August 1953, were equipped with Frigidaire equipment. Built by FGE at Alexandria, Virginia.

BREX 5000–5069 (70 cars) built in January–March 1957; 5000–5049 (50 cars) had Frigidaire equipment; 5050–5059 (10 cars) had Trane equipment; and 5060–5069 (10 cars) had Thermo King equipment.

The BREX 5000 series were built by CB&Q at Havelock in 1957, and were essentially identical to the 120-149 group.

The BREX 5000 Series had a total of 70 cars. They were originally rostered as BREX 5000–5049 (Frigidaire units) and BREX 5050–5069 (Trane and Thermo King units). Some lists simply listed them as a single group: BREX 5000–5069.

The majority of BREX's fleet, including series like 74200-74399 (200 cars), 74400-74699 (300 cars), 76000-76249 (250 cars), and others, remained ice-cooled throughout their service lives. The BREX 76250-76349 group were noted as "the last ice-cooled refrigerator constructed for Burlington Refrigerator Express".

(Read the Wikipedia article about Burlington Refrigerator Express)

(Visit Jerry Britton's web page about BREX)

Western Fruit Express (WFE)

The following comes from Tyrone Johnsen, dated July 19, 2011.

The Great Northern Railway formed the Western Fruit Express Company in 1923. The GN was sole owner and sold or leased their equipment and facilities to the WFE upon the creation of WFE.

The WFE was operated as a part of a system with the Fruit Growers Express Company, the Burlington Refrigerator Express, and the National Car Company (National Car mainly served the packing industry). The principle officers were the same for all the companies and the cars were operated in a pool.

The FGE/WFE/BRE/NC System served shippers in forty states. Service extended over approximately 78,500 miles of rail line of their contracted railroads; operating on 35 percent of the total rail mileage of the continental U.S. The combined companies provided Transport Protective Service (inspection, refrigeration, heating, and ventilation) and refrigerator cars to 75 railroads through 500 locations. The WFE had over 7,000 reefers and the combined companies operated over 26,000 reefers in the 1930s.

The Western Fruit Express Company had major car shops in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Hillyard in Spokane, Washington.

The St. Paul car shop was built immediately in late 1923 and was the primary shop in the 1920s and 1930s. It was located just South of the four track mainline, East of Snelling Avenue and West of Hamline Avenue. Complete rebuilding was possible. The shop was considered inadequate by the 1940s and suffered fires and was gone by the end of the 1940s. A service and light repair shop was added in the early 1950s West of Snelling Avenue at what was known as Hamline Transfer.

In 1924 a WFE car shop was built at Hillyard, Spokane, Washington. It was located on the same side of the mainline as the roundhouse but at the opposite end of the yard.

The Fruit Growers Express had shops at Alexandria, Virginia, Jacksonville, Florida, and Indiana Harbor, Indiana. The Burlington Refrigerator Express had shops at Plattsmouth, Nebraska.

(Read more about Fruit Growers Express)

WFE Mechanical Era

From the Butte Montana Standard, September 7, 1958.

Among the nine ultra-modern cars to be seen is the amazing Great Northern refrigerator car with a mechanical refrigeration system developed by Western Fruit Express Co., Burlington Refrigerator Express Co. and Fruit Growers Express Co. in cooperation with the Frigidaire Division of General Motors Corp.

This car of new type is called one of the most modern refrigerator cars traveling the rails today. Of all-steel construction (sides, ends, roof and sub-floor) it is 50 feet long and can carry a load of 128,000 pounds. Heavily insulated, the car is equipped with easy riding trucks, roller bearings and sliding doors. Two compressor-evaporator systems are powered by a Diesel electric unit, and electric heating elements in the cooling coils provide heated air when needed.

Eighteen years of research starting in 1931 brought the advantage of low-cost rail transportation to the producers and consumers of frozen foods. The first mechanically equipped refrigerator car was placed in general service by Western Fruit Express Co. and its associated companies, Burlington Refrigerator Express, and Fruit Growers Express, on Feb. 25, 1949. Today, their companies have a pooled fleet of 1,270 mechanically equipped cars; this fleet, with an average age of approximately three years, has transported 60,700 car-loads and has traveled 110 million car miles under load.

(The car that was displayed was WFEX 7900, which was also on display in Whitefish, Montana, on June 28, 1958 - photo in the June 26, 1958 issue of the Kalispell Montana Daily Inter Lake newspaper.)

Changes came after the 1970 merger of GN, NP, CB&Q and SP&S that created Burlington Northern.

(Read more about Fruit Growers Express)

WFEX 1958 ORER:

Total of 260 cars; listed as RP Mechanical Refrigerator designation.

WFEX 1965 ORER:

Total of 660 cars; listed as RP Mechanical Refrigerator designation.

(Read the Wikipedia article about Western Fruit Express)

(Visit Jerry Britton's web page about Western Fruit Express)

Burlington Northern Fruit Express (BNFE)

BNFE is the reporting mark used by BN (and later BNSF) for its refrigerator cars.

(Read more about the mechanical refrigerator cars of BN, BNSF, and the cars that use the BNFE reporting mark)

###