Pacific Fruit Express Cars, PFE
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This page was last updated on May 14, 2026.
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(Sources include a wide variety of internet searches, including current and abandoned websites at Archive.org. The focus of this page is to establish a timeline using sources not previously readily available.)
(These are incomplete research notes. Comment or correction is most welcome.)
PFE Before The Split
Pacific Fruit Express was formed on December 7, 1906, as a joint UP/SP company to operate refrigerator cars. The company grew to become the largest railroad refrigerator "reefer" company in the nation.
(Read the Wikipedia article about Pacific Fruit Express)
PFE 1955 ORER:
- PFE 300001-00337 (131 cars within the group of 338 numbers)
Total of 131 cars; listed as RP Mechanical Refrigerator designation.
Western Pacific's contract with PFE terminated on June 30, 1967. At the same time, WP purchased a stock ownership in Fruit Growers Express in exchange for an adequate guarantee of FGEX car supply. After 1967 WP perishable traffic was handled almost exclusively in FGEX steel cars. There were enough FGEX cars to handle the remaining tree fruit off the Tidewater Southern and the Marysville melons. There was a small amount of perishable out of San Jose that was handled as FGEX loads.
"Pacific Fruit Express -- Continuing its efforts to meet the requirements of shippers of perishable freight for large-capacity mechanical refrigerator cars, Pacific Fruit Express Co. in 1968 acquired 400 additional 70-ton temperature-control cars. Acquisition of these units raised the company's fleet of mechanical refrigerator cars above its ownership of conventional ice-bunker cars for the first time. Orders have been placed for 1,200 additional cars for delivery in the first half of 1969-200 cars to be purchased by the company and 1,000 cars to be leased from the parent companies (500 each from Union Pacific and Southern Pacific). Delivery of these new units in 1969 will bring the company's fleet of mechanical refrigerator cars to almost 10,700, or more than half the total in the nation." (Union Pacific 1968 Annual Report)
PFE ended icing service in September 1973. In most PFE locations with ice docks, trains were going to the ice docks right up until the end in early Fall 1973. Trains with only seven cars that needed ice were serviced at the ice docks. This was seen at Ogden, Utah.
In many locations, including those with ice docks, PFE had an icing truck with a scissors lift on the bed allowing a car that needed ice to be serviced at a location away from the ice dock. But a train with only two cars needing ice would not go to the dock but could be iced on the main line using the PFE ice truck during the crew change.
In 1972-1974 Pacific Fruit Express removed the refrigeration equipment from a group of 52-foot refrigerator cars, in classes R-70-5 through R-70-10, and converted them to TIV/DLO service (Top Ice Vegetable/Door Loading Only). The new number series was PFE 390026 through 391212, a group of 1,187 potential numbers. This number series was apparently set aside and only used for TIV/DLO cars, but research has not yet found the actual quantity of cars that were in service in this number series. There are reports that many of these TIV/DLO cars remained in ice-cooled or ventilation service after the 1978 split of PFE.
The PFE Split
By the mid 1970s PFE realized that they couldn't make enough gross profit on the operation to justify replacement of their aging refrigerators cars. UP and SP decided to end the PFE and fold the PFE fleet and operations into each railroad's standard freight operations. Thus, UP and SP continued offering and providing the refrigerator and protective services, but under each roads separate ownership as opposed to the joint PFE operation. Then in the late 1980s, ten years after the split, the railroads determined that with new technology, they could actually begin offering the business again, and make a profit doing it. The bulk of the traffic that remained after PFE was dissolved was frozen food; trucks had taken over the fresh vegetable and fruit market.
Union Pacific (UP) and Southern Pacific (SP) officially split the assets of their joint Pacific Fruit Express (PFE) venture on April 1, 1978, dissolving the partnership and dividing the remaining refrigerated cars between the two railroads, with SP retaining the PFE name for its portion.
January 1, 1978
From PacificNews, September 1977.
Joint Owners To Split Pacific Fruit Express. -- On September 22 it was announced by both the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific that formal plans had finally been approved for the long-expected dissolution of their jointly-owned Pacific Fruit Express Company. The company, as it exists today, will be divided into two operations with the split-up expected to take place on or about January 1, 1978.
Union Pacific Fruit Express will be the name of the new subsidiary operating the refrigerator car service along Union Pacific lines. Southern Pacific, on the other hand, will retain the Pacific Fruit Express Company name for its subsidiary.
The joint announcement noted that the new arrangement will permit a coordination of refrigerator car services with train operations and a new closer identification with each railroad's own perishable traffic organizations should place railroading in a better position.
The Pacific Fruit Express Company was formed jointly in 1906 by the two railroads. The company grew to become the largest refrigerator car line in the United States. Operating about 11,500 refrigerator cars, the assets of Pacific Fruit Express, including the fleet of rolling stock, will be divided on a 50/50 basis between the newly-formed Southern Pacific and Union Pacific subsidiaries.
(Read more about UPFE after 1978)
PFE Number Series
PFE Mechanical Reefer Roster, cars built 1952-1961 (2,744 cars)
| Car Numbers | Cars | Class | Built | Builder | Length | Engine | Refrigeration |
| 100001 | 1 | R-40-29 | 1957 | PFE, Roseville | 42' 7" | Witte | Equipco (Carrier after 1964) |
| 100002 | 1 | R-40-29 | 1957 | PFE, Roseville | 42' 7" | Deutz | Carrier |
| 100003-100027 | 25 | R-40-30 | 1958 | SP Equip. Co., Los Angeles | 41' 9" | Witte | Equipco (Carrier after 1964) |
| 100028-100327 | 300 | R-40-30 | 1958 | SP Equip. Co., Los Angeles | 41' 9" | Witte | Trane |
| 100328-100502 | 175 | R-40-30 | 1958 | SP Equip. Co., Los Angeles | 41' 9" | Witte | Carrier |
| 101001-101005 | 1 | R-40-27 | 1956/1961 | PFE, Roseville (conversion) | 41' 7" | Detroit Diesel | Transicold |
| 101002, 101003 | 2 | R-40-27 | 1956/1961 | PFE, Roseville (conversion) | 41' 7" | Detroit Diesel | York |
| 101004, 101005 | 2 | R-40-27 | 1956/1961 | PFE, Roseville (conversion) | 41' 7" | Detroit Diesel | Thermo King |
| 300001-300014 | 14 | R-70-7 | 1952-1953 | SP Equip. Co., Roseville | 51' 7" | Detroit Diesel | Frigidaire |
| 300015-300025 | 11 | R-70-7 | 1952-1953 | SP Equip. Co., Roseville | 51' 7" | Detroit Diesel | Trane |
| 300026-300125 | 100 | R-70-8 | 1953-1954 | SP Equip. Co., Roseville | 51' 7" | Detroit Diesel | Frigidaire |
| 300126-300137 | 12 | R-70-6 | 1946/1954 | ART/PFE, Roseville (conversion) | 51' 7" | Detroit Diesel | Frigidaire |
| 300138-300287 | 150 | R-70-9 | 1954-1955 | SP Equip. Co., Roseville | 51' 8" | Detroit Diesel | Frigidaire |
| 300288-300337 | 50 | R-70-9 | 1954-1955 | SP Equip. Co., Roseville | 51' 8" | Detroit Diesel | Carrier |
| 300338-300512 | 175 | R-70-5 | 1953/1955 | SP Equip. Co., Roseville (conversion) | 51' 7" | Detroit Diesel | Frigidaire |
| 300513-300547 | 35 | R-70-10 | 1956 | SP Equip. Co., Roseville | 51' 8" | Witte | Carrier |
| 300548-300712 | 165 | R-70-10 | 1956 | SP Equip. Co., Roseville | 51' 8" | Detroit Diesel 2-71 | Carrier |
| 300713-301212 | 500 | R-50-6 | 1958 | SP Equip. Co., Los Angeles | 51' 8" | Detroit Diesel | Carrier |
| 301213-302201 | 989 | R-70-12 | 1960 | SP Equip. Co., Los Angeles | 52' 2" | Detroit Diesel | Trane |
| 302202-302212 | 11 | R-70-12 | 1960 | SP Equip. Co., Los Angeles | 52' 2" | Detroit Diesel | Carrier |
| 400001-400025 | 25 | R-70-11 | 1961 | SP Equip. Co., Los Angeles | 52' 2" | Deutz | Carrier |
| Total | 2,744 |
PFE Mechanical Reefer Roster, cars built 1963-1971 (10,700 cars)
All were 57-foot cars, all were equipped with cushioned underframe; all were equipped with Detroit Diesel engines and Frigidaire refrigeration.
| Car Numbers | Cars | Class | Built | Builder |
| 450001-451000 | 1000 | R-70-13 | 1963 | PC&F |
| 451001-452000 | 1000 | R-70-14 | 1964 | PC&F |
| 452001-453500 | 1500 | R-70-15 | 1965 | PC&F |
| 453501-455500 | 2000 | R-70-16 | 1966 | PC&F |
| 455501-456000 | 500 | R-70-17 | 1967 | PC&F |
| 456001-456500 | 500 | R-70-18 | 1967 | PC&F |
| 456501-456900 | 400 | R-70-19 | 1968 | PC&F |
| 456901-458100 | 1200 | R-70-20 | 1969 | PC&F |
| 458101-458700 | 600 | R-70-21 | 1969 | PC&F |
| 458701-459300 | 600 | R-70-20 | 1970 | PC&F |
| 459301-459400 | 100 | R-70-22 | 1970 | PC&F |
| 459401-459500 | 100 | R-70-23 | 1970 | PC&F |
| 459501-460100 | 600 | R-70-24 | 1971 | PC&F |
| 460101-460700 | 600 | R-70-25 | 1971 | PC&F |
| Total | 10,700 |
PFE Book
(Chapter 9 of this book covers the mechanical cars)
Pacific Fruit Express: The World's Largest Refrigerated Car Company; by Anthony W. Thompson, Robert J. Church, and Bruce H. Jones
First Edition
Publisher: Central Valley Railroad Publications
Publication date: 1992
ISBN-10: 0963379127
ISBN-13: 978-0963379122
Second Edition
Publisher: Signature Press
Publication date: 2000
ISBN-10: 1930013035
ISBN-13: 978-1930013032
UPFE Refrigerator Cars
Even before the split, cars were marked with SPFE (Southern Pacific Fruit Express) or UPFE (Union Pacific Fruit Express) to show ownership, with these markings appearing on new cars from the early 1970s.
The UPFE and SPFE reporting marks began appearing in the period between January and April 1971.
(Read more about UPFE after 1978)
PFE Freight Car Data (Dick Harley)
Dick Harley has made available on his SmugMug online image albums, a collection of listings and data for the Pacific Fruit Express freight car fleet. This PFE information predates the era of UPFE.
PFE Freight Car Specialties Listings
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