82' Trinity Reefer

Prototype Information

In 2001, Trinity built 810 reefers with a 7883 cubic foot capacity. Another group followed in 2003 with internal modifications that gave them a 7711 cubic foot capacity. Both groups of cars were 82’ long and 17’ tall. One of several commercial HVAC unit types, along with a 300-gallon fuel tank, were mounted outside the car body on the A-end. Heavy insulation lined the inside of the car body. Another 250 of the 7711 cubic foot cars were built for JR Simplot with JRSX reporting marks.

These modern reefers handle the same types of loads their ice-bunker and mechanical predecessors hauled. The hotshot BNSF intermodal from the San Joaquin Valley to Chicago usually has a block of these reefers on the head-end, just as the earlier versions of the same trains had on the Santa Fe since the 1960s. Others handle frozen potato products from Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington over the former Northern Pacific and Great Northern lines. The JRSX cars also handle frozen potatoes from the same areas, usually routed over Canadian Pacific. Although most of the fresh meat traffic has left the rails, BNSF is still using the Trinity reefers to haul meat to the Port of Los Angeles for export to Asia.