Western Fruit Express

[T.T Boy]

ok this may seem like a silly quiestion but i felt like asking it. i know youve seen these cars in either pics or in person, im wondering are these cars still being used? i used to see a ton of them back in about 96 or 97 and suddenly they just seemed to fall off. does anyone know the general area they are used in? did the company get bought out and they actually got repainted? also, is this an american company or canadian? im not too far from a bigger orchard type area and i expected that a few of these would pop up every now and then, but yet i havent seen a single one. any info would be appreciated.

[Average White Railfan]

yeah i still see a lot of those out here in the heart of dixie. no as much as the up reefers

[Cracked Ass]

They are still running strong. Sounds like you lost whatever customer was in your area, either to trucks or a different freight route (or a different brand of reefers, if you still get reefers at all).

[Cracked Ass]

Oh, and WFE is the logo (Western Fruit Express) but the reporting marks are BNFE (green flats) or BNSF (red flats), so BNSF is the owner. (Unless Ese has obscure knowledge to the contrary.)

[dukeofyork]

he he...
i caught a bnsf (red reefer) and bnfe not too long ago...

[T.T Boy]

hmmmmm i dont get reefers at all. i wonder what happened...... whos not getting the fruit anymore?

[Handjob]

When I visit Kelowna, B.C., I see them. They're layed up in front of the Sun Rype juice factory. Its too bad they've got a security gaurd that pretty much sits on top of them...

[IHATEU]

Originally posted by Cracked Ass
Oh, and WFE is the logo (Western Fruit Express) but the reporting marks are BNFE (green flats) or BNSF (red flats), so BNSF is the owner. (Unless Ese has obscure knowledge to the contrary.)
THEY ARE NOT ALL FLATS..some have suttle ridges like upfe's

[dukeofyork]

Originally posted by IHATEU

THEY ARE NOT ALL FLATS..some have suttle ridges like upfe's

yea, i think the two that i caught both had small ridges..

[Cracked Ass]

Yes, I've done two of the red ridgies myself, BNSF marks...forgot about that.

[dukeofyork]

Originally posted by Cracked Ass
Yes, I've done two of the red ridgies myself, BNSF marks...forgot about that.

1. youre a lucky bastard..
2. i could swear that bnfe had ridges too...ill have to double check the flick.

[BIGMETALCIRCUS]

Originally posted by chozer


1. youre a lucky bastard..
2. i could swear that bnfe had ridges too...ill have to double check the flick.
yeah, some of the green ones have ridges too sir. theres is a second marking for the green ones i believe, ive gotten one or two, and ive been lucky when it comes to these cars until lately.

[STOLENGOODS]

Its funny this came up..
We used to get a ton of them in 96-98
they'd be mixed in with the UPFE's and other reefers..
and then all of a sound they stopped for years..
we used to talk about what happened to them...
i remeber some people sayin they were old solid colds that were
repainted.. but im not to sure if thats the case
id say in the last 2 years ive seen 3 if that out in the northeast

[imported_muthafuckinfatso]

yo i love these fucking cars and i will pass almost anything for the reef. wfe's are sweeeet. i beleive many of them are hanging out in my town and making a quick trip with minimal stops to northwest. i catch alot of dtc on them cars. man i miss these cars.

[sectorTVA]

get a few upfe's in the yard weekly...they keep them at the front of the yard though, so they are harder to paint with out getting caught. occassionally they put them in the back of the yard, but i have yet to paint one here....

[flamingflamingo]

RIP wfe's

[_blank_]

how many are left rolling..if any..?

[rolling nowhere]

last time i saw one was 2006.
a green one.
yep.

[_blank_]

hmm..i was hoping at least one was still rollin. i have seen 3 in the past year, and a white bnfe in 08.

[poop dollr]

Blank I think i know which one youre talking about, it still barely had the green logo left on it and did a quick tour around the midwest

Painted two of them last year... burgundy miniridge and a flat green boy.... if you guys are flickr privy check out 14.2.1 .... dude benched Lines of them going to scrap earlier this year. As far as i know theyre all but gone.

[Cracked Ass]

I got two in a short period in 08 or 09...musta been 08, brain is fuzzy. But after hitting those two I don't think I've seen one since. BUT I did see a white BNFE shortly thereafter.

[BIGMETALCIRCUS]

I've seen at least two of my cars on Flickr marked as being on their way to the scrap. Sucks, first we lost all our old solid colds and BNFE's and now the Western Fruits are on their way out - or so it seems?

[BIGMETALCIRCUS]

I found an article on the WFE's and BNSF's new reefer fleet last night, it was from 2001 and explained that the new cars are the future, larger, more reliable, less spoilage, remote temperature controlled and so on. It basically said the current WFE fleet was 35 years old (45 years old now) and that they were going to be replaced soon enough. I'll look it up when I'm on the home computer and post it in here. Interesting but sad read, odd that it took 9 years after the article for them to scrap the WFE's. It also said they had 2,000 refrigerated box cars in their fleet as of 2001.

[_blank_]

http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu70/fuxor502/benchin/bnfe3.jpg
http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu70/fuxor502/benchin/bnfe4.jpg
http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu70/fuxor502/benchin/bnfe2.jpg

rrpicture archive.

[stop the lies]

Blank I think i know which one youre talking about, it still barely had the green logo left on it and did a quick tour around the midwest

Painted two of them last year... burgundy miniridge and a flat green boy.... if you guys are flickr privy check out 14.2.1 .... dude benched Lines of them going to scrap earlier this year. As far as i know theyre all but gone.

You are right they are all gone now. seen a few in the last couple of years and stayed away (unlike a bunch of toys down here). Thats why TRAINS magazine etc.. are good references if you are really going to take this car painting things serious.

[stop the lies]

DO YOUR HOMEWORK IT WILL PAY OFF!

[Brewster Baker]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3208/3092422795_09e5413e30.jpg

with a solid cold in the mix.

[_blank_]

velcro.

[i.eat.toys]

velcros ill.
bump western fruit express

[peterpopoff]

that nekst is dope