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29-517: Pacific Fruit Express ( reporting mark PFE ) was an American railroad refrigerator car leasing company headquartered in San Francisco. At one point, it was the largest refrigerator car operator in the world. The company was founded on December 7, 1906 by E. H. Harriman , as a joint venture between the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads. It began operation on October 1, 1907, with

58-674: A 2-digit code indicating the vehicle's register country . The registered keeper of a vehicle is now indicated by a separate Vehicle Keeper Marking (VKM), usually the name of the owning company or an abbreviation thereof, which must be registered with the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) and the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and which is unique throughout Europe and parts of Asia and Northern Africa. The VKM must be between two and five letters in length and can use any of

87-894: A fleet of 6,600 refrigerator cars built by the American Car and Foundry Company (ACF). In the period between 1901 and 1913, the Pacific Fruit Express was the largest refrigerator car company and transported perishable fruit and vegetables which allowed for the increased production of produce in California. In 1913, executives from the PFE met with fruit growers in Lodi, California , to discuss improvements to communications and loading operations to improve service to growers. PFE executives also promised and additional 3,000 cars to avoid car shortages in previous years. However, conflicts between growers and PFE about

116-461: A hyphen. Some examples: When a vehicle is sold it will not normally be transferred to another register. The Czech railways bought large numbers of coaches from ÖBB. The number remained the same but the VKM changed from A-ÖBB to A-ČD. The UIC introduced a uniform numbering system for their members based on a 12-digit number, largely known as UIC number . The third and fourth digit of the number indicated

145-685: A predecessor of the CNW, from which the UP inherited it. Similarly, during the breakup of Conrail , the long-retired marks of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and New York Central Railroad (NYC) were temporarily brought back and applied to much of Conrail's fleet to signify which cars and locomotives were to go to CSX (all cars labeled NYC) and which to Norfolk Southern (all cars labeled PRR). Some of these cars still retain their temporary NYC marks. Because of its size, this list has been split into subpages based on

174-552: Is in high definition, with digital 5.1 surround sound. The 14-part season includes segments from Japan, the Caribbean, Patagonia, and all around the United States. Tracks Ahead 8 starting airing in 2011 and marked the final season produced by series originator David K. Baule. Tracks Ahead 9 began production in 2012, with the final series reaching air in 2015. TA9 was produced by Milwaukee PBS Producer Kevin F. Pulz and featured

203-866: Is still seen in Roseville, California , site of a major Union Pacific classification yard , where there is a road named "PFE Road". There are a pair of PFE tracks in the Union Pacific Albina Yard in Portland, Oregon and Tucson Yard Tucson, Az. PFE shops in Pocatello, Idaho are still used by the car department. A PFE boxcar is on final display in Cody Park in North Platte, Nebraska behind Centennial 6922. PFE refrigerator cars are available as model railroad cars in several gauges, including N, HO, and Z. Model railcars of

232-504: The 26 letters of the Latin alphabet . Diacritical marks may also be used, but they are ignored in data processing (for example, Ö is treated as though it is O ). The VKM is preceded by the code for the country (according to the alphabetical coding system described in Appendix 4 to the 1949 convention and Article 45(4) of the 1968 convention on road traffic), where the vehicle is registered and

261-590: The Metrolink system—even though it is operated by Amtrak. This is why the reporting mark for CSX Transportation , which is an operating railroad, is CSXT instead of CSX. Private (non-common carrier) freight car owners in Mexico were issued, up until around 1990, reporting marks ending in two X's, possibly to signify that their cars followed different regulations (such as bans on friction bearing trucks) than their American counterparts and so their viability for interchange service

290-702: The PFE were available as early as 1928. At the Happy Hollow Park & Zoo in San Jose, California there is a rollercoaster ride called the Pacific Fruit Express and the cars are stylized to look like wooden fruit cartons. An episode of Tracks Ahead featured the Pacific Fruit Express in 2002. A car in someone's backyard will be restored and eventually be on display at the Western Pacific museum in Plumas County Reporting mark In North America ,

319-657: The VKM BLS. Example for an "Einheitswagen" delivered in 1957: In the United Kingdom, prior to nationalisation, wagons owned by the major railways were marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway concerned; for example, wagons of the Great Western Railway were marked "G W"; those of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway were marked "L M S", etc. The codes were agreed between

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348-531: The acquiring company discontinues the name or mark of the acquired company, the discontinued mark is referred to as a "fallen flag" railway. Occasionally, long-disused marks are suddenly revived by the companies which now own them. For example, in recent years, the Union Pacific Railroad has begun to use the mark CMO on newly built covered hoppers, gondolas and five-bay coal hoppers. CMO originally belonged to Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway ,

377-448: The first letter of the reporting mark: A railway vehicle must be registered in the relevant state's National Vehicle Register (NVR), as part of which process it will be assigned a 12-digit European Vehicle Number (EVN). The EVN schema is essentially the same as that used by the earlier UIC numbering systems for tractive vehicles and wagons , except that it replaces the 2-digit vehicle owner's code (see § Europe 1964 to 2005 ) with

406-507: The fleet decreased to 21,500 cars. Increasing competition from highway refrigeration led to decreasing profits and in March 1978, the company went out of business. PFE's assets were divided equally between the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific when the company was split on April 1, 1978. At the time of the closing, the Southern Pacific maintained the name PFE and the new Union Pacific firm

435-519: The home country may also be included. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) assigns marks to all carriers, under authority granted by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board , Transport Canada , and Mexican Government. Railinc , a subsidiary of the AAR, maintains the active reporting marks for the North American rail industry. Under current practice, the first letter must match the initial letter of

464-476: The host. All subsequent series have featured Christian. The primary audience for the series is women (ages 25–63) and children (ages 3–18) by 63.4%. The remaining audience is railroad interest groups. Season 5 was the first in 1080i high definition ; season 6 was the first to incorporate 5.1 enhanced (surround sound) audio. Tracks Ahead 7 started airing in January 2009. As with the previous two seasons, it

493-415: The mark, which consists of an alphabetic code of two to four letters, is stenciled on each piece of equipment, along with a one- to six-digit number. This information is used to uniquely identify every such rail car or locomotive, thus allowing it to be tracked by the railroad it is traveling over, which shares the information with other railroads and customers. In multinational registries, a code indicating

522-585: The number of available cars continued through the 1920s The refrigeration cars initially used natural ice including from the Rocky Mountains and as late as the 1940s they were still harvesting ice from the Rockies to use for refrigeration. One account describes the use of pond ice from Oregon from the early 1900s to 1912 when a refrigeration plant was built. In 1923, the Western Pacific Railroad joined

551-557: The owner of a reporting mark is taken over by another company, the old mark becomes the property of the new company. For example, when the Union Pacific Railroad (mark UP) acquired the Chicago and North Western Railway (mark CNW) in 1995, it retained the CNW mark rather than immediately repaint all acquired equipment. Some companies own several marks that are used to identify different classes of cars, such as boxcars or gondolas. If

580-405: The owner, or more precisely the keeper of the vehicle. Thus each UIC member got a two-digit owner code . With the introduction of national vehicle registers this code became a country code. Some vehicles had to be renumbered as a consequence. The Swiss company BLS Lötschbergbahn had the owner code 63. When their vehicles were registered, they got numbers with the country code 85 for Switzerland and

609-518: The railroad name. As it also acts as a Standard Carrier Alpha Code , the reporting mark cannot conflict with codes in use by other nonrail carriers. Marks ending with the letter "X" are assigned to companies or individuals who own railcars, but are not operating railroads; for example, the TTX Company (formerly Trailer Train Company) is named for its original reporting mark of TTX. In another example,

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638-511: The railways and registered with the Ministry of Railways , Government of India . Tracks Ahead Tracks Ahead is a television series about railroading , produced by Milwaukee PBS , originally solely for their station WMVS , then syndicated to public television stations , starting in 1990. In general, the series examines all aspects of railroading, both in the United States and in

667-727: The railways and registered with the Railway Clearing House . In India, wagons owned by the Indian Railways are marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway divisions concerned along with the Hindi abbreviation; for example, trains of the Western Railway zone are marked "WR" and "प रे"; those of the Central Railway zone are marked "CR" and "मध्य", etc. The codes are agreed between

696-624: The reporting mark for state-funded Amtrak services in California is CDTX (whereas the usual Amtrak mark is AMTK) because the state transportation agency ( Caltrans ) owns the equipment used in these services. This may also apply to commuter rail, for example Metrolink in Southern California uses the reporting mark SCAX because the equipment is owned by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority —which owns

725-490: The rest of the world. Content covers a wide range of railroad-related materials. This includes scenic rail journeys, short-line railroads , layouts (in various gauges of model, tinplate, scale, garden), artists, photographers, and other railroad related material. At the dawn of cable television , Chuck Zehner , a Milwaukee train enthusiast , began producing and hosting the interview format show Just Trains on Milwaukee's local access channel on Viacom Cable. Eventually

754-579: The show was picked up on the cable network around Milwaukee, After 72 shows Milwaukee's WMVS Channel 10 (PBS) agreed to air a new magazine format show On Track in the Milwaukee market. For the second season it was renamed Tracks Ahead and expanded to the PBS network. The first season (released 1990) was hosted by Charles E. "Chuck" Zehner and the second season (released 1992) by Ward Kimball . Both were later repackaged and re-released with Spencer Christian as

783-684: The venture by leasing its own new fleet of 2775 refrigerator cars to PFE. They were painted in standard PFE colors with only WP heralds on the cars instead of the paired Union Pacific–Southern Pacific markings. The Western Pacific cars were all retired by the late 1950s, among the last wooden refrigerator cars in PFE's fleet. WP ended its partnership with PFE in late 1967 and joined Fruit Growers Express instead. The PFE owned its own repair shops and produced its own ice for refrigeration. As of 1948, it owned and operated 18 ice production plants, supplying two million pounds of ice. Competition from highway refrigerated transportation increased during this period, and

812-564: Was impaired. This often resulted in five-letter reporting marks, an option not otherwise allowed by the AAR. Companies owning trailers used in trailer-on-flatcar service are assigned marks ending with the letter "Z", and the National Motor Freight Traffic Association , which maintains the list of Standard Carrier Alpha Codes, assigns marks ending in "U" to owners of intermodal containers . The standard ISO 6346 covers identifiers for intermodal containers. When

841-980: Was named the Union Pacific Fruit Express . It is now a Union Pacific subsidiary. In 1970 a large fire destroyed the ice house owned and operated by the PFR in Tucson, Arizona . On September 1, 2022 Union Pacific closed the final Fruit Express shop in North Platte, Nebraska at Bailey Yard and all personnel and equipment were transferred to the North Platte Service Unit Car Department. Modern cars owned by PFE typically carried both UP and SP heralds and either "Union Pacific Fruit Express" or "Southern Pacific Fruit Express". The reporting marks were UPFE for cars operated by Union Pacific or SPFE for cars operated by Southern Pacific. PFE's impact

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