WESTERN RAILROADS BEEF UP ON PERISHABLES

WESTERN RAILROADS BEEF UP ON PERISHABLES    Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway took steps this month to provide more service and capacity for shippers of agricultural products.
   Fort Worth, Texas-based BNSF said it ran for the first time a whole train entirely dedicated to agricultural goods. The train traveled from Willmar, Minn., to Los Angeles. Among the commodities shipped were animal feed, corn syrup, ethanol for the production of gasoline and malt for beer.
   Seven new ethanol plants in the Willmar area gave the railroad the product concentration necessary to make the trains economically viable. The main advantage of the grocery unit trains is that the cars don't have to be switched out in Kansas City and Amarillo, Texas, and can continue through the system more efficiently, BNSF said.
   Last week, Union Pacific said it is expanding and upgrading its fleet of refrigerated boxcars. UP has purchased 500 new reefer cars and is upgrading another 2,600 cars.
   UP will begin taking possession of the new equipment, designed by Trinity Industries, this summer. The reefers hold up to 40 percent more product than a conventional refrigerated rail car and have onboard satellite modems to transmit temperature and fresh air exchange levels so managers can monitor the integrity of the shipment.
   UP handles more than 48,000 shipments of refrigerated and frozen products each year and owns almost 5,000 refrigerated cars.