Herewith my TO post of March 2012

Okay guys and gals, I happen to have an "inside track" on these wonderful Cryotrans cars which bear Names and not just numbers. About 15 years ago my great railfan buddy and guru Danny Boehr told me (and others, of course) about these wonderful bright white and orange trimmed refrigerator cars which had NAMES, not just numbers. So if you are going to get into a railfan fetish of stuff to track etc. what more fun than named railcars. And so I started. My first sighting was on June 22, 1997 in San Jose as we were about to depart on our 40th anniversary trip on chartered railcar the SIlver Lariat with 23 friends and family. ANd the name of the car was, ta da, Theresa. That was my confirmation name. And so began my "love affair" with Cryotrans cars, sighting, collecting their names and numbers and putting them in a data base (which is on my other computer) EVentually, I got in touch with the company and asked if they had a roster list of the cars with names and numbers and bingo!! the fleet manager was a woman (now retired) who not only sent me the list but eventually, I got to name 3 new cars a few years ago: 5288 Castroville 5289 Prunedale and 5290 Point Lobos.
Apparently these are leased to companies who operate in the PNW and will probably never make it down here to the coast line. Because of and through her I still have access to the updated lists of the cars and their names and it is great fun to "collect" them, though certainly the numbers are limited here on the boring coast line. The newer cars have been coated with a special something that allows the graffiti to be washed off if someone is going to do that. THe earlier cars, alas, are dead meat in terms of being graffitiied etc. Cryotrans cars are easily spotted and their names come mostly from their customers and employees.
Great fun.
C.