I should be able to offer some information about Barr as I just left them only 2 months ago.
Aircraft are 182's. And they are kept in good working order. The mechanics do their very best to give you a good airplane. But I did have one engine pop on me and some other more minor stuff in the 6 months I worked there.
Routes are all over Texas, but there are routes that run you into far North East as well.
You can expect 20-25 hours a week. Depending on your route.
There min's for pilots are set by the contracts they work for. So 1200 is the number. But that is only applied to the pilot flying over the line.
They do employ observers. And they can fly on any dead head. And there are plenty of those. Sometimes a dead head can be 2 hours or more. All you need is a private rating for that. Unless you have some serious time they would be more likely to hire an observer and let you share flying the airplane than hire you in as a pilot. The pilots at Barr have some VERY high times and experience. I think the low timer there has 15,000 hours of pipeline exp but most of the guys are around the 30,000 hour plus range.
All in all, very cool bunch of people out there. The commute was what killed it for me. I was driving from Ft. Worth. I was just spending to much time on the road. If it were not for that I would still be there. It really was a great place to work.
Make sure you have a very strong stomach if you try for any pipeline gig. Your low, in all the bumps, and whippin some 90 degree banks regularly. It's good times.
C