The 36’ tankcars (GATX 300398-300452) that Lubrizol used to use ship something out here are no longer listed in the ORER. I have not seen tankcars that short in a long time, of course I do not see the BARRIC or RICBAR much. Does anyone know if Lubrizol still ships stuff in tankcars about that length?
I also have not seen any of the DOWX tankcars of similar length recently. The latest ORER I have does list a few dozen of these cars. I suspect that this may be a result of Dow changing its Pittsburg, CA traffic from mainly BNSF to mainly UP, causing the cars to go on the overland route.
I think that most of those short tank cars (under 40’) are retired now. Not only are they close to the 40-year interchange limit, but they present problems in train makeup when coupled next to long cars. I think that each railroad has its own rule about long-car/short-car placement; on UP the cutoffs are now 45 feet and 80 feet, unless they’re far enough back in the consist.
In fact, the last short tank cars I saw like that were leased to Lubrizol. Used to be that other companies shipped lubricants in these; I think they’ve gone to larger, multi-compartment cars now. I also think that the smallest corn-syrup cars that we used to see (in the low UTLX 72000 series, built in the late 1970s) have been retired for some time. Dow, DuPont, and IMC used to have some General American-built tank cars of about 31 feet in length; haven’t seen those in ages. Your shortest tank cars nowadays are things used for stuff like caustic soda and clay slurry, at about 44 feet (they still cause the train-makeup problems for us),
How about the tankers that transport Bromine? Great Lakes Chemicals down in El Dorado, Ark pumps it (Bromine) out of the oil field strata down there. They ship via tanker trucks, and some rail cars. I can’t find the specifics on the cars, but they are pretty short; the smaller ones are about 29/30 ft long, and will clear something less than 12 ft. Bromine is a very heavy, and it is corrosive to some extent, the tankers are lined in lead.
The smaller cars capacity is 2400 gal and weigh loaded about 56000#. The larger cars hold about 24,000 gal ,and weigh loaded about 110,00o#, Length is 37/38 ft and clear about 12’2" height.
Cars are DOT compliant at 105A300W and 1731.252 (a)(4) …
The company (Great Lakes Chemical Co.) has changed ownership
Sam, I’m kind of surprised that those cars are still around. These cars (in GLKX–not GLCX, which is Great Lakes Carbon–series 6000-6012) have a capacity in the neighborhood of 2450 gallons. They were at one time owned by the Michigan Chemical Corporation (also a bromine producer back in the 1970s), and have to be pretty close to the age limit. I was surprised to know that these are welded-carbody cars, so they’re undoubtedly the smallest cars built so recently. Bromine’s got to be some pretty heavy stuff–but still, those are 40- and 50-ton cars, which are practically unheard of these days. I suspect that they don’t have roller bearings, which probably keeps them pretty close to El Dorado.
What about the NACC 8,000 gallon tank cars? Those look short too. The only reason I’ve asked is because Athearn is coming out with an HO model offering of this. I guess short tank cars carry dense liquids.
Those have to be old cars. The A.E. Staley tankcar would probably be for corn syrup. Here is a photograph of a prototype, carrying paint. Notice the trucks. By the way, the Athearn cars are available. I have three of them.
Carl, I used to see DOWX 10,400 gallon, 36’-10" tankcars carrying pentachloropyridine, and occasionally tetrachloropyridine. They are in the DOWX 5600, 5700, 5800, and 6400 series. I found a few dozen in the January 2008 ORER. I do not know why I do not see them anymore. Perhaps the Pittsburg plant stopped producing (or was it using?) those chemicals, they are routed on UP’s Overland Route (I don’t remember if they went to Texas or Illinois), or Dow no longer uses them.
While not short, here is another type of DOWX tankcar I used to see. It seems like they carried potassium chloride. It appears that two were listed in the ORER.
As noted previously, I suspect that those cars are on their laqst legs, if they’re still around at all. We don’t see too many DOWX tanks in Proviso; they could be on the through trains, or, as you suggest, going to Texas (I’m not familiar with tank cars for the chemicals you mentioned).
The other cars you mentioned used to be common up around here, too. I thought they were classified as covered hoppers, despite their appearance. Possibly some newer cars are doing a better job of transporting these chemicals; I wouldn’t be surprised if these are all gone now.
I was looking through some of my old photographs and noticed that a lot of those short Dow tankcars carried latex. Since Dow closed its latex plant at Pittsburg, I doubt I will see those cars again unless they are assigned a new commodity.