Entering my rolling stock into JMRI software for operations and discovered a Penn Salt car. I understand Penn Salt was a mineral mining company so this is a corporate tank car marked GATX and Penn Salt.
Would it be carrrying petroleum for the operation or so some mineral product of the operation?
Thanks.
It looks like Penn Salt was a chlor-alkali company. Its tank car would probably carry chlorine, sodium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid, or some derivative of these.
After looking at the captions to the photos in the links Eric supplied, I’d suggest that you look at the car itself. If it’s designed for pressurized gas or certain chemicals it should have inset ends - and probably carried chlorine. (Most of the other products listed are powder solids, not likely to be carried in tank cars.) It probably wouldn’t have carried hydrogen. That would have been shipped in something like a Linde Air Products helium tank car, under much higher pressure than used for chlorine.
All of the products listed in those captions are nasty stuff, and would require hazmat placards if shipped today.
Just as an aside, Las Vegas went into Flapping panic mode a few years ago when a tank car load of chlorine got loose and pulled a solo roll through downtown. Don’t know who owned the car…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with an anhydrous ammonia tank car)
While sodium hydroxide and probably sodium hypochlorite are solids in their pure forms, from my observations it looks like they are usually shipped as liquid solutions.
I have a couple of Penn Salt cars, too. I’m sure they’re not correct models, but trying to find out what they might have used tank cars for, I found something about ammonia. Possibly it was in a 1974 ORER that I have.
If I think about it, I’ll check it again when I get home.
Jeff
in my tankcar refernce bibliography–
PSMX 817 Salt Mfting Liquid chlorine ARA V
not listed 54 Reg.
Train Shed Cyclopedia #12 p.1925-258.
PSMX 1001,1003,1005-1033 (31 cars) Pennsylvania Salt
Chlorine tank car, review of MTS brass model and proto into.
The Penn Salt plant in Wyandotte, Michigan made mercaptens. Methyl mercapten is added to natural gas at the rate of one drop per million cubic feet to give it an odor. It was shipped in tank cars.
Ah, yes. The holy grail of dormies everywhere.
Ed
I don’t think it is the same Penn Salt. Checking my ORER, I find tank car listings for liquid chlorine, liquid caustic soda and dispersant or refrigerant gases. I know some where I saw ammonia in reference to PS, and ammonia is used as a refrigerant.
It appears Penn Salt is now part of Arkema Inc. http://www.arkema-inc.com/index.cfm
Jeff
What year ORER arw you using? The mercapten plant shut down about 1980.