Transition era tank car reporting marks

[NHTX]

      Butcher;

      I applaud your interest in accurate rolling stock and to support this, I would like to suggest two sources of publications that are excellent sources of information on this subject.  Ted Culotta's Speedwitch Media (http://speedwitchmedia.com/books-journals/)  offers UTLX Steam Era Tank Cars by Stephen Hile, and Steam Era Freight Cars Reference Manual Vol. 2, Tank Cars.  Both books address cars in use during the era of your interest.  They are not cheap books, but if you have a sincere interest in accuracy of what you spend your money on, you be investing in lifelong references beyond that found in pictureless ORERs.

      The other reference is the book Tank Cars from American Car & Foundry 1865-1955, published by Signature Press (http://signaturepress.com/).   As stated, this one covers the cars of Shippers Car Line (SHPX) which was the leasing arm of ACF.

      We are fortunate in HO to have the fine products of Intermountain/Red Caboose, Tangent, and Tichy, all producing varied, accurate models of steam/early diesel era tank cars.

 

[The Butcher]

Fantastic! You have all been super helpful. I feel like I have a much better handle on this now. 

[gmpullman]

Hi,

I have purchased several CDs * of scanned ORERs and Builder's Cyclopedias from "Taplines" through eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1938-Official-Equipment-Register-OER-Scanned-to-PDF-on-CD/323613719926?hash=item4b58e17d76:g:vggAAOSwJ9dcHTMS

*Seems like they don't offer as many as they used to? I bought collections of several years worth, both passenger registers and freight well into the 1950s and '60s. Maybe contact them and ask about availability?

 

http://taplines.net/

Another good source of tank car photos, although they are not easily searchable, is the AC&F album of the Barriger Library at Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/albums/72157649155982802

Here's an example:

9024 001 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr

The photos are fairly high resolution and can be easily downloaded and cleaned up in a photo editing program.

Hope that helps, Ed

[dehusman]

The above explanations should give you the information, there are several hundred sets of preporting marks for tank cars because there were lots of smaller companies that owned or leased tank cars cars to distribute their product or bring in feedstocks.  It was quite common for a company to have multiple reporting marks.

[SPSOT fan]

You’ve already got some good answers here, but I will say that most tank cars were (and still are) owned by leasing companies and other nonrail companies, so they usually have an “X” in the end of the reporting marks.

Based on my limited knowledge of period tank cars, GATX seems to be common, as well as UTLX (Union Tank Car Company, I think), which the OP did not have in their original post.

A lot of tank cars are painted for an oil company, i.e. Shell or Gulf Oil, but are owned by GATX, UTLX, etc.

Hope this was helpful!

[dknelson]

The Butcher

Is there a list somewhere of old reporting marks and maybe the dates they were used? I found several extensive lists, but there seemed to be a lot of missing companies. I'm confused.

Rather than finding lists of reporting marks and then trying to research back to the years they were used, the easiest way to get this information is to pick a year - you mention 1947 - and then get an Official Railroad Equipment Register for that year which shows reporting marks, owners, and detail about the cars and their numbers such as length and capacity.  A 1947 ORER might be a bit pricey but if that is your modeling year it would have a host of useful information quite beyond this tank car question.

Another way to get some data is to find a Car Builder's Cyclopedia for a year close to your modeling year, such as 1943 or 1946.  They too would be pricey but again, a serious modeler of a particular year can benefit from these date-specific sources of information in so many ways.

Dave Nelson

[G Paine]

I beleive Waren Petroleum primarily hauled crude oil to refineries, so that name would not fit your NY location.

Many tank cars were owned by leasing companies like North American Transport NATX, General American Transport GATX, and Union Tank Car UTLX to name a few. Most of them were basic black tanks, but some had company names like the Shell GATX car you mentioned. 

There are books just about tank cars if you want to research that subject.

This is a site that has a large list of reporing marks
http://www.pwrr.org/rrm/

 

[cv_acr]

The Butcher

What is going on here? Do reporting marks reflect the current owner of the car?

That is exactly what reporting marks are.

The Butcher

Are some companies' cars leased to others who put their logos on them? If so, whose reporting marks are used?

Yes. Example from your list - You mentioned GATX and SHPX under Gulf Oil - those are actually not the reporting marks of Gulf Oil but of General American Transit Co. and Shipper's Car Line respectively, two major freight car leasers.

The Butcher

Could a company like Mobil have multiple reporting marks on different cars at the same time?

Yes. Reasons might involve assignments to different corporate divisions (oil, chemical, etc.), international subsidiaries/affiliates that are actually different companies on paper (e.g. US vs. Canadian divisions, especially pre-free trade agreements) and so on. Also historical marks as in the next question below...

The Butcher

I understand that sometimes after a merger (like when Mobil became Exxon-Mobil) reporting marks can change, but do they still run cars with the old reporting marks?

Yes. There is usually no incentive to re-mark/re-number all of the cars; the new company inherits control of the existing reporting marks. New acquisitions might be numbered with a new reporting mark for the new company, or existing marks might continue to be used; after all, the company does own them.

Another example from your list is "WRNX" under both Warren Petroleum and Gulf Oil - formerly the reporting marks of Warren Petroleum Corp. which was acquired by Gulf Oil in the late 1950s and used by Gulf following the merger.

(Therefore this would not be a Gulf Oil mark in 1947...)

[The Butcher]

I'm in the midst of planning/designing an around the walls layout for a 10'x11' spare bedroom. I'm leaning towards it being set in 1947 in the Western New York area and having prodominantly diesel locomotives. The specific locales will probably be fictional rather than prototypical, but I want to use motive power, rolling stock, businesses and industry, buildings, etc. that would have been present in that area at that time. I'm going to have lots of switching opportunities and having a large variety of types and roadnames of freight cars is appealing to me.

I recently bought a copy of "Freight Cars of the '40s and '50s by Jeff Wilson. While reading about tank cars I decided to look up the reporting marks for the companies listed in the chart of tank car fleet owners on page 61. At first it seemed pretty straightforward, but it quickly got complicated. Examples: I saw Warren Petroleum with both WRTX and WRNX; Shell Oil had SCCX, SEPX, SCMX, SCPX and SOEX (Mobile had even more); Gulf Oil had GATX, WRNX, GRCX, SHPX. I'm pretty sure there are more that I missed. I didn't get too deep into my Google image search.

What is going on here? Do reporting marks reflect the current owner of the car? Are some companies' cars leased to others who put their logos on them? If so, whose reporting marks are used? Could a company like Mobil have multiple reporting marks on different cars at the same time? I understand that sometimes after a merger (like when Mobil became Exxon-Mobil) reporting marks can change, but do they still run cars with the old reporting marks?

Is there a list somewhere of old reporting marks and maybe the dates they were used? I found several extensive lists, but there seemed to be a lot of missing companies.

I'm confused.

Help?