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What industries would have used tank cars in the 1890's?

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Posted by BATMAN on Friday, June 14, 2024 10:52 PM

Transformer manufacturing was well underway in factories and in 1887 they started using oil in them. Large quantities of transformer oil were transferred to plants and facilities by tank car across the nation(s) as electrification took hold.

Brent

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Posted by richhotrain on Friday, June 14, 2024 6:26 PM

JoeBlow

Mining towns and railroad watering stops in the high desert. While it was founded in the 1920s, Midland, California never reliable source of potable water for its residents and required tanks cars of water to be brought in. In addition, during the steam era, railroads hauled water to certain stops where there no adequete sources of water.

 

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Posted by JoeBlow on Friday, June 14, 2024 6:21 PM

Mining towns and railroad watering stops in the high desert. While it was founded in the 1920s, Midland, California never reliable source of potable water for its residents and required tanks cars of water to be brought in. In addition, during the steam era, railroads hauled water to certain stops where there no adequete sources of water.

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Posted by dehusman on Friday, May 17, 2024 8:03 PM

PC101
At a chemical plant. NATIONAL CHEMICAL COMPANY LYMAM RUN, PA. and GAFFNEY WOOD PRODUCTS COMPANY WALTON,PA ''Chemical wood''?

Not only alcohol, but turpentine was a common wood byproduct from mills in northern Pennsylvania.

And while on a paint theme, linseed and cottonseed oils were very commonly shipped by rail.

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, May 17, 2024 7:37 PM

There used to be a very good site that covered the significant inventions of the Union Tank Car Line in the period from the turn of the century up to 1911.  Rockefeller's 'secret weapon' wasn't so much monopolizing of the cars as having effective patent and design lock on the important features that were then modern -- the use of a spine underframe riveted to the tank, for example, and internal bulkheads instead of horizontal tanks on a flat car.  This had much the same importance at the time that GM's development of the diesel angle-drive monocoque Yellow Coach did in the early Thirties.

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Posted by BATMAN on Friday, May 17, 2024 5:08 PM

 

These must be close to your time frame.

 

Brent

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Posted by jjdamnit on Friday, May 17, 2024 12:09 PM

Hello All,

Vinegar and whale oil come to mind too.

Hope this helps.

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Posted by Col Bob on Friday, May 17, 2024 11:57 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtxtPErUXho

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Posted by Col Bob on Friday, May 17, 2024 10:56 AM

Cooked in retorts to create Metanol (Wood Alcohol), Acetic Acid and Acetone.

Get your library to do an interlibrary loan on the "Logging Railroad Era of Lumbering in Pennsylvania" - it was my "light reading" when I was in grad school at Penn State - specifically Volume 10

Introduction -- No. 1. "Pitch pine and prop timber" / by B.F.G. Kline -- No. 2. "Wild catting" on the mountain / by B.F.G. Kline -- No. 3. Ghost lumber towns of central Pennsylvania / by T.T. Taber, III -- No. 4. Sunset along Susquehanna waters / by T.T. Taber, III -- No. 5. The Goodyears : an empire in the hemlocks / by T.T. Taber, III -- No. 6. Whining saws and squealing flanges / by T.T. Taber, III -- No. 7. Sawmills among the derricks / by T.T. Taber, III -- No. 8. Tionesta Valley / by W.C. Casler -- No. 9. Teddy Collins' empire / by Walter C. Casler -- No. 10. Tanbark, alcohol and lumber / by T.T. Taber, III -- No. 11. Allegheny Valley logging railroads -- No. 12. Dinkies, dams and sawdust / by B.F.G. Kline -- No. 13. "Stemwinders" in the Laurel Highlands / by B.F.G. Kline -- [No. 14] Addenda and index.

 

 

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Posted by PC101 on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 9:52 PM

Late 1880s and early 1920s.

At a chemical plant. NATIONAL CHEMICAL COMPANY LYMAM RUN, PA. and GAFFNEY WOOD PRODUCTS COMPANY WALTON,PA ''Chemical wood''?. A picture shows a tank car waiting for minor repairs before being loaded with alcohol.

Welcome back Space mouse. 

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Posted by gmpullman on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 9:03 PM

I seem to recall somewhere in the history of J.D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Co. that he had cornered the market on tank cars as part of a ploy to squeeze his competitors that also needed tank cars.

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2884.html

From Train Collectors Association:

John D. Rockefeller called rail tank cars his “secret weapon” in developing Standard Oil, his small oil company, into a monopolistic force in the industry by controlling transportation. At the turn of the century, Standard’s Union Tank Line subsidiary built tank cars to serve only Standard Oil refineries. Rockefeller avoided Congressional pressure on his monopoly by making Union Tank Line a separate, independent company. It still served only Standard Oil. After the Supreme Court broke up the monopoly in 1911, Union Tank Line began to serve other oil markets.

https://www.tcatrains.org/etrain/history-of-the-rail-tank-car/

Interesting stuff.

Regards, Ed

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Posted by dehusman on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 8:58 PM

Kerosene, molasses, lube oil. 

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Posted by "JaBear" on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 8:10 PM
From what I’ve read, I’d suggest that in the 1890s the “horizontal” tank car was primarily used in the oil industry.
¼ My 2 Cents Cheers, the Bear. Smile

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Posted by SpaceMouse on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 7:55 PM

PC101

I do believe a Tannery of hides.

 

Nice one.

 

 

Chip

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Posted by PC101 on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 7:17 PM

I do believe a Tannery of hides.

I need to look through some books for the picture. 

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What industries would have used tank cars in the 1890's?
Posted by SpaceMouse on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 7:02 PM

Inquiring minds want to know,

Chip

Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.

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