Transporting Wine in Tank Cars

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

QUOTE: Originally posted by piouslion

QUOTE: Originally posted by skeets

Many years back, Madera Wines of California used to ship small [8000gals.] riveted tanks full of uncut wine to their local facility here. There was no special lettering, and I think they were lease cars. Anyway, the car would be spotted on their spur, and the crew would be careful to leave chocks under the wheels on one end. When the car was empty the boys would pull it down in the yard where the drain plug was opened and about 50 gals. of uncut wine would run into waiting containers. Man. You could get stupid on uncut wine...8^@ [so I've heard, at least...]

BTW, Madera Wine was trash.

In a way that gives real understanding to the spirit(s) of railroading. [:D]

For that you get a Mookie Groan....

[}:)]

. . .and I'm sure that it is a worthy one

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tatans

SHIPPED IN TANK CARS EH? That could explain the flavor of crude oil in that 89 cent bottle of California "La Brea Chardonnais" that was shipped to Omaha in a 1946 SINCLAIR OIL tank car. Guess I'd better up my wine budget a few notches.

La Brea...hahahaha

[tatans]

SHIPPED IN TANK CARS EH? That could explain the flavor of crude oil in that 89 cent bottle of California "La Brea Chardonnais" that was shipped to Omaha in a 1946 SINCLAIR OIL tank car. Guess I'd better up my wine budget a few notches.

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by piouslion

QUOTE: Originally posted by skeets

Many years back, Madera Wines of California used to ship small [8000gals.] riveted tanks full of uncut wine to their local facility here. There was no special lettering, and I think they were lease cars. Anyway, the car would be spotted on their spur, and the crew would be careful to leave chocks under the wheels on one end. When the car was empty the boys would pull it down in the yard where the drain plug was opened and about 50 gals. of uncut wine would run into waiting containers. Man. You could get stupid on uncut wine...8^@ [so I've heard, at least...]

BTW, Madera Wine was trash.

In a way that gives real understanding to the spirit(s) of railroading. [:D]

For that you get a Mookie Groan....

[}:)]

[mvlandsw]

QUOTE: Originally posted by K. P. Harrier

Forget the wine … I wonder if Cocaine isn’t being transported by the Class 1’s. Why else would security be so tight? … and so unreasonable too?

Maybe that's what's in those CSX "Coke Express" hoppers.

[dharmon]

So I can order booze by the car load??????????

Lock up your daughters!!!!!!!

[mudchicken]

QUOTE: Originally posted by techguy57

[#offtopic]

A bit off topic, but having worked for 7up as a merchandiser/pt salesmanand at a liquor store, I always get confused by Coors claim of keeping their beer cold from brewery to buyer. Perhaps it moves by refridgerated railcar, and even by refridgerated truck, but during the summer it sits in the warm stock room of gwith all the other beer that there isn't room in the cooler for. Some states like Indiana you can't buy cold beer in a grocery store (at least you couldn't when I lived there). Had a manager who claimed that why leaving cold beer out didn't necessarily skunk it.

Mike

Beer leaves Golden in specially insulated dedicated Boxcars to various distributors at 34 degrees. The cars usually have a recorder that goes out with them that monitors temperature over time. The exception are the boxcars that go south from Denver to Mexico and come back with several varieties of Mexican Beer including Corona. Those are some of the most suspect looking freightcars ever seen. Until recently, Coors encouraged their distributors to receive by rail and we hear they may again with fuel prices on the rise and a change in management.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by skeets

Many years back, Madera Wines of California used to ship small [8000gals.] riveted tanks full of uncut wine to their local facility here. There was no special lettering, and I think they were lease cars. Anyway, the car would be spotted on their spur, and the crew would be careful to leave chocks under the wheels on one end. When the car was empty the boys would pull it down in the yard where the drain plug was opened and about 50 gals. of uncut wine would run into waiting containers. Man. You could get stupid on uncut wine...8^@ [so I've heard, at least...]

BTW, Madera Wine was trash.

In a way that gives real understanding to the spirit(s) of railroading. [:D]

[Anonymous]

Many years back, Madera Wines of California used to ship small [8000gals.] riveted tanks full of uncut wine to their local facility here. There was no special lettering, and I think they were lease cars. Anyway, the car would be spotted on their spur, and the crew would be careful to leave chocks under the wheels on one end. When the car was empty the boys would pull it down in the yard where the drain plug was opened and about 50 gals. of uncut wine would run into waiting containers. Man. You could get stupid on uncut wine...8^@ [so I've heard, at least...]

BTW, Madera Wine was trash.

[locomutt]

Darn,I thought wine was transported in wooden tankers for ageing.
Oh,well beer doesn't have to age as long[:P][}:)]

[Anonymous]

I attended a tanker safety class last year and the instructor told us we were to contact him immediately if we ever had a leak in a seven-dome tanker - so he could bring the buckets as these are all wine tankers.

RH

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by passengerfan

Living in wine country our local library mentioned that only the cheap so called table wines are shipped by tank cars. Many California wineries ship tank cars of wine to New York and other states where they are bottled under local or so called house labels or in some cases private labels.

Cheap Wine shipped in Tank Cars? Any stories of hobos getting legs chopped off at the knee after passing out underneath the nozzle of one these? I heard a story once about a derailment near dunsmuir,boxcar tipped over spilling it's contents of cases of table wine into the sacramento river. Wonder what life was like at the tramp camp downstream that week.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by fuzzybroken

QUOTE: Originally posted by talbanese

Most wine is bottled before shipping. Especially the higher end wines. Exposure to air will change the wine( during transfer, amount left in tank when filled). I would imagine only jug wine is shipped in tank cars.

What about wine in a box? [swg]

-Mark
http://www.geocities.com/fuzzybroken

Vacuum sealed!!! You can ship all the boxes in a tank car. No Problem.

[M636C]

There are wine tankers in Australia. These are used from Griffith, a wine growing area in the South West of New South Wales to Sydney. I knew about them, but I assumed they had gone away like so many other "traditional" railway traffic. A couple of years ago I encountered the "Griffith Speedfreight" at Goulburn and just behind the locomotives were these three small tank cars (in the 30,000 to 40,000 litre range). What immediately drew my attention was that these cars were numbered with big white roman numerals on the tank side, more than a metre high. The cars I saw were "IV", "V" and "VI". These cars have normal numbers as well, but the roman numerals were used to allow for rapid recognition so that the cars were easily identified and not delayed ( so that the nasty effects gabe was worried about were avoided). The rest of the train was made up of container cars, so the train was fairly distinctive.

Peter

[fuzzybroken]

QUOTE: Originally posted by talbanese

Most wine is bottled before shipping. Especially the higher end wines. Exposure to air will change the wine( during transfer, amount left in tank when filled). I would imagine only jug wine is shipped in tank cars.

What about wine in a box? [swg]

-Mark
http://www.geocities.com/fuzzybroken

[techguy57]

[#offtopic]

A bit off topic, but having worked for 7up as a merchandiser/pt salesmanand at a liquor store, I always get confused by Coors claim of keeping their beer cold from brewery to buyer. Perhaps it moves by refridgerated railcar, and even by refridgerated truck, but during the summer it sits in the warm stock room of gwith all the other beer that there isn't room in the cooler for. Some states like Indiana you can't buy cold beer in a grocery store (at least you couldn't when I lived there). Had a manager who claimed that why leaving cold beer out didn't necessarily skunk it.

Mike

[mersenne6]

In the memoir 30 Years Over Donner - a first person account of the day-to-day life of a railroad signalman - he recounts the time a 3 compartment wine tanker derailed and tipped over on it side. The tank car had special relief valves on the domes to allow for expansion and contraction of the liquid but with the car on its side the valves were filled with liquid and as the day dawned and got warmer the wine (three different types - one per compartment) started squirting out in small fountains. The wrecking crew took note of this fact and decided to do some sampling....one sample led to another and in very short order the entire crew was completely smashed. About 4 hours later the road foreman came back to look at the progress and found all of the men passed out under a tree near the tanker.

In the book Call the Big Hook - a first person account of working on the wrecking crew - the author described cleaning up a wreck where one of the tank cars was a glass lined hauler of whiskey. He and his partner had to get under the tank car to secure chains for removal of the car. The car seams had split and whiskey was leaking out and turning the immediate area under the car into a whiskey laced mud bath. Both men were soaked head to foot with whiskey and the nature of the work required them to get back under the car more than once. The end result was that both men were covered with whiskey soaked mud. The one man had gone on the wagon several years before after a lot of discussion with his wife. When he came walking in the door that night his wife yelled from the kitchen, "Whiskey!, I smell whiskey!" He had quite a bit of explaining to do and ultimately his wife called the road foreman to confirm his story.

[mudchicken]

QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken
It's the springwater (guffaw from one who has seen the source....ain't marketing wunnerful? ) and the other ingredients mixed together...

[:D][:D][:D]

Muddy,
Isn't the "Pure Rocky Mountain Water" actually snowmelt that flows over an old mine's waste tailings pile somewhere up in the hills?

close.....(nothing hazardous though)


Then again, Sam Adams is brewed in BOSTON....Cincinnati! in the old Hudepohl/Schoenling/Burger brewhouse on Central Parkway....[:D]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by gabe

As an oenophile I can say only a philistine would drink wine that is shipped in a tank car. Subjecting the wine to that large scale sloshing, the air exposure transfering the wine, and (unless the tank is glass line) the reaction of the wine to the sides of the tank would make it unfit for transporting self respecting vinegar.

Gabe

You give new meaning to processed in transit. I just hope that it becomes good vinegar

[zardoz]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken
It's the springwater (guffaw from one who has seen the source....ain't marketing wunnerful? ) and the other ingredients mixed together...

[:D][:D][:D]

Muddy,
Isn't the "Pure Rocky Mountain Water" actually snowmelt that flows over an old mine's waste tailings pile somewhere up in the hills?

[CShaveRR]

Was it Coors that used those FGE "Chiller" reefers (modified with the beer vats inside) for a while (probably before they got the tanks)? Every once in a while I find those things in the ARMN fleet--tanks are gone, but the big roof hatch is still there.

[mudchicken]

QUOTE: Originally posted by richardy

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

Coors still ships wort in dedicated CORX glass lined tank cars from Golden to it's soon to be closed brewery back east. (Coors Molson merger economic move)...........


[;)][;)][;)]

Mud:

What is wort? Is that the same as water? I thought they shipped Rocky Mountain Springwater in the tanks?

Richard

Wort is beer in the fermentation process, right where the hops and malt are added (still has solids floating around in it after cooking in the giant copper vatsand has not been strained off)....those solids become waste and generally is used as animal feed & smells like a bakery when exposed to the sun.....

It's the springwater (guffaw from one who has seen the source....ain't marketing wunnerful? ) and the other ingredients mixed together...

[:D][:D][:D]

[CShaveRR]

Most wine tank cars of the past two generations have been multi-compartment cars, probably to keep the sloshing to a minimum. In the 1950s, those tank cars with five or six domes on top were generally in wine service.

I'm sure these tank cars are lined (and insulated, too), but not with glass.

[gabe]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

Gabe: Do you hafta take medicine for that?

Only when I get the bill. [;)]

[Junctionfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by gabe

As an oenophile I can say only a philistine would drink wine that is shipped in a tank car. Subjecting the wine to that large scale sloshing, the air exposure transfering the wine, and (unless the tank is glass line) the reaction of the wine to the sides of the tank would make it unfit for transporting self respecting vinegar.

Gabe

I hear that. Give me a nice wine made by a micro brewery out in the country surrounded by vines and country side. It costs more but why spend money on something that tastes like feet?

[Anonymous]

Wow! Thanks for the information, everyone! I had no idea that this kind of thing was done and I certainly didn't imagine that it would still be done today.

Greyhounds, I've heard of simmilar stories occurring here, too. Back in the day when they used to use wooden boxcars and reefers, people (in these stories it was bootleggers, not railroad men) would chissel through the bottom and get the booze to run out.

[daveklepper]

However, at one time there were some private owner reefers or box cars owned by winaries before all went oiut by truck. For bottled wine.

[Mookie]

Gabe: Do you hafta take medicine for that?

[gabe]

As an oenophile I can say only a philistine would drink wine that is shipped in a tank car. Subjecting the wine to that large scale sloshing, the air exposure transfering the wine, and (unless the tank is glass line) the reaction of the wine to the sides of the tank would make it unfit for transporting self respecting vinegar.

Gabe