Head-On Collision Line

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know anything about the Head-on Collision Line? It shows up on page 851 of the 1983 Official Railway Equipment Register and is no longer listed. The reporting mark was HOCX and they had 60 tank cars. The owner was in Chicago. I would like to know if they had a logo or what the cars looked like so I could model one. Also the history of the name?

[Anonymous]

As I recall, just black tanks lettered HOCX with all the required info, but no other lettering. I think they were leased to their users. We used to see them in the Baltimore area at times, but you wouldn't know what HOCX meant unless you bothered to look it up in an Equipment Register.

[Anonymous]

As I recall, just black tanks lettered HOCX with all the required info, but no other lettering. I think they were leased to their users. We used to see them in the Baltimore area at times, but you wouldn't know what HOCX meant unless you bothered to look it up in an Equipment Register.

[Anonymous]

HOOKER CHEMICAL COMPANY

[Anonymous]

No, Hooker is HOKX. HOCX was Head On Collision Line and dissappeared from the register several years ago.

[CShaveRR]

As I recall, most of their tank cars were black, but there was a series of green cars with yellow lettering for American Maize-Products (the HOCX low-800 series), and another series of yellow and black cars lettered "Pure Sweet Molasses", with no lessee ID.

No Head-on Collision logos that I ever saw, and tha cars aren't around any more. I would have loved to see some of the company's stationery!

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Carl! I also have wondered if the name was chosen after being assigned the "HOCX" or if they had an incident that needed remembering. Either way they must have had a sense of humor.

[CShaveRR]

Can't help much there...but the company having that name would have applied for the reporting mark, so the company was named first. It was based in Chicago, and was active from 1957 to 1991.

In a 1962 ORER, the listing says that the cars were marked "Head-On Collision Line", so I'm wondering about the earlier cars. I don't think I saw any of the very old 4000- and 6000-gallon cars they had; they very well could have had some lettering on them.

Carl