Can anyone identify what kind of freight car this is and what kind of cargo it would carry?
(Original link to photo did not work so here is another one.)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1snhtdyXyJaxdL-bqWRoztOD6s9-BXk7p4g/view?usp=sharing
Nope, photo link not working.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
cv_acr Nope, photo link not working.
Yep, needs preferences set for public viewing.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
As happens the OP seems to have lost interest. Steve Otte has posted a tutorial about how to post photos on this site. I for one am always interested in unusual freight cars so I hope he tries again.
Dave Nelson
Sorry the link did not work, still new to this post-a-photo thing. I'll try anew one.
They remind me of IBC (intermediate bulk container) cages used to transport liquids in trucking industry. https://www.ntotank.com/ibc-totes
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Aldebaran Sorry the link did not work, still new to this post-a-photo thing. I'll try anew one. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1snhtdyXyJaxdL-bqWRoztOD6s9-BXk7p4g/view?usp=sharing
The model is one by AHM. And it seems everyone of a "certain age" bought one. I think I have one in the garage, somewhere.
An early car (DUPX 50001) was built by ACF in January of 1963. I don't know if these two cars were built to a common plan by the two builders. They are certainly very similar. DUPX is a DuPont reporting mark.
Here's a photo of one with the reporting marks SHPX. it looks like a builders photo. I think any SHPX reporting marks precede the DUPX:
Note how the placard on the side moves around. It's also placed differently on DUPX 50001 in a photo in Edward S. Kaminski's "American Car & Foundry Company 1899-1999".
It's been said they carried containers of acrylonitrile. Those would be the two boxes on the car to the left.
And, now, for the ORER geeks:
January 1965 DUPX 50000-50099--5 cars (no SHPX that match)
April 1970 DUPX 50000-50021--22 cars
April 1980 same, except 50008 and 50009 gone--20 cars
July 1985 8 cars left
October 1990 8 cars left
April 1995 2 cars left
July 2000 series gone
I seriously wonder how long 50007 had the SHPX mark.
And I seriously doubt there were any cars that looked like this one lettered for anything other than DuPont.
Ed
From: http://www.spookshow.net/freight/roco70container.htm
70 ton container car
"used for carrying small containers of Acrylonitrile. The containers were loaded through the sides (through the triangular frame section) and fastened by steel rods. The cars are listed in the "Official Railway Equipment Register" 1977, page 959 as SHPX series 50020. Acrylonitrile is highly flammable, toxic and prone to explosive polymerization - hence the need for small, specialized containers."
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
DSchmitt"used for carrying small containers of Acrylonitrile. The containers were loaded through the sides (through the triangular frame section) and fastened by steel rods."
Interesting cars. Never seen them before. The diagonal bracing must've come off to allow loading from the side?
Loading and securing the load for these cars is certainly interesting. In the photo of the partially loaded car, you can see some "load dividers" lifted up above the car. I suspect that they were lowered to secure the load, and probably dropped down into notches in the frame top. I think the rods were there just to hold them while they were lifted. I think.
Note, in the same picture, that some of the angled pieces have been removed. I suspect the containers were loaded through there.
The question is: how did the containers move from that opening to their location. One way is with some kind of rollers in the floor. We don't have a good view of the floor to see if that's so. Another would be by forklift. There appears there MIGHT be enough vertical clearance available. Especially for a purpose designed forklift.
I wonder what the route was for these cars. The stuff is used for production of acrylic fibers and ABS. I did find a photo of a DuPont plant in Beaumont, Texas.
Thanks everyone for the interesting information. I have five of these cars and I have been puzzled about how to use them or what industry they might serve.
And the plot thickens, as whats-his-name said:
I found on Fallen Flags 3 photos of DUPX 50019. The notes say the photos were shot in Paterson, NJ on 10/14/79. While the carbody itself matches up nicely with the photo above of 50021, the tall racks have been FULLY removed. It still carries a type of container, in this case ones carrying sodium cyanide. Yummers!
Now, it's interesting that the ORER's, over the years. never reflected the rack removal in the extreme height listing (11'-6"). So, we're up in the air about when the racks were removed and how extensively it was done.
Also, I've spent more time studying the photos. And all three appear to show different carbody construction:
50001 (by ACF) has a fishbelly sidesill, and APPEARS to be non-riveted (???)
50007 (by ACF) has a fishbelly sidesill that is riveted
50019 (by Ortner) has a straight non-riveted sidesill
The AHM car looks to match the 50007. Hard to say for sure about 50001.
Robert J Wayner's book "Freight Car Pictorial" has a photo of SHPX 50008, which is the same class as the 50007. It is labled E I DuPont de Nemours & Co (Du Pont)
The caption says it was leased to Du Pont to carry containers of sodium cyanide, used for electroplating and case hardening of materials. New 4-57. Blt 4-57.
Thus far I am unable to find photos about just what those circa 1957 containers would have looked like. Tanks? Box-like?
While the car in question has been firmly identified, I remembered (a bit late) where I had first seen the model several months back - on the AHM Train Resource page "Container Carrier" page. The author of that page states it carried "round chemical tanks", but he's not always 100% accurate. Some pulpwood rack confusion comes because this AHM model shared it's underframe with the AHM pulpwood rack car.Amusingly to me, nosing around the web I found this same "ID-this-car" question has been asked on Trainboards and the Tyco forum over the years, and now it's the Model Railroader forum's turn. Possibly some of the posters in this thread participated in those earlier threads (the images linked were the same).
chutton01 (the images linked were the same).
(the images linked were the same).
There's a real limited selection to choose from. Unfortunately.
I've seen dry very hazardous chemicals shipped in totes like that. They are about 4 ft x 4 ft x 10 ft tall and very heavily built, apparently two across in a car like that. The totes have a hopper bottom to aid discharge from the spout on the bottom side. It looks like the top beams lift up and drop down to form dunnage to secure the totes. This style of tote is still used today but usually shipped by truck.
The IBC totes another poster shows are much newer and usually hod liquids.
Just catching up here, a little late. These cars were fairly common in Niagara Falls NY for DuPont and Hooker during the 1960s. They were used to carry high TOTE bins filled with highly reactive chemicals as noted by others. A variation on this theme are 4-foot tall shorties used for carrying calcium carbide powder. In its raw form, this is the stuff that puts the boom in toy cannons and the bright light in old fashioned miners lamps. Needs to be kept in small, dry, separate containers.
I have all four road names in N scale. Unique cars. Acryonitrile is VERY nasty stuff. It can self polymerize (heat up on its own) and explode if it gets too hot. When it catches fire it gives of very toxic fumes.
I wonder if they were built like a cage to help prevent the containers fom being torn open in the event of a wreck.
Jim
The contents of the containers can not slosh around. so the cars are designed to contain any movement of the containrs contents. If some of the products slosh they can heat up, (self polymorize_ and catch fire.
Ura Goldberg