What ever happened to. . .

[ericsp]

I was just thinking about some of the unusual freight cars I have seen, and cars owned or leased by shippers with logos came to my mind. Then it hit me that I used to see some regularly but do not see anymore. Does anyone know what happened to these? Are these still around the the companies have lost contracts or are these cars gone?

Emery Uncommon Chemicals: Light gray tankcars, usually stencilled "FATTY ACIDS", probably around 17,000 to 20,000 gallons. They were GATX and UTLX (I do not remember the number series). All of my internet searches for Emery do not yield very useful results. I am guessing they were bought out.

BF Goodrich: Also light gray and about the same size. It seems like they were in the TILX 150000 series, but I am not sure about that.

FMC Chemicals: Three bay Center-flow hoppers, in the SSIX 1000 series. FMLX hoppers (no logo) used to be common out here, then I did not see them for a while. Now I am starting to see them again. I will also see an occasional PTLX 17000 series 3-bay covered hopper (Pullman Standard) with the FMC Chemicals logo.

As a side note, I have notice that over the past few years, many of Cargill's cars have been having their logos patched over. I have not been seeing these show up with other reporting marks and the number series do not seem to be thinning out. Anyone know what is going on with these?

[edblysard]

Eric,

We had an Emery tank down here just a few days ago, white with red lettering.

And the FMC hoppers show up from time to time, they go to the Chevron refinery with the Emery car, about every other week.

 

Havent seen any patched Cargill cars...all the tank cars have the corn sweetner logo sill in place, and the tallow cars still have the Cargill logo.

[ericsp]

Eric,

We had an Emery tank down here just a few days ago, white with red lettering.

And the FMC hoppers show up from time to time, they go to the Chevron refinery with the Emery car, about every other week.

 

Havent seen any patched Cargill cars...all the tank cars have the corn sweetner logo sill in place, and the tallow cars still have the Cargill logo.

I don't think that I have seen any corn syrup tankcars that were patched, however I have seen corn syrup tankcars that never had the logo or were repainted without any. The strange thing is that I have been seeing quite a bit of light gray corn syrup tankcars, I wonder why they would paint these light gray. The cars with the obvious patches are vegetable oil tankcars and covered hoppers.

[CShaveRR]

Emery Industries became a division of the Quantum Chemical Corporation (now Millennium Petrochemicals (which is a partner of Equistar Chemicals).  I see an Emery car on rare occasions.

B. F. Goodrich Chemicals has gone through a couple of name changes (they were the GEON Corporation for a while--BFGX covered hoppers were relettered TGCX); they're now the PolyOne Company.

I think FMC has gone through a number of retrenchments and expansions.  The leased cars have, for the most part, been supplanted by newer, larger FMLX covered hoppers, including some 76000-series Center Flows obtained from OCI Chemicals (which was previously Rhone-Poulenc, and Stauffer Chemical prior to that).

This freight-car-freak business can be quite a bit more than reporting marks and numbers!

[CShaveRR]

As for Cargill, I think that is a corporate thing.  If you look at their website, they've adopted a new logo, something I haven't seen on freight cars yet (and I usually see Cargill cars by the hundreds).  The freshest-looking Cargill tank cars have been repainted light gray (they also took overe Cerestar--previously Amaizo/American Maize Products--and are painting out those logos, too).  I keep holding out hope that they'll soon slap their new logo on everything.

[miniwyo]

I think FMC has gone through a number of retrenchments and expansions.  The leased cars have, for the most part, been supplanted by newer, larger FMLX covered hoppers, including some 76000-series Center Flows obtained from OCI Chemicals (which was previously Rhone-Poulenc, and Stauffer Chemical prior to that).

I see the FMC and OCI Hoppers out here all the time at the Trona mines ( Not just the ones owned by FMC and OCI, but also General Chemical (Which we see from time to time as well) Solvay, and Church & Dwight (Arm & Hammer)). The OCI ones arent really too common though.

[Railfan1]

In Gainesville, Georgia ,"The Chicken Capital of the World", there are always strings and strings of Cargill hoppers and tankcars.

[ericsp]

Emery Industries became a division of the Quantum Chemical Corporation (now Millennium Petrochemicals (which is a partner of Equistar Chemicals).  I see an Emery car on rare occasions.

B. F. Goodrich Chemicals has gone through a couple of name changes (they were the GEON Corporation for a while--BFGX covered hoppers were relettered TGCX); they're now the PolyOne Company.

I think FMC has gone through a number of retrenchments and expansions.  The leased cars have, for the most part, been supplanted by newer, larger FMLX covered hoppers, including some 76000-series Center Flows obtained from OCI Chemicals (which was previously Rhone-Poulenc, and Stauffer Chemical prior to that).

This freight-car-freak business can be quite a bit more than reporting marks and numbers!

Thanks Carl. Do you know what happened to the SSIX 1000 series? Also, Accurail produces a 3-bay Center-flow in the FMLX 45000 series with the FMC logo. I have never seen any real ones, only in the 51000 and 52000 series (without logos). Did these exist? If so what happened to them?

I was looking over the PolyOne website and noticed they have quite a diverse product range. For some reason I thought they only took over the PVC and related business from BF Goodrich. I am guessing the BF Goodrich cars I used to see must have been latex cars.

As for the former BF Goodrich hoppers, it is nice to see some blue hoppers. I will probably eventually model one of those and some of the old ARCO Chemical (not to be confused with ARCO Polypropylene) Center-flow hoppers, which were painted a better shade of blue. I wonder what happend to them. Too bad neither Union Carbide nor Celtran (Celeanese) painted their hoppers blue, at least they did so with most of their tankcars. I wonder if Dow will eventually repaint the former Union Carbide cars light gray.

As for Cargill, I think that is a corporate thing.  If you look at their website, they've adopted a new logo, something I haven't seen on freight cars yet (and I usually see Cargill cars by the hundreds).  The freshest-looking Cargill tank cars have been repainted light gray (they also took overe Cerestar--previously Amaizo/American Maize Products--and are painting out those logos, too).  I keep holding out hope that they'll soon slap their new logo on everything.

It seems like the Cerestar cars were light gray, so perhaps that is why Cargill is painting some corn syrup tankcars light gray. However it still seems odd. With the vast majority of tankcars being black, it seems weird to paint tankcars a light color that carry a commodity that needs to be heated to unload it. I suppose if they are insulated, perhaps the shell color would not matter much. I wonder if the vegetable oil tankcars will eventually be repainted light gray also.

[CShaveRR]

Do you know what happened to the SSIX 1000 series? Also, Accurail produces a 3-bay Center-flow in the FMLX 45000 series with the FMC logo. I have never seen any real ones, only in the 51000 and 52000 series (without logos). Did these exist? If so what happened to them?

The SSIX 1000s are still around; logos obliterated.

FMC did have Center Flows with the logo in the 45300 series.  These cars, sans logos, are now relettered SRIX.

The FMLX 52000-series cars were built by Thrall.  Not easy to spot differences between those and the ACF/ARI Center Flows.

I was looking over the PolyOne website and noticed they have quite a diverse product range. For some reason I thought they only took over the PVC and related business from BF Goodrich. I am guessing the BF Goodrich cars I used to see must have been latex cars.

I think the small series of BFGX-lettered tank cars actually went to Occidental Chemical (whom I never hear about any more).  They were relettered DAX, IIRC.

As for the former BF Goodrich hoppers, it is nice to see some blue hoppers. I will probably eventually model one of those and some of the old ARCO Chemical (not to be confused with ARCO Polypropylene) Center-flow hoppers, which were painted a better shade of blue. I wonder what happend to them. Too bad neither Union Carbide nor Celtran (Celeanese) painted their hoppers blue, at least they did so with most of their tankcars. I wonder if Dow will eventually repaint the former Union Carbide cars light gray.

The Arco Chemical fleet was dispersed pretty widely--to Mobil Oil, GE Plastics, Tennessee Eastman, B. F. Goodrich, Allied Fibers, and possibly others.  They didn't stay blue very long, unfortunately (I agree--that was a nice shade of blue, when fresh).

And, yes, I've seen some former Union Carbide tank cars repainted gray and stencilled as leased to Dow Chemical.

It seems like the Cerestar cars were light gray, so perhaps that is why Cargill is painting some corn syrup tankcars light gray. However it still seems odd. With the vast majority of tankcars being black, it seems weird to paint tankcars a light color that carry a commodity that needs to be heated to unload it. I suppose if they are insulated, perhaps the shell color would not matter much. I wonder if the vegetable oil tankcars will eventually be repainted light gray also.

Cerestar cars are either black or gray.  I can remember when predecessor American Maize-products cars were green, with yellow lettering.  I've seen plenty of Cargill corn-syrup tanks still in black, with markings obliterated (never occurred to me to think about the different commodities, but you're right--the vegetable oil, ethanol, and tallow cars are still all black).  In the case of their aluminum covered hoppers for salt, the logos have often been scraped off or otherwise removed.

Some of the older, smaller, Cargill corn-syrup tanks have been sold off or scrapped--it's hard to find anything in the CRGX 4000 series any more.

[ericsp]

Do you know what happened to the SSIX 1000 series? Also, Accurail produces a 3-bay Center-flow in the FMLX 45000 series with the FMC logo. I have never seen any real ones, only in the 51000 and 52000 series (without logos). Did these exist? If so what happened to them?

The SSIX 1000s are still around; logos obliterated.

FMC did have Center Flows with the logo in the 45300 series.  These cars, sans logos, are now relettered SRIX.

The FMLX 52000-series cars were built by Thrall.  Not easy to spot differences between those and the ACF/ARI Center Flows.

Carl, I have found that the easiest way to tell the differfence between Thrall and ACF/ARI cars is to look at the bays. The angle seems to be further from vertical on the Thrall cars, it seems like the bay is longer at the side sill.

I was looking over the PolyOne website and noticed they have quite a diverse product range. For some reason I thought they only took over the PVC and related business from BF Goodrich. I am guessing the BF Goodrich cars I used to see must have been latex cars.

I think the small series of BFGX-lettered tank cars actually went to Occidental Chemical (whom I never hear about any more).  They were relettered DAX, IIRC.

Carl, when you wrote "whom I never hear about any more" did you mean that you do not see these cars? If so that makes for something rare, cars that I see out here that you do not see over there. I don't think I ever saw any of these when they were BF Goodrich cars. All of the BF Goodrich cars I saw were leased from Trinity Industries Leasing (TILX).

As for the former BF Goodrich hoppers, it is nice to see some blue hoppers. I will probably eventually model one of those and some of the old ARCO Chemical (not to be confused with ARCO Polypropylene) Center-flow hoppers, which were painted a better shade of blue. I wonder what happend to them. Too bad neither Union Carbide nor Celtran (Celeanese) painted their hoppers blue, at least they did so with most of their tankcars. I wonder if Dow will eventually repaint the former Union Carbide cars light gray.

The Arco Chemical fleet was dispersed pretty widely--to Mobil Oil, GE Plastics, Tennessee Eastman, B. F. Goodrich, Allied Fibers, and possibly others.  They didn't stay blue very long, unfortunately (I agree--that was a nice shade of blue, when fresh).

And, yes, I've seen some former Union Carbide tank cars repainted gray and stencilled as leased to Dow Chemical.

Too bad about the former Union Carbide tankcars. Of course, one would not expect that Dow would have two different colored fleets. Now, I am trying to find the photograph I saw of an ARCO covered hopper. I have found some photographs of models but not the real thing.  I wonder why I did not bookmark it.

It seems like the Cerestar cars were light gray, so perhaps that is why Cargill is painting some corn syrup tankcars light gray. However it still seems odd. With the vast majority of tankcars being black, it seems weird to paint tankcars a light color that carry a commodity that needs to be heated to unload it. I suppose if they are insulated, perhaps the shell color would not matter much. I wonder if the vegetable oil tankcars will eventually be repainted light gray also.

Cerestar cars are either black or gray.  I can remember when predecessor American Maize-products cars were green, with yellow lettering.  I've seen plenty of Cargill corn-syrup tanks still in black, with markings obliterated (never occurred to me to think about the different commodities, but you're right--the vegetable oil, ethanol, and tallow cars are still all black).  In the case of their aluminum covered hoppers for salt, the logos have often been scraped off or otherwise removed.

Some of the older, smaller, Cargill corn-syrup tanks have been sold off or scrapped--it's hard to find anything in the CRGX 4000 series any more.

I forgot about the ethanol tankcars, they do not show up much around here. I don't think I have ever seen any Cargill tallow tank cars. What number series do they have?

[CShaveRR]

I'm seeing very few cars owned by, or leased to, Occidental Chemical lately.  Whether it's because of a corporate breakup or alignment, or that they just decided to give their business to someone else, I don't know.  I remember a BFGX 7000 series of tank cars, which (I'm pretty sure) were relettered DAX, same numbers.

I think it was the early 1980s already when the Arco Chemical fleet disappeared.  A nother fleet of (lighter) blue Center Flows that vanished about the same time was CITGO Petroleum (lettered CSPX).  CITGO had about 700 cars (all built after about 1978), Arco closer to 1000.

Cargill's tallow cars are in the CRGX 16000 series.

[ericsp]

I just remembered another fleet of cars I have not seen in awhile. Air Products and Chemicals acetic acid tankcars. I think they were in the ARPX 6000 series. It seems like I saw some UTLX tankcars a few years ago that I thought, for some reason I do not remember, used to be these cars.

Add Southern Pacific tankcars and Santa Fe tankcars to the list. One used to be able to see hordes of these in Bakersfield, and some moving on trains. I saw a couple of SP tankcars a few months ago, before that it had probably been years. It has also been years since I have seen an ATSF tankcar. I guess a refinery or two in Bakersfield must have lost a contract.

I just thought of another one. Ex-RBOX boxcars that became SP. I only saw one once in 1993. I have only seen one photograph of one, it was taken in 1991.

[CShaveRR]

You're probably right--those APRX 6000-series cars went into the UTLX 647000 series.  I probably have most of the renumberings somewhere inside the other computer (which is totally incompatible with this one).

Had an SP tank car loitering around Proviso for the past couple of days--finally went to the wastewater treatment area.  Santa Fe tanks can occasionally be seen in with some BN tanks at their yard in Rochelle, probably used for company fuel (I think there's a terminal there where the tanks are loaded).

The ex-RBOX cars lettered for SP were returned to General Electric about the time you saw yours.  Most of them were relettered and renumbered to various HS series, but a few went to various shortlines for a while.  There were ATSF and RFP cars that got mixed in with these, and a few SOUTHERN cars as well.  They were eventually repainted; some were rebuilt with added height, others got ventilating system for use in woodpulp service.

[ericsp]

Thanks Carl. I remember seeing a SP tankcar a few years ago that had SLUDGE stencilled on it. So far it is the only SP 67300 series I have seen that was not carrying diesel fuel. Hopefully a Bakersfield refinery or two will get some diesel fuel contracts and I can see these cars again.

I just saw a bunch of HS FMC cars today. I wonder if any of these were the form SP/RBOX cars.

 

[ericsp]

I used to see tankcars with a "Level Rail" logo and LEVX reporting marks. I have since seen these cars with TEIX reporting marks and renumbered. According to the reporting marks website LEVX was assigned to Level Energy, Inc. A search for Level Energy, Inc. only yields results for reporting marks websites. Does anyone know what happened? It seems like these cars were only around for a couple of years with the LEVX reporting marks.

[edblysard]

Eric,

We get lots and lots of the ATSF fuel tankers down here, for loading/load out at Houston Fuel and oil, will try and get a photo or two.

The old ATSF logo, the intermediate BNSF sheild, and the new Swoop logo too, although the old ATSF logo with the gray band at one end is showing up less and less.

Ed

[CShaveRR]

I used to see tankcars with a "Level Rail" logo and LEVX reporting marks. I have since seen these cars with TEIX reporting marks and renumbered. According to the reporting marks website LEVX was assigned to Level Energy, Inc. A search for Level Energy, Inc. only yields results for reporting marks websites. Does anyone know what happened? It seems like these cars were only around for a couple of years with the LEVX reporting marks.

The LEVX cars were built in late 1996, but were gone by early 1999.  Level Energy is the only company to which the reporting marks were assigned.  As you mentioned, 34 of the 50 cars were relettered to the TEIX 33400 series.  The other 16 went to a company known as Centennial Gas Liquids (reporting marks CRPX, 9600 series).

I don't know that I ever saw these cars with their LEVX reporting marks.  But I did see both the CRPX and TEIX cars, and was able to igure out where they came from.

[ericsp]

Thanks Carl and Ed. Carl, I think I may have taken a photograph or two of the tankcars with LEVX reporting marks. I will see if I can find any, scan it and send it to you. I knew it had been a few years since I saw a LEVX tankcar, I did not realize it has been that long.

[Anonymous]

I dont know how old this threaD IS , i GOOGLED IT UP LOOKING FOR PHOTOS OF uNION cARBIDE CARS, LIKE THE GREEN lINDE BOX CARS.

 

aNY ONE HAVE A PIC?

 

tHANKS.

[CShaveRR]

You'd find those Linde cars using reporting marks SERX or LAPX.  Those were "box tank" cars, that might be a helpful term to use in your search.

[ericsp]

I have found photographs of an Emery tankcar and of a LEVX tankcar.

I also found a photograph of an Amoco Chemical 86' boxcar from 1976. I wonder what they used that to haul.

[samfp1943]

Just Curious about this company= Great Lakes Chemical Co, specifically their El Dorado, Arkansas operation, They were a supplier of Bromine products, they had a few tankers, that were notable, in that the tank size was about four feet or so in diameter and about half the length of a standard rail tank car. Bromine is an extremely heavy liquid for its volume.  I think they were bought out by a corporation known as Chemtura, but have no details..

I was just wondering if anyone had seen their cars around, especially in the Gulf Coast Chemical belt. I have no ideas about their current reporting makrks, they used to be, I think, GLCX but cannot be certain.

Eldorado, Ark is in the southern part of Arkansas, down near the Louisiana line.

[ericsp]

Just Curious about this company= Great Lakes Chemical Co, specifically their El Dorado, Arkansas operation, They were a supplier of Bromine products, they had a few tankers, that were notable, in that the tank size was about four feet or so in diameter and about half the length of a standard rail tank car. Bromine is an extremely heavy liquid for its volume.  I think they were bought out by a corporation known as Chemtura, but have no details..

I was just wondering if anyone had seen their cars around, especially in the Gulf Coast Chemical belt. I have no ideas about their current reporting makrks, they used to be, I think, GLCX but cannot be certain.

Eldorado, Ark is in the southern part of Arkansas, down near the Louisiana line.

They were around in 2004, they have, or had, GLKX reporting marks.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?id=GLKX&cid=12