At the Wilmington & Western we have a tank car unlike any that I've seen before. It is UTLX #5504. I know little about it and I don't know where to find out more. Perhaps someone here knows something about this type of tank car. It is designed to be heated and there is a more traditional looking tank car under the sheathing, so I assume it hauled Bunker C type oil or asphalt. I would love to know more about this car. Thanks.

Ask around. The story I was told in the 1980s was that it had been converted to serve as some stationary storage tank at some facility (RR or non-RR) before it showed up at the W&W.

We DO have access to vintage Official Railway Equipment Registers, if we have to use them. Do your best to confirm the number.

This looks almost identical to an Ambroid Models HO kit of the 1950s-60s. There may be a photo of a similar car in the 1937 Car Builder's Cyclopedia (my bookshelf is about 95 miles away right now...).

Howard P.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/123800523 ... 462536990/

Scroll down. Certainly has a family resemblance, eh?

Howard P.

Howard,

When you get back to your place I would love to hear more about it.

there was just some discussion on one of the modeling forums about a nitric acid tank car with that style jacket, which was apparently used for commodities that generated poisonous fumes, to keep from trapping the fumes under the jacket. If you look under the edge of the jacket, I'm sure you will find it is open on the bottom.

Of course, when the initial service the car was built for disappeared, cars were often converted to a different service, such heavy oil or asphalt, which needed to be insulated with steal coils, but didn't particularly need the open bottom.

It might be a fuel oil car with pumps and or heaters under the tank and protected by the cover on the sides.

No entry in the Car Builder's Cyc.

I did see a model pic of a Monsanto Chemical car, MCHX 110. Google search of that number and reporting mark brought up an Ebay listing for a B&W print of that car, apparently one of those nitric acid cars. The dome is different, though.

Howard P.

There is a photo of a nitric acid car built by ACF in Edward Kaminski's book "American Car & Foundry Company 1899-1999" of a car from a single car build for Monsanto that has the same style of jacket. The car number in the photo is MHCX 117. The car had an aluminum tank with a carbon steel jacket. The information provided in the book states that the jacket was designed in this manner to stop accumulation of acid vapors. The car in the posted photo on RYPN is a general purpose car built around 1920, as it is an ARA III design general purpose tank car based upon the safety valve and its' location on the expansion dome of the car. I have been I the tank car business for 47 years, including working at UTLX shops and have never seen a car with this design of a jacket.

There was a black and white picture of one of these cars on e-bay recently. The car is numbered UTLX 85901 On the side it states " For Detergent Only" and ?Her?site liner (the modern spelling is Heresite). The car was constructed in May 1920. The tank has a date of 5-15-20 and UTC Co. It was serviced by UTC in June 1948. You can search it under the ebay sold listings for tculotta and UTLX.

Thanks,

Shay Stark

Here is a link to the Monsanto car at MOT in St. Louis.

http://travelphotobase.com/v/USMO/MOLY505.HTM