Flat Car with Chlorine Tanks

Mike, I have a photo of a Penn Salt chlorine tanker flat like that in a 1953 Car Builder's Cyclopedia.
CAPY is 80,000
LT WT is 33,800
AAR Class TMU,
Builder: ACF.
The car's reporting mark is PSMX 1016, oddly on the extreme right side sheet.

A long sign is attached to the middle of the car reading in Gothic type caps:
PENNSYLVANIA SALT MFG.CO.
followed by in smaller letters on two lines:
CHLORINE GAS
TANK CAR

No note as to color but I'd suppose it's a black car with white lettering and stainless steel chlorine cannister tanks.
I could scan this and send it to you if you like.

Let me know directly by e-mail since I'm unable to directly post photos here.

Ed Bommer

quote:

No note as to color but I'd suppose it's a black car with white lettering and stainless steel chlorine cannister tanks.

Those are standard chlorine ton containers. They are carbon steel and usually painted silver. Pioneer Chemical liked to paint theirs blue with yellow bonnets.

Putting fifteen tons on a flat car is not very efficient which is why there never were too many of these cars. 50 to 90 tons can be carried by a conventional tank car and a truck can haul 12 loaded ton containers and stay under 80,000 lbs gross weight.

In part, the one ton size chlorine tank may have been related to the needs of end users of that gas. Municipal well water treatment plants I think, may have been one such user. Large public swimming pools perhaps another?

Once such a car reached its main delivery point, the individual tanks would be taken by truck to their final destinations, much like cement and brick containers once carried in gondola cars.

I can't seem to recall bulk chlorine gas being carried in tank trucks back in the 1950s. However I do recall occasionally seeing these 1 ton gas containers tied down on special rack-equipped delivery trucks.

Ed Bommer

Didn't Sunset Models/3rd Rail do this type of car 4 O guage in the 1990's in brass?

quote:

Didn't Sunset Models/3rd Rail do this type of car 4 O guage in the 1990's in brass?

Yes, I have this car in PRR roadname. Comes with about a 10 aluminum cannisters.

Cesar

I can’t post them because they are copyrighted, but in James Kinkaid, Tank Car Color Guide Vol 1. Morning sun books 2010, at pp120 and 121 there are 5 different photos of this type of car (ICC166A500: ACFX 426, ACFX 522, JCIX 131 (Jones Chemicals), RTCX 340 (Olin Matheison) and SHPX 216 (Dupont).

I have extra custom decals if you still have to letter and paint your car...

Brad Thanks for the offer but since this post went up I've had them made. What I need now is a schematic showing where the data goes as some is on the underframe and I can't make out the locations on the few photo's I've found.

Mike I have images; will forward them to you.