White Tank Cars

Coors beer used white tank cars to ship their brew East. I used to see them on the Burlington Northern they were "CORX". I have not seen them lately on the BNSF. My guess the white reflects the heat better then black.

There is no DOT requirement that all tank cars in a particular product service must be a certain color.  Basically, the color of a tank car pretty much means nothing other than that’s what the car owner or lessee chose.

I manage rail for a chemical company and in our rail fleet; we have all white cars, white cars with oxide red center bands, white with black center bands, black with red boxes and all black.  I’ve seen competitors cars that are blue or varying shades of green.

The color combinations we choose have nothing to do with the characteristics of the product contained in a car and are intended only as a guide to our loaders indicating what product service the car is in.  And; even with that, they are still required to double check the reporting mark, car number and placards to confirm the car they intend to load is in the proper product service for what they plan to load in it.

Curt

I once set out a 50' white tank car carrying anhydrous ammonia...could barely keep my eyes open.  Nasty load.

These days, many white tank cars in my region are carrying HCl acid for oil field use.  Another nasty load.

Back in 1998, in Altoona, PA I remember seeing the white DuPont Ti-pure tank cars being refurbished at the former PRR passenger car shops.

I see white tank cars stenciled for Hydrochloric acid, Anhydrous ammonia, and Ethylene oxide. But, have also seen the latter stenciled on cars painted black, also. So, I agree, I think it depends on the color chosen by the car owner.

Rusty

Got any photos of a Coors white (or any color) tank car.  What time period did they operate in?  Have not seen that ..

I though white would be chosen for car that carried loads that easily evaporate like Ethanol.  Gosh, Lionel picked white for their Vision Line Ethanol Tank Cars.

colorado hirailer posted:

Got any photos of a Coors white (or any color) tank car.  What time period did they operate in?  Have not seen that ..

Google shall provide...

Rusty

colorado hirailer posted:

Got any photos of a Coors white (or any color) tank car.  What time period did they operate in?  Have not seen that ..

As I recall Coors ran the cars from Colorado to Virginia to supply the water to there Williamsburg Brewery. Never took a picture of them. I don't even remember how long they used them. 

There life was cut short when Coors stopped the practice, with the west coast water shortage?? There was some talk of reversing the cars and hauling water west bound due to the water shortages.  

CSX Fan,

From Beer and Breweries in Virginia:

It makes sense to locate a brewery near a major city; transportation costs from the manufacturing site to the customer can be reduced, but the costs of labor and taxes will be low outside the city limits. That's why Budweiser is brewed in James City County near Williamsburg, VA.

The other major manufacturer with a brewery in Virginia is Coors. In 1987 Coors built a plant near Elkton where they blend, package and distribute 7 million barrels of Coors beer to Eastern markets. Rockingham County has excellent water supply and water quality, so Coors beer in Virginia includes Shenandoah Valley - as well as Rocky Mountain - water.

I am so spoiled.  We have a brewery called "Sierra Nevada."  One cannot buy this stuff east of the Colorado River.  Every other beer tastes, to me, like dishwater.

One friend drinks Bud Light.  He says only the first can tastes like dishwater.

All my model tank cars are getting sprayed scarlet, with black domes and underframes, and white lettering with black outline.  Stunning!

bob2 posted:

I am so spoiled.  We have a brewery called "Sierra Nevada."  One cannot buy this stuff east of the Colorado River.  Every other beer tastes, to me, like dishwater.

There is a beer called Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, with a green label—they have other varieties, too—that has been sold in New England for at least the last 15 or 20 years. Is this the beer that you refer to? It is good, but we are fortunate to live in a time when there are dozens and dozens of good beers.

Rob Leese posted:

I once set out a 50' white tank car carrying anhydrous ammonia...could barely keep my eyes open.  Nasty load.

These days, many white tank cars in my region are carrying HCl acid for oil field use.  Another nasty load.

 

Rob:

I remember being in a meeting in Washington with some PHMSA folks years ago and the discussion turned to the irony inherent in hazmat regulations.  The one fellow used anhydrous ammonia as a good example.  Overturn a truckload of this stuff on the highway and it’s a hazmat spill requiring emergency response.  Move that same truck across the ditch along the highway and spread it in a farmers corn field and it’s a normal fertilizer application.

Curt

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Back in 1998, in Altoona, PA I remember seeing the white DuPont Ti-pure tank cars being refurbished at the former PRR passenger car shops.

this one's great. does anyone make it in O gauge?

Darn, but l guessed the tank car was not of the same era as the Coors wooden reefer in the Colorado RR Museum, so too modern for me.

The cars in the original post with the black stripe are used for oil.  Just had a chapter meeting for the PRRT&HS and one of our members worked at the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum.  He showed a video of a full unit train of those cars taking up the entire length of the Horseshoe Curve.  Very interesting to watch running because the center black stripe looks tricks the eye into thinking the cars end there.

I think MTH made a white, 3 dome Esso tank car that carried crankcase oil - did such a car actually exist ?

On Santa Fe, we shipped domestic water, in white tank cars,  from Newberry to cisterns at other locations (Amboy, Cadiz) on the Needles District.  The railroad supplied all water to those locations.

If you ever stopped at Roy's Cafe in Amboy, for pie and coffee, your coffee was brewed from water hauled in by ATSF.

bob2 posted:

I am so spoiled.  We have a brewery called "Sierra Nevada."  One cannot buy this stuff east of the Colorado River.  Every other beer tastes, to me, like dishwater.

You do realize there's a Sierra Nevada Brewery near Asheville, NC?

Tom:

Your comment about the ATSF water cars jogged my memory.

In a "previous life" I worked for a company that had a potash mine and refinery near Carlsbad, NM.  The mine itself was located at Nash Draw - southeast of Carlsbad and about 48 rail miles from the refinery which was due east of Carlsbad. 

We had no potable water supply at Nash Draw so Santa Fe provided us with an ancient riveted, full sill tank car that, as I recollect, had a build date from the late '30's.  The car was painted silver and stenciled for "Potable Water Only" and something to the effect it was not authorized for use in interline service. 

The daily ore shuttle that delivered the raw potash ore to the refinery would bring the empty Santa Fe tank car over one or two days each week.  The refinery would load the car with potable water and the next day's shuttle train would pull that along with empty ore cars and deliver everything back to the Nash Draw mine site.

When I look at one of Lionel's "steam era" single dome tank cars, I always think about that ancient, full sill, riveted Santa Fe tank car.  😉

Curt

I'm thinking around 2002. That blue car looks like a 1999 Ford Escort. The picture dates

franktrain posted:

colorado hirailer posted:

Got any photos of a Coors white (or any color) tank car.  What time period did they operate in?  Have not seen that ..

I found this photo(google) of the Coors tank cars. My guess early 1990's

2002.

John:

Add some appropriate New Mexico desert dust weathering and that’s our old water car!  👍

Thanks for posting this!  You have just given me something to start searching for on eBay.  😉

Curt

juniata guy posted:

Tom:

Your comment about the ATSF water cars jogged my memory.

In a "previous life" I worked for a company that had a potash mine and refinery near Carlsbad, NM.  The mine itself was located at Nash Draw - southeast of Carlsbad and about 48 rail miles from the refinery which was due east of Carlsbad. 

We had no potable water supply at Nash Draw so Santa Fe provided us with an ancient riveted, full sill tank car that, as I recollect, had a build date from the late '30's.  The car was painted silver and stenciled for "Potable Water Only" and something to the effect it was not authorized for use in interline service. 

The daily ore shuttle that delivered the raw potash ore to the refinery would bring the empty Santa Fe tank car over one or two days each week.  The refinery would load the car with potable water and the next day's shuttle train would pull that along with empty ore cars and deliver everything back to the Nash Draw mine site.

When I look at one of Lionel's "steam era" single dome tank cars, I always think about that ancient, full sill, riveted Santa Fe tank car.  😉

Curt

Curt, K-Line offered a twin pack consisting of a silver tank car with black graphics and a black tank car with silver/white graphics.  The upper case R behind the road number may indicate it was not for interline service.  We run the silver car in our MOW train.  John in Lansing, ILL

I live in the middle of ethanol land.  I've never seen anything but black tank cars hauling it.

Kent in SD

I didn't read all the posts, but a few years ago I downloaded a PDF called "TankCarHistory".  I think it was from UTLX:

https://www.utlx.com/utlx-history/

but scrolling thru the images there I don't see the same ones as in the PDF.

In the PDF, the 1st image of a white tankcar is from 1949.

Not white, but if Menards ever wanted to make this I'd buy one: