I'm currently attempting to build up a tank car fleet that would be accurate for my time (1953-1957) and locale (suburban New Jersey on the Lackawanna).  Going over different sources like this list's archives, the Speedwitch tank car book, "The Postwar Freight Car Fleet" and many of the Railmodel Journal articles on models and prototypes, I'm trying to establish if a Shell tank car 1. existed in my time frame and 2. operated under what reporting marks?  From what I can gather, the eastern Shell division -- SEPX -- began switching to the RPX initials in the early '40s.  Further reading suggests that the RPX fleet was folded into one of the large leasing firms (UTLX or GATX).  I'm curious if any Shell/RPX cars would be in a consist in the NY/NJ/PA area in the mid '50s or if by that point they would be part of one of the larger monolithic fleets?

Any and all assistance is appreciated.  If this has been addressed before, my apologies.  I went through the archives but sometimes I miss things.

Thanks,

Brian LaManna/Moncton, NB

After 1960? Off in the dim future somewhere? C'mon, Tim.

Tony Thompson

After 1960, a minority of the reefers had either interior alcohol heaters,
or charcoal heaters mounted underneath, like the XI cars. Some of these were
equipped for bulk potato loading. However, prior to 1960 none of the reefers
had permanent heaters of any kind as you say.

Tim O'

The cars with heaters were NOT reefers, but were XI cars. The BAR reefers did NOT have permanent heaters. That's my understanding. Please correct if you have more info.

Tony Thompson

After 1960? Off in the dim future somewhere? C'mon, Tim.

Tony Thompson

After 1960, a minority of the reefers had either interior alcohol heaters,
or charcoal heaters mounted underneath, like the XI cars. Some of these were
equipped for bulk potato loading. However, prior to 1960 none of the reefers
had permanent heaters of any kind as you say.

Tim O'

The cars with heaters were NOT reefers, but were XI cars. The BAR reefers did NOT have permanent heaters. That's my understanding. Please correct if you have more info.

Tony Thompson

A'hem, pretty broad statement regarding pre-1960. FGE's Plywood sheathed FOBX 50-foot 4000 overhead bunker cars built beginning in 1944 were equipped with heaters under the floor and while granted it was a singular entity, Aluminum car FGEX 40000 was rebuilt with a permanent underslung heater.

Then there all those pesky Canadian reefers so equipped.

Bill Welch

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3a. Re: THINNER FOR FLOQUIL SOLVENT BASED PAINTS
Posted by: "anthony wagner" anycw1@sbcglobal.net tonyw738
Date: Thu May 11, 2017 6:52 pm ((PDT))

For what it's worth, I used lacquer thinner with both Floquil and Scalecoat before I switched to acrylics. It worked better with Floquil and saved some cash over buying brand specific thinners. A quart can would last a long time. Tony Wagner

On Thursday, May 11, 2017 3:31 PM, "Rod Miller rod@rodmiller.com [STMFC]" <STMFC@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

On 5/11/17 1:09 PM, Nelson Moyer npmoyer@hotmail.com [STMFC] wrote:

You’re rumor is urban legend. If you read the fine print on the can, you will
see that the ingredients include a number of organic solvents that are
immiscible with water. If you wish to experiment, put a little water in a
small jar and add a little lacquer thinner. Your will see water on the bottom
layer and lacquer thinner on top. If you shake the jar and let it stand, the
solvents will separate into two layers. I don’t have my CRC handbook any
more, but you look up the solubility tables if you have one available.

Nelson Moyer

From: STMFC@yahoogroups.com [mailto:STMFC@yahoogroups.com] Sent: Thursday,
May 11, 2017 2:34 PM To: STMFC@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [STMFC] Re:
THINNER FOR FLOQUIL SOLVENT BASED PAINTS



It is rumored that the big box lacquer thinners are cut with water.

For painting I buy lacquer thinner from auto paint supply stores. For clean
up I use the big box thinner.

-- Rod Miller

Good info, thanks.

 

A copy of the January 1943 ORER has been in my library since it was first reprinted by the NMRA in 2001. It was my first exposure to this type of data and captured my interest.

A very handy table can be found on pages 1012-1016; Recapitulation of Cars - Freight. This is a data breakdown of box car (X), ventilator cars (V) and stock car (S) quantities across a few different lengths. It is an easy to use table to find ventilated and automobile car quantities. Oddly, grand totals for each of the car classes are not compiled, but it's easy to add up the ventilated car amounts and compare with quantities for specific railroads. I wish I could find a similar table for mid-1920s data.

After quick work with the calculator, the ventilated car quantities total 13,637 cars. In the big picture, that is not a great number. There were more PRR X29 class box cars in service in 1943 than ventilated box cars. But you notice those X29s, don't you? I think our freight car-trained eyes would notice a ventilated car with a slatted second side door and/or small end vents, too. Here are the lines with ventilated cars listed in order of car quantities

 

Central of Georgia - 3647 cars; 2731 of these have an IL 40-foot or greater

Atlantic Coast Line - 3244 cars; 494 of these have an IL 40-foot or greater

Seaboard Air Line - 3046 cars; none with an IL 40-foot or greater

Louisville & Nashville - 2096 cars; none with an IL 40-foot or greater

Norfolk & Western - 612 cars; none with an IL 40-foot or greater

Chesapeake & Ohio - 595 cars; 100 of these have an IL 40-foot or greater

Southern - 357 cars; none with an IL 40-foot or greater

Delaware & Hudson - 20 cars; none with an IL 40-foot or greater

Southern Pacific - Lines in TX & LA - 12 cars; none with an IL 40-foot or greater

Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast - 8 cars; none with an IL 40-foot or greater

 

Post-War, these numbers began to fall off as the cars were older and the war service was hard on the aging fleet. A combination of increased truck competition, better reefer utilization, and the K-brake ban of 1953 cause the ventilated cars to rapidly disappear from the national freight car fleet over the next 20 years.

As an aside, the 50-foot or greater inside length box cars totaled 47,224, about 3.5 times more than the 1943 ventilated car total.

 

Eric Hansmann

El Paso, TX