My May, 1903 copy of the ORER lists cars 1 -230 for the Sherman Oil & Cotton
Co. of Sherman, Texas.

No mention of this company in 1891 or 1909 ORERs.

John C. La Rue, Jr.
Bonita Springs, FL

Fellow Listers,

While surfing the net for images of Texas railroads, I came
across this photo of Sherman Oil & Cotton Company tank cars:

http://www.texasrecord.org/results_single.asp?cat=Trains&s=99

The location is around Sherman or Plano, Texas. The photo isn't
dated, but from the general theme of this web site I'll guess
it's about WW-I or just after. There is a link near the bottom
of the page that lets you blow the image up quite a bit more.
Note the little "steps" that go up the side of the tank on #170
instead of a ladder or platform. It also has steam pipes, which
suggests cotton oil must have been pretty thick stuff.

My June, 1924 ORER (the earliest edition I have) doesn't list
these cars at all. Can someone with an earlier ORER give more
info on these cars and their owner? Also, any speculation as to
who might have built these?

Thanks,

Shawn Beckert

From Shawn Beckert:

While surfing the net for images of Texas railroads, I came
across this photo of Sherman Oil & Cotton Company tank cars:

http://www.texasrecord.org/results_single.asp?cat=Trains&s=99

The location is around Sherman or Plano, Texas. The photo isn't
dated, but from the general theme of this web site I'll guess
it's about WW-I or just after. There is a link near the bottom
of the page that lets you blow the image up quite a bit more.
Note the little "steps" that go up the side of the tank on #170
instead of a ladder or platform. It also has steam pipes, which
suggests cotton oil must have been pretty thick stuff.

Shawn, the construction of these cars is typical turn-of-the-century with
wood underframes, end blocks to hold the tanks in position, and a center
tank band that splits at the dome to go around the dome (also a means,
though not very effective, of preventing the tank from shifting). The
steps attached to the tank band were also common in this period, and
doubtless gave many a trainman who was walking the running boards bloody
shins. The builder's logo at the right end of the tank on car #170, though
not entirely legible even in the hi-res image, is almost certainly that of
American Car & Foundry. Cars very similar to this, though somewhat larger,
were built by AC&F ca. 1901-1904 for the Santa Fe; a decade later, steel
underframes replaced the wood underframes on the Santa Fe cars. (For the
whole story, see my forthcoming Santa Fe Historical Society Rolling Stock
Reference Series book on Santa Fe tank cars).

I could find no listing for the Sherman Oil & Cotton Co. in the 10/1919
ORER, so the photo was probably taken earlier than that. Also, the cars
appear to be fairly new in the photo, and it's unlikely that wood
underframe cars like these would have been built later than about 1905, as
the shortcomings of wood underframes on tank cars became obvious very
quickly after the universal application of air brakes and knuckle couplers
around the turn of the century led to rapid increases in the size and power
of locomotives, the length of trains, and the severity of pulling and
buffing forces.

Richard H. Hendrickson
Ashland, Oregon 97520

Richard Hendrickson wrote:
Shawn, the construction of these cars is typical turn-of-the-century with

wood underframes, end blocks to hold the tanks in position, and a center
tank band that splits at the dome to go around the dome (also a means,
though not very effective, of preventing the tank from shifting).

Actually, this band was to hold the tank down on the underframe. With ends restrained, thermal expansion of the tank would bow it upwards off the frame. The change to a center anchorage, with ends free to expand and contract outwards, parallel to the ground, solved this problem.

I could find no listing for the Sherman Oil & Cotton Co. in the 10/1919
ORER, so the photo was probably taken earlier than that.

I have an April, 1912 ORER and it also has no listing for Sherman.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2942 Linden Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

Tony writes:

I have an April, 1912 ORER and it also has no listing for Sherman.

I have to speculate, then, that these cars were scrapped or possibly
sold and/or rebuilt fairly early on, due to the obsolete underframes.

As an aside, this web site has a number of other freightcar photos.
An example is this view of early MKT and T&NO boxcars:

http://www.texasrecord.org/results_single.asp?cat=Train&s=90

As before, there is a high-resolution link that lets you see reporting
marks and other details. Check out the funky coupler on MKT 11676...

Shawn Beckert

John La Rue said:

No mention of this company in 1891 or 1909 ORERs.

I tried to check the Westerfield 1900 ORER issue on CD, but the page needed for Sherman is erroneous--it duplicates the following page. Anyone got a better copy?

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2942 Linden Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

I tried to check the Westerfield 1900 ORER issue on CD, but the page
needed for Sherman is erroneous--it duplicates the following page.
Anyone got a better copy?

Yep. The file you need is ~Z_SHEBOYGAN-WEAVER.TIF, dated 2/13/00 on my CD.

*****
Tank cars of this Company are lettered "Sherman Oil and Cotton Company,
Sherman, Texas," on each side of the tank, and "S. O. & C. Co." and
number on each side of car body, and are numbered from 1 to 230, inclusive.
Report movement and mileage and send bills for repair for cars to
Sherman Oil & Cotton Co., Sherman, Tex.
Send remittances to Sherman Oil & Cotton Co., Sherman, Tex.
*****

Sherman is not in the August 1897 or June 1905 ORERs.

David Thompson

Check out the funky coupler on MKT 11676...

What about it? It looks like a regular knuckle coupler with deadblocks
and a link-and-pin notch, typical for the first decade of the 1900s.

David Thompson

I noted the link-and-pin notch; yes that would be common for that era.

Deadblocks - to keep the coupler from swinging too far? Did they not use
coupler pockets or draft gear in those days? Please explain.

Shawn Beckert

David Thompson wrote:

I tried to check the Westerfield 1900 ORER issue on CD, but the page
needed for Sherman is erroneous--it duplicates the following page.
Anyone got a better copy?

Yep. The file you need is ~Z_SHEBOYGAN-WEAVER.TIF, dated 2/13/00 on my CD.

I realize that's the one I need. But that page on my CD duplicates the following page of "W" entries. Thanks for posting the info.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2942 Linden Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history