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Cotton Seed Oil Tank Cars
Charles Etheredge
Guys,
What kind of tank cars would have been used to transport cotton seed oil from the local cotton compress during the steam era? I am currently modeling cotton compresses in two different Texas towns and need some type of cars to haul the oil to the soap manufacturers, potato chip manufacturers, and whereever else the oil would be used. I assume they would be leased tank cars with perhaps the companies' name stenciled on the side. Secondly, are there any models that would fit or could be kitbashed to be close to prototypical? Thanks in advance for any information. Charles Etheredge Austin, Texas
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earlyrail
Quick answer in - none.
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A compress was just a warehouse that received cotton bales from the cotton gins and compressed them to make more fit into ships for shipping. These were more or less centralized on the route from the production areas to the using/overseas shipping areas. Cotton seed oil was processed closer the the gins. Back 80 years ago many of the larger gins have a oil mill located near by. Today the oil mill business is more centralized and the cotton seed is sent to the mill. One modern mill warehouses cotton seed in Mississippi and does its processing in Texas. Check some Sanborn (or other) fire insurance maps for your time frame. Howard Garner
--- In STMFC@yahoogroups.com, "nativetexan" <ceth512@...> wrote:
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Anthony Thompson <thompson@...>
Charles Etheredge wrote:
What kind of tank cars would have been used to transport cotton seed oil from the local cotton compress during the steam era?Charles, any ICC 103 would be fine. SP made available some of its tank cars for this purpose; doubtless lots of leased cars were so employed also (GATX, SHPX, NATX, etc.), though in the steam era UTLX not so likely. You could certainly use plain black cars with those marks, with 8000-gallon cars probably the likely size. If you know of cottonseed oil companies, you could research to see if they had their own cars (I don't know of any, but haven't looked). If they leased cars and painted their logo on them, you would need photos to find out. Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA 2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com (510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@signaturepress.com Publishers of books on railroad history
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al_brown03
IIRC there was an article in one of the journals on cottonseed oil and tank cars for it, within the past 5-10 years. This was a significant industry in east Texas back when. Now to remember where the article is ... the recently discontinued mrmag database was good for this kind of search.
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-- frustrated! -- -- Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.
--- In STMFC@yahoogroups.com, Anthony Thompson <thompson@...> wrote:
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Charles Etheredge
--- In STMFC@yahoogroups.com, "earlyrail" <cascaderail@...> wrote:
True. However, when I mentioned "Cotton Compress", I meant the entire process from ginning to compressing to the processing of the seeds for oil and the byproduct of hulls/meal. The two facilities I am modeling, one in Elgin, Texas and the other in Austin did the whole operation. Charles Etheredge Austin, Texas
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earlyrail
--- In STMFC@yahoogroups.com, "nativetexan" <ceth512@...> wrote:
And I was thinking of the Cotton Compress as a stand alone business. Columbia, SC is one location that I know of and there were several in Texas. Even though the cotton was in compressed bales from the gin, a cotton compress business had more powerful compresses and reduced the bale size by at least a third again.Howard GarnerTrue. However, when I mentioned "Cotton Compress", I meant the entire process from ginning to compressing to the processing of the seeds for oil and the byproduct of hulls/meal. The two facilities I am modeling, one in Elgin, Texas and the other in Austin did the whole operation. A Cotton Compress was one of those businesses the usually had a "milling in transit" tariff. Howard Garner Pickens, SC
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