I assume this would also apply to the transportion of cotton seed oil
from cotton presses. I am modeling a facility in Texas that shipped
cotton seed oil. One of their customers was a paint manufacturer in
Louisiana. Would this typically be a UTLX, GATX, (whatever) tanker,
reserved for other than petroleum use? Photos????
Charles Etheredge
Austin, Texas

Charles,

I think (hope) that Richard Hendrickson will forgive me for reposting
this old message (from 1998) to the old Freightcars mailing list. I hope
it answers your question.

Tim O'Connor

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Shawn, cottonseed oil was one of the major commodities shipped in tank
cars. Those cars were usually equipped with heater coils, as cottonseed oil
tends to congeal when cold; heater pipes were optional on TM/ICC-103 class
cars, as there was no special AAR or ICC designation or class suffix for
cars that were so equipped. The best brief account for your purposes is
contained in the book "General American Tank Car Journeys," published by
GATC in 1931, which I have excerpted below:

"Cottonseed oil....ranges from pale yellow to a red-black mixture,
depending on the nature and conditions of the seed and the method of
extraction and refinement.... When the seeds are crushed the oil, which is
dark in color, is refined by heating with a solution of caustic soda, and
clarified by filtration. In this refining, the residue containing some of
the caustic soda...is sold to the soap industry, while the clarified oil,
stearin and palmitin are extracted by chilling and pressing. This solid
fat, known as stearno, is used in making oleomargarine. Enormous
quantities of cottonseed oil move in tank cars to be used as soap stocks,
lubricants, salad oils, cooking oils, water-proofing compositions, packing
sardines and as a base for cosmetic creams. The press cake from cottonseed
oil, called cottonseed meal, is used in large quantities as the organic
nitrogen constituent of fertilizers and also as a cattle feed."

FWIW, the weight of cottonseed oil is given as 7.75 lbs. per gallon.

In a quick scan of my 8/47 ORER, I find several other tank car owners whose
cars were used largely or partly for cotton oil shipments, including The
Best Foods, Inc. (BFX, 92 cars), Colgate-Palmolive-Peet (TPCX, 52 cars),
Cuero Cotton Oil & Mfg. Co. (CUMX, 4 cars), Durkee Div. of the Glidden Co.
(DFFX, 11 cars), Fels & Co. (FELX, 6 cars), and Texas Vegetable Oil Co.
(TVOX, 3 cars). No doubt there were others; "oil" and "refining" companies
weren't always in the petroleum business, but it may not be evident from
their ORER entries that what they transported was, in fact, cottonseed oil.
These private owner cars are only the tip of the iceberg, however, as car
leasing companies like General American, Union Tank Line, Shippers Car
Line, and John H. Grace assigned many cars to cottonseed oil service. As
you model the Cotton Belt, you are safe in assuming that there was
substantial tank car traffic in cottonseed oil on that RR.

Richard H. Hendrickson
Ashland, Oregon 97520

--- In STMFC@..., Tim O'Connor <timboconnor@...> wrote:

I assume this would also apply to the transportion of cotton seed oil
from cotton presses. I am modeling a facility in Texas that shipped
cotton seed oil. One of their customers was a paint manufacturer in
Louisiana. Would this typically be a UTLX, GATX, (whatever) tanker,
reserved for other than petroleum use? Photos????
Charles Etheredge
Austin, Texas

Charles,

I think (hope) that Richard Hendrickson will forgive me for reposting
this old message (from 1998) to the old Freightcars mailing list. I hope
it answers your question.

Tim O'Connor

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Shawn, cottonseed oil was one of the major commodities shipped in tank
cars. Those cars were usually equipped with heater coils, as cottonseed oil
tends to congeal when cold; heater pipes were optional on TM/ICC-103 class
cars, as there was no special AAR or ICC designation or class suffix for
cars that were so equipped. The best brief account for your purposes is
contained in the book "General American Tank Car Journeys," published by
GATC in 1931, which I have excerpted below:

"Cottonseed oil....ranges from pale yellow to a red-black mixture,
depending on the nature and conditions of the seed and the method of
extraction and refinement.... When the seeds are crushed the oil, which is
dark in color, is refined by heating with a solution of caustic soda, and
clarified by filtration. In this refining, the residue containing some of
the caustic soda...is sold to the soap industry, while the clarified oil,
stearin and palmitin are extracted by chilling and pressing. This solid
fat, known as stearno, is used in making oleomargarine. Enormous
quantities of cottonseed oil move in tank cars to be used as soap stocks,
lubricants, salad oils, cooking oils, water-proofing compositions, packing
sardines and as a base for cosmetic creams. The press cake from cottonseed
oil, called cottonseed meal, is used in large quantities as the organic
nitrogen constituent of fertilizers and also as a cattle feed."

FWIW, the weight of cottonseed oil is given as 7.75 lbs. per gallon.

In a quick scan of my 8/47 ORER, I find several other tank car owners whose
cars were used largely or partly for cotton oil shipments, including The
Best Foods, Inc. (BFX, 92 cars), Colgate-Palmolive-Peet (TPCX, 52 cars),
Cuero Cotton Oil & Mfg. Co. (CUMX, 4 cars), Durkee Div. of the Glidden Co.
(DFFX, 11 cars), Fels & Co. (FELX, 6 cars), and Texas Vegetable Oil Co.
(TVOX, 3 cars). No doubt there were others; "oil" and "refining" companies
weren't always in the petroleum business, but it may not be evident from
their ORER entries that what they transported was, in fact, cottonseed oil.
These private owner cars are only the tip of the iceberg, however, as car
leasing companies like General American, Union Tank Line, Shippers Car
Line, and John H. Grace assigned many cars to cottonseed oil service. As
you model the Cotton Belt, you are safe in assuming that there was
substantial tank car traffic in cottonseed oil on that RR.

Richard H. Hendrickson
Ashland, Oregon 97520

Thanks so much Tim. This helps me out a lot. As I don't offhand remember any specific tank car kit ( or RTR) made for this nor any decals for an undec. kit, I will have to go with some leased cars.

Charles Etheredge
Austin, Texas

Tim, let me add something to this reposted messages. Richard has forgot
the largest of the cotton oil tank car owners, Sco Tank Line (Southern Cotton
Oil Company) of New Orleans, Louisiana, SCOX. They rostered 386 tank cars
in cotton oil service in the January 1945 ORER.

Happiness, Jerry Stewart

It's Autumn in Woodstock, Illinois

Jerry - would you know of any photo sources for the SCOX tank cars?
Norm Buckhart

On Oct 2, 2010, at 6:08 PM, switchengines wrote:

Tim, let me add something to this reposted messages. Richard has
forgot
the largest of the cotton oil tank car owners, Sco Tank Line
(Southern Cotton
Oil Company) of New Orleans, Louisiana, SCOX. They rostered 386 tank
cars
in cotton oil service in the January 1945 ORER.

Happiness, Jerry Stewart

It's Autumn in Woodstock, Illinois

--- In STMFC@..., Tim O'Connor <timboconnor@...> wrote:

I assume this would also apply to the transportion of cotton

seed oil

from cotton presses. I am modeling a facility in Texas that

shipped

cotton seed oil. One of their customers was a paint

manufacturer in

Louisiana. Would this typically be a UTLX, GATX, (whatever)

tanker,

reserved for other than petroleum use? Photos????
Charles Etheredge
Austin, Texas

Charles,

I think (hope) that Richard Hendrickson will forgive me for

reposting

this old message (from 1998) to the old Freightcars mailing list.

I hope

it answers your question.

Tim O'Connor

----------------------------------------------------------

Shawn, cottonseed oil was one of the major commodities shipped in

tank

cars. Those cars were usually equipped with heater coils, as

cottonseed oil

tends to congeal when cold; heater pipes were optional on TM/

ICC-103 class

cars, as there was no special AAR or ICC designation or class

suffix for

cars that were so equipped. The best brief account for your

purposes is

contained in the book "General American Tank Car Journeys,"

published by

GATC in 1931, which I have excerpted below:

"Cottonseed oil....ranges from pale yellow to a red-black mixture,
depending on the nature and conditions of the seed and the method of
extraction and refinement.... When the seeds are crushed the oil,

which is

dark in color, is refined by heating with a solution of caustic

soda, and

clarified by filtration. In this refining, the residue containing

some of

the caustic soda...is sold to the soap industry, while the

clarified oil,

stearin and palmitin are extracted by chilling and pressing. This

solid

fat, known as stearno, is used in making oleomargarine. Enormous
quantities of cottonseed oil move in tank cars to be used as soap

stocks,

lubricants, salad oils, cooking oils, water-proofing compositions,

packing

sardines and as a base for cosmetic creams. The press cake from

cottonseed

oil, called cottonseed meal, is used in large quantities as the

organic

nitrogen constituent of fertilizers and also as a cattle feed."

FWIW, the weight of cottonseed oil is given as 7.75 lbs. per gallon.

In a quick scan of my 8/47 ORER, I find several other tank car

owners whose

cars were used largely or partly for cotton oil shipments,

including The

Best Foods, Inc. (BFX, 92 cars), Colgate-Palmolive-Peet (TPCX, 52

cars),

Cuero Cotton Oil & Mfg. Co. (CUMX, 4 cars), Durkee Div. of the

Glidden Co.

(DFFX, 11 cars), Fels & Co. (FELX, 6 cars), and Texas Vegetable

Oil Co.

(TVOX, 3 cars). No doubt there were others; "oil" and "refining"

companies

weren't always in the petroleum business, but it may not be

evident from

their ORER entries that what they transported was, in fact,

cottonseed oil.

These private owner cars are only the tip of the iceberg, however,

as car

leasing companies like General American, Union Tank Line, Shippers

Car

Line, and John H. Grace assigned many cars to cottonseed oil

service. As

you model the Cotton Belt, you are safe in assuming that there was
substantial tank car traffic in cottonseed oil on that RR.

Richard H. Hendrickson
Ashland, Oregon 97520

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Norm, I would love to help you with a photo, but I can not. In all my years
of tracking down interesting photos of freight equipment I have never run
across a picture of any of the SCOX cars. What we can probably surmise
from the ORER listings is that they appear to be yet another car fleet
operator that purchased most of their cars on the used market. The listing
only gives us rated general gallonage capacities for the cars (not actual
gallonages), and is a hodgepodge of different weight capacities (axel
ratings), so it's not of too much help. Even if you did get lucky and find a
photo of a car it is not going to tell you much about what the total fleet
looked like as it's probably made up of many different car builders tank
car types.

Yet another tank car fleet mystery, Happiness, Jerry Stewart

Woodstock, Illinois

The July 1998 issue of _Mailine Modeler_ has a good article about cotton
oil tank cars by Cyril Durrenberger.
There are 17 photos of various companies cars including three Southern
Cotton Oil Co cars.
Later,
Bill Kelly


"switchengines" wrote:

Norm, I would love to help you with a photo, but I can not. In all my

years

of tracking down interesting photos of freight equipment I have never

run

across a picture of any of the SCOX cars. What we can probably surmise
from the ORER listings is that they appear to be yet another car fleet
operator that purchased most of their cars on the used market. The

listing

only gives us rated general gallonage capacities for the cars (not

actual

gallonages), and is a hodgepodge of different weight capacities (axel
ratings), so it's not of too much help. Even if you did get lucky and

find a

photo of a car it is not going to tell you much about what the total

fleet

looked like as it's probably made up of many different car builders

tank

car types.

Yet another tank car fleet mystery, Happiness, Jerry Stewart
Woodstock, Illinois

Norm Buckhart wrote:

Jerry - would you know of any photo sources for the SCOX tank cars?

Norm Buckhart

"switchengines" wrote:

Tim, let me add something to this reposted messages. Richard has
forgot the largest of the cotton oil tank car owners, Sco Tank Line

(Southern Cotton Oil Company) of New Orleans, Louisiana, SCOX.
They rostered 386 tank cars
in cotton oil service in the January 1945 ORER.

Happiness, Jerry Stewart

It's Autumn in Woodstock, Illinois

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Thanks Bill, maybe this will help Norm track some of them down. Are the three
pictures builders photos, perhaps they did purchase some of them new? Can you
identify any specific car builder or model type from the photos, as I said, I have
never seen any of the cars.

Thanks Again, curious about them, Jerry Stewart

Woodstock, Illinois

Southern Cotton Oil actually purchased most of their cars new, but in small lots.  They had cars listed as being in service from before 1900.  See the July 1998 issue of Mainline Modeler for some photos.  In the early years they had some very interesting lettering schemes.

Another company that had a fleet of tank cars was American Cotton Oil.  I am not sure how long Southern Cotton Oil or American Cotton Oil owned their fleets of cars.  The 1950's is beyond the time of main interest to me so I have never investigated this.  Look at the ORERs.

I can provide names of some companies that shipped cotton seed oil prior to 1912 if someone is interested.  But read the referenced article first.  That will most likely provide all of the detail you need. 

Cyril Durrenberger

There's a photo of SCOX 775, an 8000-gallon GATC Type 30, in Culotta, FCRM 2, p65.

Southern Cotton Oil 28, 164, and 275, all 6000-gallon cars, are shown in MM 7/98, p 77.

Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.

Thank You Al and Cyril for the interesting information on the cars of Southern
Cotton Oil cars, now Norm will have some resources to dig into for help. Cyril
if they purchased cars in small lots new, as you say, that would explain why
there is such a hodgepodge in the ORER, they probable purchased what was
the current production model of the builder they got the cars from. Al, if you
say the Culotta FCRM 2 has a photo of a type 30 GATC car this should give
some insight into the later lettering scheme they used, as well as having the
early lettering from the builders photos.

Happiness, Jerry Stewart

Woodstock, Illinois