On Oct 19, 2022, at 8:35 AM, Bob Chaparro via groups.io <chiefbobbb@...> wrote:

A friend asked me:
"A basic question as I have never understood tank car operations. Would a refinery or producing oil field use tanks cars from only one fleet, such as all UTLX cars or all GATX cars. Or were cars a mix?"
I didn't know so I ask here.

As with so many things, the answer is, “It depends.” All the various Standard Oil operations around the country did continue to use UTLX cars as their main tank car fleet, and few other oil companies did so — until the 1950s, when UTLX began to branch out and lease to non-Standard companies. By far the biggest leasing fleet was GATX, not only in assigned leases (when the car was often decorated for the lessee) but in otherwise unmarked “pool” cars. A distant second was SHPX, same situation with leases, and a distant third behind them was NATX.

Bottom line, UTLX cars would mostly carry Standard products, even after the 1950s. Then any other oil company that had leased cars, from GATX or whomever, would of course mostly use those, but if a little short of cars, would use pool cars from their lessor, or maybe even get hold of pool cars from a lessor that did not provide their main fleet. The need to move products outweighed details of tank car ownership.

Tony Thompson

> On Oct 19, 2022, at 8:35 AM, Bob Chaparro via groups.io <chiefbobbb=verizon.net@groups.io> wrote:
>
> A friend asked me:
> "A basic question as I have never understood tank car operations. Would a refinery or producing oil field use tanks cars from only one fleet, such as all UTLX cars or all GATX cars. Or were cars a mix?"
> I didn't know so I ask here.

As with so many things, the answer is, “It depends.” All the various Standard Oil operations around the country did continue to use UTLX cars as their main tank car fleet, and few other oil companies did so — until the 1950s, when UTLX began to branch out and lease to non-Standard companies. By far the biggest leasing fleet was GATX, not only in assigned leases (when the car was often decorated for the lessee) but in otherwise unmarked “pool” cars. A distant second was SHPX, same situation with leases, and a distant third behind them was NATX.

Bottom line, UTLX cars would mostly carry Standard products, even after the 1950s. Then any other oil company that had leased cars, from GATX or whomever, would of course mostly use those, but if a little short of cars, would use pool cars from their lessor, or maybe even get hold of pool cars from a lessor that did not provide their main fleet. The need to move products outweighed details of tank car ownership.

Tony Thompson
tony@...