Shell Chemical Tank Cars - colors?

Toronto, Ontario, Jim Parker photo

Shell Chemical (as well as Shell Oil) had a West Coast facility based in Martinez, California. The area around the Carquinez Strait was a hub of petrochemical businesses and still has a large number of operations. I have an interest in modeling a couple Shell Chemical cars, including one in the scheme shown on these two cars. However, not having any color photos, I would be guessing at the scheme. I can discern (or imagine?) a difference in the hue of the reporting marks and other stencils contrasted with the "SHELL CHEMICAL" lettering. It seems likely that the name is red while the other lettering is black. The color of the tank is the other question. It appears to be gray or silver/aluminum. I am hopeful that someone can offer some definitive information, but my best source so far is the photo of a Strombecker kit produced in 1948 (see bottom). The tank wrapper in the kit has a gray tank with black stenciling and red company name. Given the kit's contemporaneous manufacture with the existence of the prototype, it seems highly plausible that the producers of the kit were basing the scheme on primary source material, meaning they might have actually viewed the scheme in question or had gathered material directly from Shell or GATC to aid in accuracy. In the absence of other information, the Strombecker model is my best resource.

Note that the two cars are both General American designs. The car shown at top, SCMX 840, is a GATC "Type 30" design, of 8,103 gallon capacity, built in November, 1936. SCMX 2061, below, is an interesting car. The insulated, pressurized ICC 105A 300W tank was built in May, 1943 and is in service hauling Anhydrous Ammonia. It had a capacity of 11,161 gallons. The frame is a GATC postwar design and was likely married to the tank in September, 1950, assuming that occurred when the car was last reweighed in September, 1950.

Pittsburg, California, October 26, 1952, Col. Chet McCoid photo, Bob's Photo

The Anatomy of a Tank Car - General American

The following pamphlet is something that I have in my collection of various materials. As noted from the cover letter, it was sent to Franklin Creek Refining of Franklin, PA, by Garland Smith, Manager, Repair Sales, of General American Tank Car. The photo above is a GATC Type 30 tank car, like the type profiled in the pamphlet. Photo from my collection

Wheeler, Reynolds & Stauffer Tank Car WRSX 1

WRSX 1, specific location not recorded, but likely SF East Bay area, photo credit: Pacific & Western Model Railroad

Tony Thompson had a post recently on his excellent blog about Stauffer Chemical in the Bay Area. It's the kind of information that makes prototype modeling spring to life, giving a reason for the presence of certain rolling stock in our scenes. In his post, he referenced the recollections of Decker McAllister, Jr., who had worked for Stauffer, including the following:

"The Stege works included a bunch of activities. One plant was the only carbon disulfide (CS2) plant west of the Mississippi (plant was called Wheeler, Reynolds & Stauffer, WR&S)."

In the post, Tony also noted that WR&S owned four tank cars. His post sent me on a search to see what photos I had of Stauffer cars in my collection. I knew I had several of the standard Stauffer cars, but I also had a vague recollection of a WR&S photo. Sure enough, when I searched in my Adobe Lightroom database, I found this photo of WRSX 1. I came into possession of it, along with several other photos, via ebay auctions about one year ago.

WRSX 1 was built in September, 1915, and represents an early GATC underframe (pre-1917 design). At the time the car was built, General American had a preference for two tank anchors, as illustrated in this photo. Interestingly, there were no listings for WRSX cars in the Freight Tariff 300-A for Tank Car Capacities. There were two cars listed in the January, 1938 ORER, WRSX nos. 1 and 2. WRSX 1 had a listed capacity of 6,603 gallons and a designation of TMI, car with insulated tank. Note that "CARBON BISULPHIDE" was stenciled on the tank. Also of interest is the "acid" style tank car expansion dome.

Although most of the tiny stenciling on the tank is extremely difficult to discern, let alone read, I was able to decipher that the tank and safety valves were last tested in 1937 at Oakland by the Southern Pacific.

Commercial Solvents Corporation tank car mystery not solved, but...

Commercial Solvents Corporation 1955 Annual Report, front cover

When I initially sought assistance in identifying the colors of the logos, etc., on GATX 65808, I received some good advice as well as some good conjectures about the colors. I was also directed to the Vigo County Public Library in Terre Haute by Richard Brennan, where there are materials about the company in the library's archives. Knowing I was going to pass right through Terre Haute on my way to the St. Louis RPM, I allocated time for a visit. The bad news is that I did not find the colors for GATX 65808. However, among the many annual reports in the collection was the 1955 edition. Interestingly, that annual report featured a full color cover, unique among all the CSC annual reports I perused (all others were black ink on various shades of white paper, with a single spot color for effects, graphs, tables, charts, etc.) It was undoubtedly expensive to print such a glossy color cover. 

Commercial Solvents Corporation 1955 Annual Report, rear cover

However, we are the beneficiaries of the cost. On the back cover was an image of GATX 74805. While it is of a different prototype and certainly different color in the logos than GATX 65808, it is nonetheless an interesting find. The image of the car itself is isolated below. It was an insulated car (TRI) with an aluminum tank and a capacity of 10,112 gallons, part of series 74800-74899, 25 cars in January, 1953. I have tried unsuccessfully to identify the exact classification and I just cannot make out the lettering. My guess is ICC 201-A-35-W, but I am simply not sure.

I owe a huge thank you to Sean Eisele and the staff of the Vigo County Public Library.

GATX 74805 from Commercial Solvents Corporation 1955 Annual Report, rear cover

A little help please

Col. Chet McCoid photo, Fayetteville, North Carolina, March 26, 1959, Bob's Photo

I picked up this photo at the NERPM this past weekend. The subject was a postwar General American welded tank car built in March, 1948. You can click on the photo for a larger view. My question is if anybody out there knows the colors of the tank and the various parts of the Commercials Solvents Corp. slogans and emblems. Any help, clues or shoves in the right direction are greatly appreciated.

Focus on Freight Cars Freebie

While going through the head end, passenger, and locomotive photos in preparation for Focus on Freight Cars, Vol. Eleven, I found a single freight car photo mixed in with the aforementioned subject matter. That part of the series is closed, unless the remainder of the freight car negatives turn up at some future date. However, I thought I would share the photo that was uncovered. It was Union Oil of California 8018, a three compartment car built in May, 1916 (near as I can discern, although the image is not perfectly sharp) by General American. It is a pre-1917 GATC design, with different bolsters than used on the 1917-design cars and slightly higher running boards (note the metal pieces on top of the center sills at the draft gear, used to raise the height of the running boards). It is typical of cars built prior to May 1, 1917, with a single row of rivets where the radially arranged tank sheets overlapped. This car has double rivet rows in two places; on these double rows, the row closest to the center of the car is where the tank sheets overlap and the rows closer to the ends of the car are where the center compartment's tank heads (ends) are located (thank you to Dan Smith for the correction). Dan also noted that this car had seven tank bands. I will add that the three bands where the dome are located are "yoke-style", splitting and circling the dome. The ones located at the domes at the ends of the car also have steps on their faces, a common trait on early GATC design cars. On this car, the center compartment ("B") was 2,057 gallons capacity, while the nearest compartment ("C") was 2,984 and the far compartment ("A") was 2,982 gallons capacity. The double rivet rows are spaced relatively close to each other because of the disparity between the capacities of the center compartment versus the two outer compartments. Enjoy!

Note: this post has been edited to correct an error in the original posting, as described above.