DAKX 29627 • Aaron McLand • Leland, NC • 18 June 2013

This is the 150-ton Buckeye truck which was used under about half of the 6-axle RailWhales.  These trucks – along with the comparable American Steel Foundries design – have an 11-foot wheelbase, with 36-inch wheels and 6˝x12-inch journal bearings.  While some 6-axle cars had their gross weight rounded off to 394,000 pounds, the Load Limit and Light Weight on this car add up to 394,500 pounds, the full Gross Rail Load for these trucks!  Notice that the truck still wears the reporting mark of the car's previous owner, DuPont.

This page chronicles the decline of the RailWhale fleet from the beginning of 1971 – the year in which the last cars were built – through mid-2013.  Most of the data used here came from the Official Railway Equipment Register, although information after the establishment of this website in 2003 was supplemented by computer traces of the cars which I knew about.  Thanks to a number of folks, but especially Jim Kinkaid, I have car quantities from every issue of the ORER from JAN 1963 through JAN 2010, plus a few later editions; and almost all of the trace information has been provided by Derek Pinsonat. 

Bear in mind that the ORER does have errors: cars may be listed even though they have been scrapped, and cars that have been deleted may still be around; nevertheless, without access to official corporate records, this is the only source of information for this type of research.  While cars may be deleted as a result of being scrapped, some may survive but are no longer used in interchange service; while others may have received new reporting marks and/or numbers which I don't know about.  I continue to receive slides and information which contribute to our understanding of the RailWhale story!

When the last RailWhales were completed in late 1970, ten of the earlier cars had already been removed from the Official Railway Equipment Register.  A Monsanto MONX 6-axle elemental phosphorus car was deleted in JUL 1971, followed by 8-axle ACFX 18951 in the next issue.  The second RailWhale built, GATX 96500, was removed in APR 1972 and went to the National Museum of Transport in St. Louis.  The decline was typically 1-3 cars per issue, although there were some quarters when no cars disappeared and others when many more were removed. 

The first really big reduction took place in APR 1974, when 107 cars – almost 14 percent of the total built and one of the biggest declines in a single issue – were deleted.  Seventy-two of these didn’t really disappear, they just weren’t RailWhales anymore!  Over several months in 1974 DuPont had all of its remaining DUPX 29500-29574 series 6-axle cars shortened into 4-axle cars, using a large section of the original tank with new cradles, ends, stub sills and trucks.  The other big change in that issue was the decline of the GATX 98200-98238 series from 36 cars down to 1.

Nineteen seventy-nine and 1980 were both bad years, with a combined loss of 131 cars (almost 16% of the total).  During this two-year period, three groups of cars which had been intact at the end of 1978 became extinct, despite being only 12 or 13 years old!  The casualties included all 47 of the 8-axle Allied Chemical GCX 741600-741646 group, and all 15 of the 8-axle GATX 81663-81677 group which had been leased to Liquid Carbonic. 

All 57 of the 6-axle GATX 94650-96706 group (originally leased to Dow) as well as GATX 98238, the last survivor of the GATX 98200-98238 group, also disappeared; but all 58 of these reappeared a few years later as 4-axle cars GATX 26701-26758.  Unlike DUPX 29500-29574, which were shortened when they were converted into 4-axle cars, these GATX cars were not altered except for their trucks.  The loss of these four groups accounted for 120 of the 131 cars deleted; and the reduction of the 6-axle ACFX 88348-88375 series from 25 to 18 accounted for seven more. 

By the end of 1980, ten years after the last new RailWhales were built, 281 cars – one–third of the total – had been rebuilt or retired and 538 remained.  The distribution between 6- axle and 8-axle cars was originally 66.5%/33.5%, but was now 62.3%/37.7%.

The 10 years from 1981 to 1990 were much better than 1971-1980, as only 108 cars were deleted.  A small but significant event was the removal of UTLX 83699, the very first RailWhale, in JAN 1984.  Union Tank Car donated it to the Galveston Island Railroad Museum, but it was damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008 and scrapped.

Four more car groups became extinct, including all eight 8-axle tetraethyl lead cars originally built for lease to Nalco Chemical Co.: ACFX 85299-85302 disappeared in OCT 1986 and GATX 11571-11574 in the next issue, JAN 1987.  The introduction of catalytic converters on almost all of the new automobiles sold in the U.S. during the 1975 model year had been steadily decreasing the demand for anti-knock fuel compound and the tank cars that carried it, so these cars finally became surplus.  With a capacity of only 27,000 gallons, they were unsuited for the transportation of less-dense cargo and were retired. 

Two other significant losses involved North American Transportation.  In APR 1987 the capacity of the 39 remaining 6-axle cars in the NATX 38000-38054 group was lowered from 270,000 pounds to 138,000.  This would to indicate that they had been rebuilt into 4-axle cars or that NATX reduced their capacity while not rebuilding them, or – more likely – it was a mistake.  All but one of the cars were retired within two year.  North American only owned one of these at the end of 1990; so for all practical purposes, this group was extinct.  Besides the loss of these cars, both of North American’s 8-axle cars NATX 37300-37301 were deleted, in JUL 1987 and DEC 1988.  Twenty years after the last RailWhales were built, 434 cars (53.0%) remained and the distribution was 55.5%/44.5%.

This was another decade of moderate decline, with the loss of 103 cars and three more car groups disappearing.  A significant milestone was reached between the OCT 1992 and JAN 1993 ORER when the percentage of listed RailWhales dropped from 50.3 to 49.0.  Twenty-three years after the last RailWhales were completed, over half of the cars were now rebuilt or retired! 

In JAN 1993 the 11 remaining Monsanto 6-axle elemental phosphorous cars MONX 23000-23036 were deleted, and in OCT 1995 all three of the Celanese 8-axle methanol cars CELX 7500-7502 were removed.  Although these cars rode on 70-ton trucks and had a gross rail load of only 440,000 pounds, their capacity was 47,000 gallons, the second highest of any production RailWhales. 

The 8-axle DuPont tetraethyl lead cars DUPX 28050-28090 (originally 41 in number) decreased from 39 to 27 in JUL 1995, and from 27 to none in JUL 1998.  They disappeared for the same reason as the ACFX and GATX cars mentioned earlier, but managed to survive a bit longer.  Groups which declined by five or more cars were ACFX 8-axle cars 17779-17790, from 12 to 5; ACFX 6-axle cars 88348-88375, from 12 to 4; and DUPX 6-axle cars 29600-29666, from 60 to 51.  Thirty years after RailWhale production ended 331 cars (40.4%) remained and their distribution was 59.5%/40.5%.  A dozen production car groups were gone.

Between the beginning of 2001 and the inauguration of the RailWhales web site at the end of 2003 only 26 cars were removed from the Official Railway Equipment Register, but two more groups became extinct.  The 8-axle ACFX 89351-89352 group went from 2 to none in OCT 2001, and the Allied Chemical 8-axle GCX 731000-731007 series declined from 6 cars in JAN 2001 to none in JUL 2003.  The biggest losses were in the two groups of DuPont 6-axle cars.  The DUPX 29400 series, originally 40 cars, declined from 38 to 23 cars; and the 29600-series, originally 67 cars, dropped from 51 to 43. 

An interesting change in JAN 2002 was the appearance of six former DUPX 29600-series cars with the DAKX reporting mark of DAK Americas.  DAK had purchased three DuPont plants in North and South Carolina, and acquired about 600 DUPX tank cars and covered hoppers as a part of the deal.  In OCT 2002 the first of Aire Liquide Americas’ five 6-axle cryogenic cars – IAPX 1003 – was deleted.  Thus the little IAPX fleet remained intact longer than any other groups, except for the Celanese 6-axle cars CELX 6400-6458 and 10400-10438 which are still active.

The first Official Railway Equipment Register after the RailWhales web site was inaugurated – the JAN 2004 issue – listed 303 big tank cars, or about 38% of the total built.  At that time, these cars varied in age from 33 to 37 years.  These cars represented 33% of the original 6-axle fleet and 46% of the 8-axle fleet.  With the advent of RailWhales Derek Pinsonat began providing me with regular equipment traces for the big tank cars were knew about.  This enabled me to track the movement of the cars, and to compare trace information with ORER data.  New cars were added to the list as I found out about them, but these additions were more than offset by the cars being retired.

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The last three of Union Carbide's seven 8-axle CCBX 4800-4833 cars were deleted in JAN 2005, but only one of these ever showed up in a trace.  CCBX 4831 moved from Deer Park, TX to the Progress Rail scrap yard at Waskom, TX in November 2005.  Thirty-four of these cars had been built in 1969 as ESMX 4800-4833; 32 of them were remarked CCBX in 1985, and 25 of them had been sold to Vista Chemicals (VICX) in 1989.  All 25 of the VICX cars were listed until the first one was deleted in OCT 2005.

The 6-axle DUPX 29400-29439 series declined from 38 (all but two of the group) in JAN 2001 to none in APR 2005, but trace reports show that the last of these had disappeared at Houston the previous year.  Earlier, some had gone to Birmingham to be scrapped.  Between JAN 2001 and JUL 2005, the 6-axle DUPX 29600-29666 group declined from 51 to 3, with many of them also disappearing at Houston in 2004; but these last three survived until the mass extinction of DuPont RailWhales in 2009.

The 6-axle ACFX 88348-88375 group, originally 28 cars, declined from 4 in OCT 2004 to none in OCT 2005; but none of these ever showed up in a trace. 

The first production RailWhales were built in January 1966, and under the AAR rules the service life for all cars built in that year would end on 31 December 2006 unless extended.  At the beginning of 2006 the only surviving RailWhales from 1966 were IAPX 1001 and 1004, and both of these had undergone a Rule 88 Rebuild – in 2000 and 1998 – which permitted them to operate until the end of 2016.

Another new RailWhale owner appeared in the ORER in JUL 2006, after Invista purchased some DuPont plants and acquired about 870 DUPX tank cars and covered hoppers.  These INVX cars included five of the 8-axle DUPX 29700-series, about four of the 6-axle 29600-series, and 70 of the 4-axle 29500-series.  These last cars had been built with six axles and were rebuilt as 4-axle cars in 1974.   The quantity of 6-axle cars is uncertain because they never appeared in the ORER.

Between JUL 2006 and JAN 2007 the last dozen 8-axle ACFX cars disappeared from the ORER, thus eliminating all of the ACFX RailWhales.  Five of the last seven ACFX 17779-17790 cars and all four of the remaining ACFX 18948-18952 cars were last reported on the Canadian Pacific at Winnipeg, Manitoba in January and February 2006.  The last report of the other two 17779-series cars was on the West Tennessee Railroad at Carroll (Jackson), Tennessee on 3 July 2006.  Carroll was also the last stop for ACFX 89331, the last survivor of the ACFX 89331-89332 duo and the last ACFX RailWhale.  It was reported there on 19 February 2007.

After the last of the ACFX cars went to scrap, almost all of the lease fleet cars were gone.  The only exceptions were the VICX cars which were now owned by Union Tank Car Co., but they were still used exclusively by CONDEA-Vista. 

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In January 2007 Celanese applied to the AAR for Extended Service Status for CELX 6400-6458.  This was approved in April, allowing these cars to operate until the end of 2018.  IAPX 1005 was deleted from the ORER in APR 2007, bringing the number of RailWhales listed down to 218 cars.  Of these, the largest owner by far was Celanese, with all 98 of its 6-axle cars still listed.  Next were DuPont with 67 DUPX cars in three number series, Union Tank Car with 24 VICX cars, Union Carbide with 15 RAIX cars, and Aire Liquide with 3 IAPX cars.  All 6 DAK Americas DAKX cars and all 5 Invista INVX 8-axle cars were still listed, but the cars were not being used in free interchange service. 

Celanese applied for Extended Service Staus for cars 10400-10438 in January 2008 and this was approved in March; but as of that time, IAPX 1001 and 1004 were the only other RailWhales that I know of which had received service extensions.  Of the other cars still listed, their AAR 40-year service life ended on the following dates:

31 December 2008 - DUPX 29700-series (60 cars), IAPX 1008 (1 car)

31 December 2009 - VICX 4800-series (25)

31 December 2010 - DUPX 12401-series (4), DUPX 29600-series (3), RAIX 4300-series (15)

The table below summarizes the final activites of these cars.  IAPX 1004 and a few DUPX 29700-series cars operated beyond their service life date.  This was possible with the agreement of the appropriate railroads; however, these cars would not have been in "free interchange" service.

END OF THE LINE
CAR SERIES	AX	NO	ROUTES	LAST RUN	TO SCRAP
RAIX 4300	8	10	Seadrift, TX-Decatur, AL Prentiss, AB-Montreal, PQ	Aug 2006 Nov 2006	?
IAPX 1001	6	3	Houston, TX-Vernon CA	Aug 2007	Nov 2008 ?
VICX 4800	8	24	Lake Charles, LA-Oklahoma City, OK	Nov 2007	Feb-Oct 2008
DUPX 12401 DUPX 29600 DUPX 29700	8 6 8	4  3   58	Beaumont, TX-Fayetteville, NC Beaumont, TX-Wilmington, SC	May 2009	Jan 2010 Oct 2009-Jan 2010 Nov 2009-Mar 2010*
RAIX 4300	8	5	Chicago, IL-Montreal, PQ	Aug 2010	Nov 2010
CELX 6400 CELX 10400	6	56  34	Pasadena, TX-Enoree, SC Pasadena, TX-Mexico	Active in 2013	Not Yet!
* A 59th car (DUPX 29767) was retired in Aug 2011. A 60th car (DUPX 29707) may have also been scrapped during the mass extinction of 2009-10. It had been bad-ordered at New Orleans in Jun 2007 and then diappeared, but it was reported on the Mississippi Export in 2009 with stored DUPX cars. It did not show up in any equipment traces; so it may have been moving under a different identity.

See the individual Car Group Pages for more detailed information on the last years of these cars.