ESMX 4811 • Brian Ehni • SP • Waller, TX • 13 April 1984

ESMX 4811 illustrates the as-built appearance of this series, while the car on the left ‒ 4808 ‒ has had jacketing added.  Jackets were added to 25 of these cars around 1980, and the increased diameter of the tank raised their clearance diagram from Plate C to Plate F; however, the 4811 was one of seven cars which were never altered.  The 32 surviving cars received CCBX reporting marks the year after this photo was taken, and in 1989 the 25 jacketed cars were sold to Vista Chemicals and were remarked with VICX reporting marks; but the 4811 remained a CCBX car until it was retired.

34 CARS • 8 AXLES • FOUR 100-TON TRUCKS

General American Transportation Corp., April-June 1969

152,000 pounds Light Weight - as built, see below

374,000 pounds Load Limit - as built, see below

526,000 pounds Gross Weight

48,350 gallons

91-00 Outside Length

15-06 Outside Extreme Height

10-05 Outside Extreme Width

AAR Class - as built : T649 (pressure, non-insulated steel tank)

Specification No. as built : ICC-114-A-340-W

Plate C - as built, see below

Built for the Essem Corp., a subsidiary of Union Carbide

Initially used for propylene service by Union Carbide.

Listed in Official Railway Equipment Register :

ESMX	: APR 1969-APR 1985
CCBX	: JAN 1985-OCT 2004
VICX	: JUL 1989-JAN 2009 (see below)

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Two of these cars, 4803 and 4804, had very short lives, disappearing from the ORER in APR 1971.  Between 1979 and 1981 North American Car Corp. installed jacketing on 25 of the 32 remaining cars for Vinyl Chloride service, increasing their weight by about 20,000 pounds and decreasing their Load Limit by the same amount.  The jacketing also increased the diameter of their tanks, changing their clearance diagram from Plate C to Plate F.  The modified cars became AAR Class T449 and Specification No. DOT-114-T-400-W.  The seven cars which were not modified were the 4811, 4819, 4821, 4822, 4825, 4828 and 4831.

During 1985 the 32 cars remaining in this series had their ESMX reporting mark replaced with the Union Carbide mark CCBX.  CCBX was originally assigned to the Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Corp., an early subsidiary of Union Carbide.  In 1989 the 25 jacketed cars were sold to Vista Chemical and received the VICX reporting mark.  (Vista had been formed in 1984 from the chemical division of Conoco.)  As VICX cars, their AAR Class became T389 and their Specification No. DOT-112-J-340-W.  Vista Chemical became CONDEA Vista, and in 1998 Union Tank Car Co. acquired their cars along with the VICX reporting mark.  Throughout all of these changes, the cars retained their original numbers. 

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The seven-car CCBX fleet began to decline in the JAN 1996 ORER and the last three cars disapppeared in JAN 2005.  The only trace report I had on this group was CCBX 4831 moving from Deer Park to Waskom, TX in November 2005.  Waskom is the home of a scrap yard which dismantles railroad cars.

The first of Vista's 25 cars (4813) was removed from the ORER in JAN 2005; and the last four cars were finally deleted in APR 2009.  The other twenty-fours cars were delivered to scrap yards between February and October 2008.  During their final years the only regular assigment for these cars was transporting vinyl chloride from Westlake, LA (adjacent to Lake Charles) to Oklahoma City over the KCS and BNSF via Alliance, TX.  The actual number of cars in use at any time varied and most of the cars were usually stored in the Lake Charles area or at Oklahoma City. 

With three exceptions, all of the cars had returned to the Lake Charles area by the end of November 2007; and the images on the photo index taken on 15 November 2007 captured some of the last cars on their final trip home!  The three exceptions had been bad ordered at Oklahoma City on 17 November as they were preparing to head south.  The first two cars finally arrived home in early March 2008, but the last record for VICX 4823 was at Oklahoma City on 17 November 2007. 

Between September and November 2007 six cars moved from Westlake to the UTLX shop in Valdosta, GA to be prepared for scrapping, and their last known location was on the CSX at Youngstown, OH in February 2008.  In June and July 2008 13 more cars moved from Lake Charles to Valdosta, but all of these went to CMC Steel in Seguin, Texas for scrapping, arriving there in July and August.  The last four cars did not go to Valdosta, and took a more-direct route to the CMC scrap yard!  They moved west from Westlake to Bayport, TX in late July, then on to Hockley, TX in early September, and arrived in Seguin on 6 and 8 October 2008, bringing to an end the 39-year story of these RailWhales. 

ESMX
ESMX 4802	Brian Ehni	SP- Waller, TX - 07/04/1979
ESMX 4802	Brian Ehni	same as above
ESMX 4808	Brian Ehni	SP - Waller, TX - 07/04/1979
ESMX 4808	Brian Ehni	same as above
ESMX 4809	Brian Ehni	SP - Waller, TX - 07/04/1979
ESMX 4809	Brian Ehni	same as above
ESMX 4810	Brian Ehni	SP - Waller, TX - 07/04/1979
ESMX 4810	Brian Ehni	same as above
ESMX 4811	Brian Ehni	SP - Waller, TX - 07/04/1979
ESMX 4811	Brian Ehni	same as above
ESMX 4812	Brian Ehni
ESMX 4812	Brian Ehni
ESMX 4815	Brian Ehni
ESMX 4815	Brian Ehni
CCBX
CCBX 4812	James Kinkaid Collection
CCBX 4812	James Kinkaid Collection	Plate F detail
CCBX 4813	James Kinkaid Collection
CCXB 4813	James Kinkaid Collection	detail
VICX
VICX 4806	Christopher Palmieri	BNSF - Alliance, TX - 6/30/2006
VICX 4814	Christopher Palmieri	BNSF - Krum, TX - 3/10/2004
VICX 4814	Robert Pitts	HO model   1/2011
VICX 4814	Robert Pitts	HO model   1/2011
VICX 4814	Robert Pitts	HO model   1/2011
VICX 4824	Christopher Palmieri	BNSF - Ponder, TX - 11/15/2007
VICX 4829	Christopher Palmieri	BNSF - Ponder, TX - 11/15/2007
VICX 4832	Christopher Palmieri	BNSF - Ponder, TX - 11/15/2007

CGP-19 © 2003-2013 Michael M. Palmieri