Listed in Official Railway Equipment Register : APR 1970-2011
When the last of these cars rollled out of General American's plant at Sharon, PA in November 1970,
the brief era of RailWhale construction was over. As of 1 December Federal regulations prohibited the
building of tank cars this big and heavy. Not only were these the last RailWhales built, they were the
last 8-axle variety in active mainline service. They were originally owned by United States Leasing
International, Inc., a subsidiary of Union Carbide, and the RAIX reporting mark was transferred to
Union Carbide in 1981.
Although these cars were always lettered "Plate C" they were consistently – and incorrectly – shown as
Plate B cars in the ORER. Their gallonage was about 5,000 less than ESMX 4800-4833 and 4,000 less than
CELX 7500-7502; but it was comparable to GCX 741600-741646, ACFX 17779-17790, ACFX 18948-18952, and DUPX 29700-29769.
It was also comparable to DUPX 29600-29666, which were 6-axle cars!
These cars displayed remarkable longevity. The series was intact for almost 20 years, until one car diappeared
in the JUL 1989 ORER; and the remaining 19 cars all survived into the 21st century. Three additional cars were
deleted in JUL 2001, OCT 2001 and JAN 2004. Photographs show that these cars got around quite a bit, compared to
many other RailWhales; but during their final years of operation, the last 16 cars typically operated over just
three routes. The same cars stayed on each route, although cars ocaisionally went to some unusual destination,
and the number of cars in use varied.
Ten cars were based at Seadrift, TX for service to Decatur, AL via the BNSF-New Orleans-NS, five cars were
based in the Chicago area and went to Montreal, PQ via the NS-Chicago-CN, and a single car – the 4317 – transported
something from Prentiss, AB to Montreal. This car could spend up to six months at a time in Alberta; however, it
did make a brief visit to East Hazelcrest in mid-2004.
The beginning of the end for the Seadrift-based cars began when the 4314 was bad-ordered on the BNSF at Temple, TX
on 3 November 2005, after an unusual trip from Decatur to Sunray, TX via Memphis. The car returned to Seadrift on
2 December and went into storage on the East Camden & Highland on 2 January 2006. The EACH is an Arkansas short
line which specializes in storing cars in an industrial park at the former Shumaker Naval Ammunition Depot.
When RAIX 4304 (illustrated at the top of this page) arrived in Decatur on 7 August 2006, it marked the end of
RailWhale operation on the Seadrift-Decatur route. In mid-September, the 4304 and the other eight Seadrift cars
were delivered to the EACH. Later that month the 4314, which had gone to the EACH in January, moved to Houston,
and its last location was South Yard on 11 October. The number of cars listed in the ORER decreased from 15 to
six in the OCT 2007 issue, just as the “Canadian car” (4317) was being delivered to the EACH. I have no additional
information on these 10 cars after they went to the EACH, but they were not sent to a shop for cleaning before they
went into storage. Their trace query status was changed from NO DATA to INVALID EQUIPMENT in December 2008.
The five Chcago-based cars lasted another two years, until their 40th birthday. The last loads were moved to
Montreal by the 4306 and 4313 in late August 2010. After a few weeks in Canada, the cars headed south and went
almost directly to VLS Recovery Services at Hockley, TX to be prepared for scrapping. Along the way, they were
joined by the 4808, which had been at in Chicago.
As these three cars were heading for Texas, the 4302 and 4318 left Chicago for Charleston, WV via CSX. Both of
the cars wandered around the southeast for over a month, but the 4302 ended up at a shop in Fitzgerald, GA and its
final record was at Birmingham on 25 October. The 4318 eventually joined its siblings at VLS in Hockley, and these
four cars arrived in Waskom, TX between 25 October and 8 November 2010. Waskom is on the UP (former T&P) just east
of Shreveport, and the railcar scrap yard there is currently operated by Progress Rail.
© 2003-2013 Michael M. Palmieri |
|
|
HOME
|
