Hi all,
I worked at UTLX for 21&1/4 years. The asphalt being discussed shipped in tank
cars was/is a very thick,viscous liquid when loaded. It tends to set up under
shipment and harden so that is why it is shipped in insulated and heater coiled
cars. The product needs to be reheated to unload. At the asphalt plant it is
combined with various aggregates depending on the specifications of the end
user to make the asphalt that becomes a hard surface road.
To give you some idea of how viscous and hard asphalt becomes in a tank car;
many,many times I approved manual labor charges to scrape asphalt off the
interior of tank shells. This would be after a diesel rinse. If there was still
too much asphalt residue after a diesel rinse and scraping the next step was an
interior blast with sand and/or steel grit.
Depending on the age of these 10,000 gallon cars the older ones would have
interior heater pipes and cars built starting in the late 50s or so would have
exterior coils. The interior pipes literally ran inside the tanks along the
walls just above the center line
Of the car and came out at the ends. They were maintenance headaches as they
corroded and allowed commodity to get into the pipes and then the cars would
not heat properly.
Exterior coils are welded to the exterior of the tank under the insulation and
jacket. Their connections are at the bottom center of the tank. They also
eventually corrode and then it’s a hunt to find where the leaks are and tear
off jacket and insulation.
Tom, states the models are of class X-3 which is a very earlier class Of tanks
before they were reclassified to 103W and then later still to 111A100w3.
Tom states these cars moved on #97 from Galesburg so they might have come from
Whiting which was served by the “J” now CN.
But that would be a round about routing instead
Of going “J” to Eola and being picked up there by the other #97 out of Cicero.
Yes there were two #97s one from Galesburg and one from Cicero. See Your ETTs.
Yes, I’m sure in the old days 97 picked up at Eola. When that stopped I’m not
sure. But I’ve talked with more than one old Eola/Q switchman who spoke of it.
So I suspect these loads generated west or south of Galesburg.
John D Rockefeller and his Standard Oil managers started UTLX as UTL. It pretty
much controlled the supply of tank cars. There was
Much in the way of rebates,kickbacks,etc from the RRa to Standard and finally
the govt forced Standard to spinoff UTL. If you can find a copy of
“John D Rockefellers Secret Weapon” your in for lots of lessons about tank car
and business history. It is the official corporate history published by UTLX.
So be prepared for a rather detailed read without hardly any photos. It’s a
true corporate history not a typical railfan read.
Probably way more than you ever wanted to know but now you do.
Leo Phillipp
> On Jun 15, 2024, at 1:13 PM, William Hirt <whirt@fastmail.com> wrote:
>
> Tom,
>
> A primary source of asphalt is oil refineries. It is created by using one of
> by-products of the refining process mixed with rock. Even after the Standard
> Oil monopoly breakup circa 1910, the various Standard Oil companies still
> used UTLX cars as UTLX was originally part of Standard Oil. A good estimate
> would be the cars came from the large Standard Oil of Indiana refinery at
> Whiting, IN. Wisconsin was in the Standard Oil of Indiana marketing territory.
>
> Other refinery shippers did use UTLX. According to Steve Hile's UTLX book,
> UTLX over the years absorbed tank cars from Skelly, Pure Oil, Marathon, Shell
> and Conoco. So I think it is reasonable to expect they used UTLX cars when
> needed to ship product. Shell had a refinery in Roxanna IL which is on the
> Illinois side of St. Louis.
>
> I found this map of the Standard Oil marketing territories in the late 1960s:
>
> <https://i.pinimg.com/originals/94/a7/41/94a7416eaf529430709c4ecb41d89570.png>
>
> This is why brands such as Esso had branding such as Humble and Indiana
> Standard had American and UTOCO to sell product in the other Standard
> marketing areas.
>
> Bill HIrt
>
>> On 6/15/2024 11:12 AM, Tom Mack via groups.io wrote:
>> Rapido just announced a new run of their UTLX X-3 tank cars that includes
>> 10,000 Gallon X-3 Insulated Tank Cars which among other things, were used to
>> carry asphalt. Why this is of importance to Q modelers is that large blocks
>> of these cars are confirmed as traveling on Train 97 from Galesburg to
>> Savanna and on to the GB&W interchange at East Winona for destinations along
>> the GB&W in Wisconsin. These cars were in the UTLX 60000-62999 series and
>> the UTLX 64000-64999 and 66000-67999 series. The Rapido cars being offered
>> are 60016, 60064, 60503, 60531, 61714, 62288 and fit perfectly for CB&Q
>> asphalt transport use.
>> We have very few CB&Q wheel reports for Train 97 (I only have three), and
>> two of these have large blocks of asphalt cars. For example CB&Q Train 97 on
>> June 4, 1966 (summer road work season) has a block of 11 UTLX tank cars that
>> contains the following 10 UTLX X-3 cars carrying asphalt bound for East
>> Winona GB&W interchange: 67241, 61944, 61826, 62634, 62949, 62959, 62088,
>> 67130, 64508, 61935, 66172. All 10 cars are destined for Asphalt Products
>> Company is Stevens Point, WI on the GB&W.
>> CB&Q Train 97 on July 21, 1966 (also summer road work season) has a block of
>> 10 UTLX X-3 tank cars carrying asphalt bound for East Winona GB&W
>> interchange and then to WAUCOUHIG (Waupaca County Highway Department) in
>> Ogdensburg, WI on the GB&W: 62420, 62886, 66699, 67924, 62397, 62484, 61690,
>> 69050, 66966, 60812.
>> The significant blocks of asphalt cars that turn up in just 2 of 3 CB&Q
>> wheel reports indicates to me that this was a common CB&Q shipment, at least
>> in the summer of 1966 on the CB&Q to GB&W. So I am buying a number of these
>> cars to run in a block.
>> The question now is, where did the asphalt come from? Was there a major
>> refinery or facility that produced asphalt that would have been carried on
>> Train 97 and perhaps then to other parts of the CB&Q system as well?
>> (I have no affiliation with Rapido but am VERY glad to see them doing these
>> insulated 10,000 gallon X-3 tank cars!)
>
>
>
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