Canadian Railroads > Freight Car Friday - Tank Train Stray in Calgary in the 80s

This was a real anomaly, at least in my experience. I was out one lunch hour shooting in downtown Calgary (actually at the 10th Street SW? grade crossing), when an EB mixed freight showed up with a string (between 10 and 20, didn't note and can't remember) of TankTrain tank cars. This is GATX 66346, at 1225, on November 14, 1980. This is the first and only time I've ever seen this equipment, and it was odd, because I'd expect a single car, headed somewhere for repair, or a full train of whatever it ought to have been, 30 or more? Any explanation to account for this would be welcome, even if it's idle speculation.
Fred

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Apparently the cars made it into a few places, they were in Alaska for a short time for example. I just did a search using GATX Tank Train and found a bunch of similar sightings and mostly questions about what they were doing there. There is a set running on the CN in Eastern Canada but they are painted white. There was a time when the Tehachipi run was shut down, not sure what the whole story was but they cars would have been available for the Alaska assignment and the sightings around Chicago and north of there in Canada.

TCnR Wrote:
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> Apparently the cars made it into a few places,
> they were in Alaska for a short time for example.
> I just did a search using GATX Tank Train and
> found a bunch of similar sightings and mostly
> questions about what they were doing there. There
> is a set running on the CN in Eastern Canada but
> they are painted white. There was a time when the
> Tehachipi run was shut down, not sure what the
> whole story was but they cars would have been
> available for the Alaska assignment and the
> sightings around Chicago and north of there in
> Canada.

The cars that ran on the "Cans" in California were retired due to the 50 year rule.
GATX had a number of these cars and they were in service in a number of places over the years.
Sometimes for years and sometimes just for a few trial runs. IIRC the cars up in Alaska were up there for a trial that didn't work out in the end.

TCnR Wrote:
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> There is a set running on the CN in Eastern Canada but
> they are painted white. 

There were many 18-car white sets and some sets of black cars in Canada. I see them less frequently since the Montreal-Quebec Ultramar trains stopped operating, but I believe they are still around.

Ray

p.s. the letters "HH" and "MM" identify the end cars on specific 18-car sets.  

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I believe the UltraTrain is still a regular fixture on CN trains 305/306 and then 569, to Miramichi, NB.  The Ultramar bulk plant across the river in Chatham gets regular deliveries.  Here's a post and picture from a few years ago:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,4511197,4511197#msg-4511197

GTD

feclark: the cars in your photo look brand new.  Perhaps in transit from the manufacturer?  Could they have been made by National Steel Car Co. in Hamilton ON?

Just for fun we had them run through Dunsmuir in Northern California as well. Actually through a model scene representing Monolith in Southern California. Well...ok, actually my set of Athearn Tank train cars on John Signor's Layout with some photoshop work. Well...ok actually a lot of Photoshop work by John.

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RRTom Wrote:
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> feclark: the cars in your photo look brand new. 
> Perhaps in transit from the manufacturer?  Could
> they have been made by National Steel Car Co. in
> Hamilton ON?

In this case not in transit from NSC for sure, as this was an EB train. Based on other replies, this was likely an 18-car string.
Fred

TCnR Wrote:
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> Just for fun we had them run through Dunsmuir in
> Northern California as well. Actually through a
> model scene representing Monolith in Southern
> California. Well...ok, actually my set of Athearn
> Tank train cars on John Signor's Layout with some
> photoshop work. Well...ok actually a lot of
> Photoshop work by John.

This put a smile on my face; thank goodness we can still have some fun with the hobby!
Fred

feclark Wrote:
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> RRTom Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > feclark: the cars in your photo look brand
> new. 
> > Perhaps in transit from the manufacturer? 
> Could
> > they have been made by National Steel Car Co.
> in
> > Hamilton ON?
>
> In this case not in transit from NSC for sure, as
> this was an EB train. Based on other replies, this
> was likely an 18-car string.
> Fred

The 18 car string was not a hard and fast rule. It's what worked for this particular customer. 

They also ran Albany NY to Burlington VT carrying motor fuels from the port of Albany.