On-Rail Detail #2 - 66'5" Tank Car, PROX 41879


McLeod

Forest Lurker
This tank car is owned by Procor Limited (PROX), and was BLT 05-92. The information that I can find on this particular car suggests it is classed as a general purpose, welded tank car. A DOT placard 1230-3 signifies it is carrying methanol.
These photographs were taken September 26, 2020, at the CN staging yard in Whitecourt, Alberta.
Prox41879_1.jpg

Prox41879_2.jpg

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Prox41879_4.jpg

Prox41879_5.jpg

Prox41879_6.jpg

Prox41879_7.jpg

Prox41879_8.jpg

Prox41879_9.jpg

Prox41879_10.jpg

End of Post.
 
NICE! -- I habs a question ....
Is Load Limit the weight of cargo that the car can carry, or is it the Gross weight of the car.
 
NICE! -- I habs a question ....
Is Load Limit the weight of cargo that the car can carry, or is it the Gross weight of the car.
I believe that it is the weight that the car can carry. LD LMT (load limit) plus LTWT (light weight) equals Gross Weight. In this case, 131.5 tons. Being a tanker, it is not completely filled, thus keeping it about 230,000 pounds requiring 130 ton trucks on the car...pretty much the modern standard.
 
Great photos Guy. You are amassing a great repository of railcar photos from your area. Those cars are in great use around here, although they are placarded "1075" for LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas). Same safety devices and loading valves are used.
 
Willie , I'm glad you could answer Sherrel's question, because I just don't know! I'm just a guy with a camera, and no experience in railroading or transportation.
 
Airplane weights were more self explanatory: Empty Weight and Structural Gross Weight.
Anything between amounted to crew, fuel, cargo, and passengers.
Gross TakeOff weight might be lower depending on airport elevation, temp, and runway length.
 
I believe that it is the weight that the car can carry. LD LMT (load limit) plus LTWT (light weight) equals Gross Weight. In this case, 131.5 tons. Being a tanker, it is not completely filled, thus keeping it about 230,000 pounds requiring 130 ton trucks on the car...pretty much the modern standard.

Willie is correct.

"Load limit" (LD LMT) is the limit of cargo weight that can be loaded onto/into the car. (Based on the carrying capacity of the axle bearings and gross rail loading (GRL) weight limits, minus the weight of the car itself.)

"Light weight" (LT WT) is the weight of the car empty.

"Gross weight" is not stenciled but is easily arrived at by adding the two together.

Cars used to also be stenciled with a nominal "capacity" (CAPY) but that was kind of redundant with the load limit being the actual limiting factor and CAPY stencils were eliminated in the mid 1980s.

With a load limit of ~198000 pounds, this is a nominal 100-ton (cargo) capacity car. A pretty standard design capacity for cars from the late 1970s to 2000s.
 
Great photos Guy. You are amassing a great repository of railcar photos from your area. Those cars are in great use around here, although they are placarded "1075" for LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas). Same safety devices and loading valves are used.

And this time I DISagree with Willie, because actually no.

LPG is a compressed/liquified gas, and has different fittings, and also the standard size car for that since the 1970s is nominally 33,000 US gallons, which is a bit bigger than this car.

The hatch cover shown on this car unbolts and flips open and that thing outside of the handrails on the top of the car is a pressure relief valve; there is also a bottom valve/fitting under the car for unloading (which mcleod didn't quite manage to get a detail shot of, but he did get a shot of stencilling referring to it ("BOT OPR VALVE [bottom operating valve] / A.A.R. BOTTOM PROTECTION LEVEL A")), which gas cars do not have (all loading/unloading of gas transport cars is through the top fittings). This car is strictly for loading liquids.
 
Other tidbits:

Shop code "P-75" is PROCOR Oakville. They built cars here until about 2002. Since the weigh date under the weight data matches the build date, we know that PROCOR built this car there in May 1992. According to http://nakina.net/private/prox.html it's part of a 54 car group PROX 41846-41899.

This stencil captured in one of the detail photos:
EXTERIOR - ALKYD I11
P75 05 92
indicates the type of paint used and the shop/date, so we also know it's in original factory paint.


The detail photos also show two different types of reflective markings: small 4" circles lower on the tank body (a Canadian requirement since the mid 1970s) and the large vertical yellow stripes which were mandated in 2005 with deadlines for implementation in 2013 (in Canada) and 2015 (USA).

The tank qualification data stencils (the "spreadsheet" like table at the right-hand end of the car) shows the tank was last tested/inspected by shop "CAD" (probably CAD Rail in Lachine, QC) in 2015, and due again in 2015 (required every ten years). Since the car was built after 1974, it has a allowed service life of 50 years and could continue in service to 2042. (This standardized data stencil was introduced in 1998.)
 
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And this time I DISagree with Willie, because actually no.

LPG is a compressed/liquified gas, and has different fittings, and also the standard size car for that since the 1970s is nominally 33,000 US gallons, which is a bit bigger than this car.

The hatch cover shown on this car unbolts and flips open and that thing outside of the handrails on the top of the car is a pressure relief valve; there is also a bottom valve/fitting under the car for unloading (which mcleod didn't quite manage to get a detail shot of, but he did get a shot of stencilling referring to it ("BOT OPR VALVE [bottom operating valve] / A.A.R. BOTTOM PROTECTION LEVEL A")), which gas cars do not have (all loading/unloading of gas transport cars is through the top fittings). This car is strictly for loading liquids.
Yes I should have caught the difference in liquid capacity in photo #4, as I know LPG is shipped in 33,000 gallon cars. You're right about not seeing the bottom unloading valve. That would also have given it away. So the cars are similar to LPG cars!
 



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