SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD |
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Tank cars carry
liquids such as petroleum products and chemicals. This one carried fuel oil.
Great American Transportation built this car in 1942 for the Southern Pacific
Railroad, to carry non-pressurized liquids. Fifty of these were built with a
nominal design capacity of 8,000 gallons, but the actual capacity varied due to
small differences in construction. Payments were based on actual capacity, so
that figure was marked on each car, in this case 7,986 gallons.
The car was later acquired by Pennzoil dealer M.S.C. Distributing of Phoenix who
donated it to the museum in 1991. The car has been restored by an Eagle Scout as
a community service project.
This 39-foot car of riveted steel construction was built per Southern Pacific
class O-50-14 specifications (O for oil car, 50 tons capacity, 14th design of
its class). It was originally assigned number 47693, but was renumbered in 1956
to its present 60157.
Donor company M.S.C. Distributing Inc. is located in the industrial trackage on
West Washington Street in Phoenix. A distributor of oil and grease products, it
was founded in 1910 and has an annual revenue of $20 million dollars. The company′s
Pennzoil distributor Craig Stevenson donated the car.
The car was on a siding where the switch had been removed. The Arizona Chapter,
NRHS, paid to have it lifted onto an adjacent track. Southern Pacific employee
Albert Valdenegro of Tucson made sure there were no mechanical issues, then
Southern Pacific moved the car by rail via the Chandler Branch to the museum′s
temporary storage track near Pecos Road. After the Armstrong Park switch was
installed in 1993, the museum′s Plymouth locomotive moved it onto the museum grounds at
Erie Street in 1994. The car was moved south by the now Union Pacific Railroad
to the museum′s new Tumbleweed Park location on Ryan Road, along with the rest
of the fleet, in 2006. (The Union Pacific had acquired the Southern Pacific in
1996.)