9.0.9 The Private Owner Fleet

Prototype Information

Private Owner

Private Owner cars are defined as rolling stock not owned by ICC designated railroads.

Fleet Composition

Here is the the national car fleet, as described in ICC statistics for Dec. 30, 1950. The table shown below was published in the 1953 Car Builders’ Cyclopedia, page 69.

Note:

• Nearly all tank cars and refrigerator cars in the United States were in private ownership.
• Gondola & Hopper cars are consolidated under one line. 
  

Private Owners

Private owner cars can be easily identified from its reporting mark. Any ending in the letter 'X' is a private owner car. Unlike railroad owned cars that are either returned to the railroad on which they were loaded, via the service route, or “confiscated” locally for loading, or returned to owner if a direct connection existed, private owner cars are operated under the direction of their owner, and could be sent wherever specified by the owning company. The owning company could lease the car to a customer for their exclusive use during the leasing period. Some of those leasing companies had their names on the car in addition to the reporting mark. 

private owner car

private owner car leased

 

The ORER for 1955 identified 150 private owners. Here is a table of the largest private owners.

Company	Reporting Mark	Number of Cars	Car Types
General American Transportation Corp	GATX	55899	All Types
Union Tank Car Co	UTLX	48526	Tank Cars
Pacific Fruit Express Co	PFE	38718	Refrigerator Cars
Fruit Growers Express	FGEX	12505	Refrigerator Cars
Shippers Car Line Corp	SHPX	12162	Tank Cars
Merchants Despatch Transportation Co	MDTX	8421	Refrigerator Cars
North American Car Corp	NATX	6816	All Types
Western Fruit Express	WFEX	5753	Refrigerator Cars
Sinclair Refining Co	SDRX	4948	Tank Cars
Union Refrigerator Transit Lines	URTX	4338	Refrigerator Cars

The WWSL

The WWSL had several industries that would potentially see private owner cars delivered for unloading. Those industries are:

• Basalt Sand and Gravel. BSG has contracts with NorthWest Portland Cement company which could provide HM (twin hopper), HT (triple and quadruple hoppers) and LO (covered hopper) for sand and gravel loading.
  
• American Pulp and Paper. APP could see TM (tank car) TMI (insulated tank car) for chemical unloading.
  
• Buyher Propane. Buyher would see TMI (insulated tank car) for propane gas unloading.
• Caster Oil Company. Caster Oil would see TM (tank car) TMI (insulated tank car) for fuel unloading.
• Planck Lumber Company. Planck could see TM (tank car) TMI (insulated tank car) for creosote unloading.
• WWSL team track could see R type refrigerator cars for loading and unloading.
  

Rolling Stock modeled. See Private Owner Rolling Stock for cars modeled on the WWSL.

Reference

1953 Car Builders’ Cyclopedia

Official Railway Equipment Register, January 1955