Tank Cars: Chlorine and Fluoride

I have several of the Broadway Limited chlorine tank cars (and have sold off many more).  They are well done models of an interesting prototype. These are the type of models that I'll go ahead and purchase since it can often be difficult to find once they've sold out. Broadway also has a habit of selling only multi-packs instead of individual cars. Here are several examples:

My theory has been that since New Britain chlorinated their town water supply, they may have received the chlorine via rail. With a population of nearly 75,000 it seems plausible. Is it?

Chlorine

Chlorine tank cars undoubtedly traveled the New Haven. Liquid chlorine was primarily used as a bleaching agent in paper and textile production in this era. The larger paper and textile mills in Holyoke would have received tank cars of chlorine. The textile mills of the region, such as the American Thread Co in Willimantic, may have too.

There also were several chemical companies in Connecticut. The Naugatuck Chemical Co. in Naugatuck, Berkshire Chemical Co. in Bridgeport and H. Kermit & Co. in New Haven all would have received chlorine in large enough quantities to warrant tank cars. 

But routing to these locations via New Britain would be unlikely. Much of the chlorine was produced in and around Niagara Falls, NY.  For Holyoke, cars would have needed to be routed:

Maybrook > New Haven > New Britain > Holyoke

Springfield > Hartford > New Britain > Holyoke

But with the B&M serving Holyoke directly, and the B&A indirectly, these routes seem very unlikely.

Town Water

By the 1930s most New England towns using surface water supplies also disinfected town water using chlorine. The process injected chlorine gas via pressurized tanks. Tanks of 150-lb or 1-ton were used, or somewhere around 80-100 gallons. 

There were special "multiple unit tank" cars that were flat cars designed to haul multiple canisters. MTS imported a brass model. Topps even released a trading card of one.

This would be an interesting car, but for a small city of 75,000, a 1-ton tank typically lasts from 2-weeks (summer) to over a month (winter). One car would be a years' worth. It is feasible for the car to operated in an LCL manner, delivering a few cannisters to each of several towns, though. But they could also be shipped via box car, and that's probably the more likely option. Very few of these cars were built, and were probably made for a specific service. 

For full tank cars, industries that use a commodity in bulk will typically have substantial storage on-site.  For example, if an industry is served by rail and has a several-thousand-gallon fuel oil tank identified on a Sanborn map, it's reasonable to assume they received bulk fuel oil in tank cars. Yes, it could be delivered by truck, but it would be less expensive to get it direct via rail.

But liquid chlorine, or chlorine gas, is quite dangerous to store. Apparently large mills often used the tank cars themselves as storage. As a result, they often don't have storage tanks noted for chlorine. I see bleaching rooms noted, but not storage.

But it doesn't appear that I'll need either in New Britain. Could I reletter these cars for other services? The answer is, not easily. I may keep one for a through train.

Fluoride

New Britain was the first municipality in CT to fluoridate their town water, in 1950.  Fluoridating municipal water was first done using Sodium Fluoride, a byproduct of aluminum processing. This is shipped in sacks in powdered form via box cars. ALCOA in New Kensington, PA was a major supplier, served by PRR.  Another potential source is DuPont in Wilmington, DE on the Reading.

In 1951, municipalities started to switch to hydrofluorosilic acid. This was shipped in rubber-lined tank cars. Although I have listings identifying cars that were assigned to this service, I don't have any photos or other information to indicate what they looked like. I suspect they are acid tank cars, similar to the Tangent offering, but the dome and/or fixtures may have been different. This was a byproduct of phosphate processing for fertilizer and was centered around that industry in Florida.

Since I don't have any information as to which process New Britain used, along with a lack of information regarding the tank cars used, I'll stick with box cars of Sodium Fluoride.