Tank Car, Vinegar

History: Looking like something from another era, wood-sided tank cars remained the best mode of transportation for vinegar well into the mid-1900s.

Special tank cars were built to carry a lot of liquids besides petroleum. However, most of us wouldn’t think of vinegar. Standard Brands Industries among their many other products, was in the vinegar bottling and sales business. One of their subsidiaries (Fleishmen Transportation Company) built vinegar tank cars in 1950 out of cypress and fir wood. The tank cars were painted silver to reflect sunlight and to help to keep the vinegar cool. The tanks had a relatively short track life.

Vinegar is highly corrosive to metal and would have destroyed the early steel tank cars. Today, special liners can be applied to prevent this problem. For the older cars, steel was used for the frame and bulkheads however which gave the car the structural integrity necessary to be handled in trains of all-steel cars.

Railroad/Company: This set of items is comprised of more than one name. Please look at the component items for details on the specific roadnames and/or manufacturers.