Tank Car Rescue / Hooker Tank Car Project

 Greetings All,

Tank Car Rescue 

Hooker Tank Car Project

I was recently taking stock of my tank car rolling stock that have been basically sitting in the tank car box for a few years with an eye towards repainting several that I thought could use a cosmetic upgrade to get them back on the layout. 

I settled on trying to paint and letter them as Hooker Chemicals tank cars using decals from K-4 Decals.

Prototype Information

Founded in 1903 as "the Development and Funding Company" by Elon Huntington Hooker, of Rochester, NY, the company used the Townsend cell to electrolyse salt into chlorine and sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also known as "caustic soda" and "lye," in a chloralkali process. Elmer Sperry, founder of Sperry Electric, and Leo Baekeland, inventor of Bakelite and Velox photographic paper, consulted Hooker to improve the design of the cell.

The company was sited in Niagara Falls, NY foremost because of the low-cost electricity from the Niagara Falls power project, but also because of the abundance of salt from nearby mines, and availability of water from the Niagara River.

"Vintage Ad #1,857: Hooker's New Chemagination Center" by jbcurio is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

Chlorine, used for sanitation and the chlorination of drinking water, was sold as chlorinated lime and chlorobenzene, which was an ingredient for an explosive used in World War I. Later, solvents like trichloroethylene and phenol were sold for use by the subsidiary degreasing and dry cleaning company Detrex. Hooker licensed his diaphragm cell technology to other chloralkali producers.

In 1918, Hooker formed a company to hydrogenate vegetable oils, while Hooker Chemical also began producing sulfur chloride and sodium chlorate.

In 1922, Hooker bought the S. Wander & Sons Company for the retail sales of lye and chlorinated lime. Samuel Wander had a retail store at 105 Hudson St, New York, NY, and factories in Albany, NY. Hooker sold the business in 1927. Hooker built a new chloralkali plant in Tacoma, WA in 1929. Additional products, including sodium sulfide, sodium sulfhydrate, sodium tetrasulfide, and aluminum chloride were produced by the company.

In World War II, Hooker was a leading supplier of dodecyl mercaptan for the synthesis of rubber. The company also produced arsenic trichloride, thionyl chloride, and hexachlorobenzene. Hooker expanded into plastics manufacturing, developing epoxy vinyl ester resins, and in 1955 acquired the Durez Corporation, a manufacturer of thermoset plastic phenolic resins founded in 1948.

Occidental Petroleum purchased Hooker Chemical Company in 1968. Subsequent owners have renamed the company several times.

The company became notorious in 1977, when residents near its chemical waste site, Love Canal, reported extraordinarily high incidences of leukemia, birth defects, and other injuries. Although Hooker had sold its old chemical waste dump site to the Niagara Falls School Board in 1953, the company was held responsible as a result of a lawsuit thereafter.

"Love Canal" by Roadgeek Adam is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Servicing Hooker / Occidental Petroleum

According to the Operations Special Interest Group industry data base the Hooker Electro Chemical Plant in Niagara Falls, NY was switched by the Lehigh Valley Railroad via their Suspension Bridge Freight Yard

Commodities Out: Caustic soda

Commodities In: Chemicals

The Occidental Petroleum plant in Niagara Falls, NY was switched by the New York Central and later Penn Central Railroads via their Niagara Falls Yard. 

Commodities Out: Chlorine, gypsum, HCl, methylene chloride, Potassium sulfate, sodium hydroxide.

Commodities In: Potassium hydroxide, sulfur dioxide

I believe Occidental is still in business and is switched by CSX. 

Model Information

The tank cars in the large tank car box are older inexpensive tank cars from IHC, Model Power and Bachmann that came in trainsets or I purchased individually for a dollar or two. Over the years all have received body mounted knuckle couplers, metal wheelsets and a blast of Testor's Dullcote to tone down their paint schemes.

I settled on four cars to be repainted and lettered for Hooker Chemicals, Niagara Falls NY. On the three cars below rattle can black was applied first. After allowing time for the black paint to dry I used a strip of blue painters tape to cover the center of the car and applied the rattle can orange.

The paint job looks promising. Next stop the decal shop.

The tank cars have received their Hooker decals.

The gloss orange rattle can paint worked very well for the decal application. 

End decals were applied.

The white Bachmann trainset Cyanamid tank car is now Hooker Chemicals tank car SHPX 6185. This car was painted in reverse with the orange applied first and taped for th black to be applied.

The tank cars have been sprayed with Testor's Dullcote and its time for reassembly. All of the project tank cars have received additional weight as shown below.

The tin containers hold some of the parts for each tank car. The clear containers are used for the decals.

Separate parts like ladders and railings were spray painted with rattle can flat black. Time for final assembly!!

The four tank car project is done!!!

I'm thinking a four car block of these Hooker tank cars will look pretty impressive in a freight train. All four tank cars have SHPX reporting marks that belong to American Railcar Leasing.

Final Thoughts and Comments

The tank car rescue turned four cheapie tank cars into nicely painted and lettered models. While the Hooker Chemicals Company certainly left a nefarious legacy the fact remains that the company did produce and ship chemicals in lots of tank cars bearing their name during the eras which I mostly model. 

Additional Links & Info

Hooker Chemicals Wikipedia.

Occidental Petroleum Wikipedia

Hooker Chemicals tank car 1969 with HCPX reporting marks

Hooker Chemicals tank car 1979 with HCPX reporting marks

Hooker Chemicals tank cars Niagara Falls, NY with HOKX reporting marks. No date.

Hooker Chemicals tank car with SHPX reporting marks at Marshalltown, Iowa 1967

Occidental Chemicals tank car 1969 Marshalltown. Iowa.

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you soon!!!