RE: (erielack) Water bottles...

["Tupaczewski, Paul R \(Paul\)" <paultup_@_alcatel-lucent.com>]

> Could someone explain "water bottle" service - I know that 
> the EL at one time brought tank cars into Croxton, parked 
> them and then 'unloaded' them into a convenient connection 
> for disposing of liquids, but I never did hear the full 
> story.  All I know is that one night while switching a string 
> of cars, I almost got drenched because the 'lid' on the tank 
> car (old style) turret  was left open.
> Bruce Alcock
> OK


"Water bottle" is a cutesy term for wastewater haulage. The Drew
Chemical Company (later PVO International) of Boonton, NJ (and a four
block walk from where I grew up) was one of the nation's largest
processors of vegetable oils, and was EL's 8th largest customer. They
took inbound vegetable oils (corn, soybean, etc.) and other fats (edible
tallow, for example) and made edible consumer products such as margarine
and refined oils. In addition, they were able to take the vegetable oils
and through the magic of chemistry and the addition of other products
(caustic sodas, etc.), create other non-edible products such as
industrial lubricants. My dad still has a bottle of "Wetsyn," a
Drew-made lubricant.

Anyhoo, some of these processes to make these products required a LOT of
water, and after the process was complete, the leftover water (with some
contaminants) had to be disposed of. Boonton's sewer system couldn't
handle the huge volume of wastewater, so Drew was forced to load all its
wastewater into these "water bottle" cars.  The cars were used tank cars
that were beyond the age of usefulness for hauling valuable commodities,
and so were purchased on the cheap, since wastewater really didn't
require "prime" equipment. :)

After they were loaded, the cars would be taken east and dumped out. I
can't remember if Croxton was the original location or the replacement
location, but I do know they were stopped from dumping at their original
location and they started dumping elsewhere a bit more discreetly. The
empty cars were returned to Boonton usually on the head of CS-9. The
Boonton Drills took care of positioning the water and oil cars.

Speaking of Drew and it being EL's 8th largest customer - it's another
example of why, if EL didn't go into CR, it would have had a big
struggle to survive on local business. After the Ohio steel mills dried
up, then the Solvay business withered away, you had Drew/PVO - and it
shut down in the early 80s. Today, that location is a Wal-Mart
(surprised?). Effectively, within 10-15 years, almost all of EL's top 10
non-intermodal customers disappeared. Not a good thing!

	- Paul

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