For years, railroads have hauled ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, as it is better known. Ethanol is mostly made from corn and is used as additive to oxygenate gasoline. Most of th is usage was in the Midwest, in states such as Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansa, Nebraska, and Indiana where there are considerable crops of corn grown.
In 2004, it was mandated that ethanol be used to replace MBTE as an additive to oxgenate all gasoline used in the state of California. Since California is not a corn-producing state, the ethanol has to be shipped in from states that do have large corn crops and ethanol plants. This ethanol traffic boomed in 2004 as several million gallons of ethanol is needed each week by refineries in the Los Angeles Harbor area alone and 800 million gallons is needed in the state each year.
To meet the growing market demand for new tank cars, UTLX Manufacturing, Inc. is expanding production capacity with a green-field manufacturing facility at Alexandria, Louisiana. UTLX 205400 is the first car in the initial production run from the new plant. The 30,000 gallon (shell full) car is size to stage the greatest number of cars at a producter's loading rack and still meet the 263,000 pound gross rail load limit. The car's coupled length of 59'4" and its 119 3/16" I.D. tank provide shipping efficiency within AAR Plate "C" clearance requirements. The Funnel-Flow? design facilitates complete bottom unloading.
The car is scaled from manufacturer's drawings and includes newly-required reflectivity markings.
Era: 2005-2006
? ALL new tooling
? Scaled from manufacturer's drawings
? Fully assembled
? Weighted for optimal performance
Car numbers 11873 and 11883 will represent cars from an earlier UTLX production, with a slightly different paint scheme.