JOHN H. GRACE & COMPANY

Tank Car No. 799


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Tank cars carry liquids — everything from food items, such as vegetable oil, to hazardous materials like gasoline.

This three-dome tank car was built in 1938 for tank car leasing company John H. Grace & Company of Chicago, which leased a fleet of different size tank cars to small shippers. Of riveted steel construction, it has three separate compartments for chemicals and solvents. The domes contain a filler valve, and provide room for expansion.

After its retirement, this car was acquired by the Valley Steel and Supply Company of Tempe who sold it to the museum in 1986. It arrived in 1987, and has since been restored by an Eagle Scout as a community service project.

This car carries the AAR reporting mark GRYX for the John H. Grace & Company, not to be confused with chemical conglomerate W. R. Grace & Company. John Henry Grace started this company in 1919, and by the time he died in 1928, it owned 6 box cars and 59 tank cars. His sons took over the company and increased the number to several hundred. The company was sold to Transmatrix Company in 1972. It is believed that none of these cars are in interchange service today.

Swift Trucking moved the car from Valley Steel to the museum′s Armstrong Park location on Erie Street on September 12, 1987. Marco Crane then lifted it from the lowboy trailer onto museum rails. It was then moved south by the Union Pacific Railroad to the museum′s new Tumbleweed Park location on Ryan Road, along with the rest of the fleet, in 2006.


Photo of car at old ARM display yard.

Photo of car on February 27, 2013.
Photo of car after Eagle Scout project. Photo taken January 21, 2017.

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