Midwest Freight Car

by Keith MacCauley  

With only three major freight car builders (National Steel Car, Trinity and Greenbrier) currently in operation today, it’s easy to forget that well into the 1970’s there were more than a dozen railway rolling stock makers. While some of the defunct manufacturers were large and well known, such as Pullman Standard, there were a number of cottage industry type firms that contributed freight cars to the north American fleet; Magor Corporation, Greenville Steel Car and Berwick Forge come to mind. Among the more obscure, was Midwest Freight Car (MFC) located in Clinton IL. MFC was a niche builder that focused on short-run specialty cars, including flats, well cars, gondolas, hoppers, and covered hoppers. MFC was acquired by Portec in the late 1970s’s which in turn was sold to Thrall circa 1983/1984. Thrall was acquired by Trinity Industries in 2001.

In 1977 Procor was in need of a specific geometry 3,000 cu. ft. covered hopper car and turned to Midwest. The LO (AAR Class) covered hoppers were to be used to haul phosphate rock from Florida, presumably to a CIL facility in Canada for the purpose of fertilizer manufacture. CIL also had a large interest in sulfuric acid production (another fertilizer building block). A maximum height of 12’ – 6” was specified, most likely related to some type of origin loading apparatus geometry. The result was a rather low, lanky appearing car, and sixty-five were constructed in 1978; UNPX 121700 – 121764. Delivery was somewhat delayed by ongoing facility expansion taking place in parallel at the Clinton location. Purchase by a Canadian entity of a US company (Union Tank Car) was noteworthy at the time as this was long before the days of Free Trade and there would have been taxes and duties to be paid. Following service with CIL, the UNPX cars scattered to other lease customers, mostly hauling sand, roofing granules and other similar density commodities. The relatively small LO’s proved to be very durable with most serving some four decades before being retired/dismantled, or in some case sold off. While a number of sold/remarked cars carry on with their new owners, only one car from the original build is still in service with Procor. The ex UNPX cars are easy to spot as most still sport the large “PROCOR’ wordmark. A company condition of sale, rarely practiced or enforced, requires removal of the former identity. Textbook examples of prior identity are the small, former MFC built blue B&M covered hoppers with AEQX reporting marks which boldly display ‘BOSTON & MAINE’ between their exterior reinforcing ribs.

The UNPX 121700 series subject sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole and I dug out the construction file from our archives. It's a fascinating tale. We actually sent an inspector from Oakville to Clinton to keep an eye on things during production. Amazing to see how cheap travel expenses were back in 1978!