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| HJMX 6002 is part of the PSTR collection, seen here in Pt. Stanley. Peter Mumby photo. |
by Keith MacCauley
As noted, the green tank cars were very old. You can pinpoint the build era by some tank details. I couldn't tell from the photos, but I believe that the larger diameter tank cars have a single row of rivets joining the tank head whereas the smaller diameter have a double row at the head. The single rivet row identifies the tank car as a 'Type II', manufactured between 1903 and 1917. Tank cars with a double row of rivets, known as 'Type II', were manufactured after 1917. As fusion welding (no rivets) was not adopted until 1941, the Type II HJMX tank cars could have been built from the 1920's through the 1940's. In a WRD post (11/28/2019), Peter Mumby indicates that HJMX 6002 was built 8/1920. While wartime demands extended the life of already old rolling stock, my understanding is that the AAR did not adopt freight car age limits until the 1960's. The current age limit is fifty years for freight cars manufactured after July 1, 1974. There is also a mechanism to extend the life of certain car types (not including tank cars) to sixty-five years.
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