WP&YR “Pease” Tank Cars?

In 1942, the U.S. Army imported to the WP&YR four tank cars that had run on the Nevada County Narrow Gauge R.R. These cars bore the numbers 301, 1004, 181, and 183 on the NCNG. The NCNG acquired them in 1934. I don’t know whether they were owned by the NCNG, by Associated Oil, by Union Oil, or by the local distributors. The cars bore the numbers 12, 13, 16, and 17 on the WP&YR, in the same corresponding order. They were 6500-gallon cars, with 144-gallon domes, and had screw-on manhole covers. The only tank remaining (#183 / 17) has had its dome reduced in height, but it still bears the embossed info “WM GRAVER TANK WORKS CHICAGO.” I have attached a photo of #183 /17, as it currently sits at the old Utah Yard site. I have also attached a 1970’s photo of #12 or 13, as it then existed at a gas station along the Alaska Highway, so you can see what the domes originally looked like.

I suspect these cars originally to have been Southern Pacific Co., so-called “Pease” tank cars. F.M. Pease Car & Locomotive Works was a used railroad equipment dealer in Hegewisch, Indiana. The SP cars in question had underframes made by AC&F, and tanks made by Chicago-area tank manufacturers, such as Graver. Whether anyone other than Grave made Pease tank-car tanks, I don’t know. SP ##51922-52021 (100 cars) were built for the SP in 1901 and/or 1902. SP ##56226-56250 (25 cars) had been built in 1902 and were purchased by the SP in 1906. In the 1930’s, the time frame when the NCNG got the four cars in question, the SP was in the process of retiring the “Pease” tank cars.

Even though the NCNG got some former Pacific Coast tank cars, I don’t think the four in question were from the PC. The PC tank cars were mostly 5800-gallons and mostly didn’t have domes as high. Also, I don’t think the PC was getting rid of tank cars in 1934, like the SP was.

As I read the finding aid from the California State Railroad Museum, I don’t think they have a record that would show the numbers of the four cars that the SP dropped off (permanently) at Colfax in 1934. I wonder whether there nevertheless is some record of the original identity and numbers of the four cars. Maybe a photo of one of them before the NCNG painted them over?

Robert