Foobie or Not? Bachmann AORX tank

[randgust]

My side interest in PRR 1920's led to the oil boom era in PA, and my T-trak Trunkeyville module has a siding for loading tank cars, and my Jamison T-trak module has working oil jacks.

Prototypically, this was dead center in the middle of the Pennsylvania oil fields, so finding 'little' 8K-10K tank cars with interesting local refineries has been hit and miss - the "Wolfs Head Oil" in Oil City is dead on for the Intermountain car, I remember when that refinery was running.  Now cars are unobtanium even when I had a reserve.

I just came across this one in NOS in a hobby shop and bit, and then got to researching.   Would seem legit, looks legit....but it's Bachmann.

https://www.bachmann.co.uk/images/ocw/17861-9930-large.jpg

It's no longer in production.   Love the scheme and logo, but unless somebody can prove otherwise, I think what I have is a rather convincing looking foobie here.   I usually don't get bit with foobies.

AORX reporting marks - 1800 series - I don't think they existed in 1923 for the car date on the sill.   Anybody got a really old equipment register?
"Allegheny Refining".....   Well.... it did exist.   In Verona, PA, but in the 1950's.   The closest is "Allegany Refining" in Bolivar, NY in the 1920's, that seems real enough, was on the the Pittsburg & Shawmut, probably had tanks.   But not same spelling.

Then I found out that Bachmann has been putting this on their HO cars with a triple dome and the sound-producing HO tank farm...same logo.

So I think I have a foobie here.   But if anybody can prove me wrong, I'd love to see it.   I really like the car and that gusher logo is great fun.

This is the ultimate car for me, so looking at these little guys, that's still a 'good enough' for now.
http://www.petroleumhistory.org/OilHistory/images/TankCars/tc9.jpg

[sd45elect2000]

The AORX mark does not appear in the July 1946 OROR. I seem to recall however seeing a photo of the car someplace. I would not have bought the car either if it were a total foob.

Randy

[thomasjmdavis]

I found a listing for "AORX" that says is was "Athens food and refining company".
http://pwrr.org/rrm/rrma.html

AORX      ATHENS FOOD & REFINING CO., INC.

"Food and refining" seems an odd mix, but I assume they refined sugar, or refined vegetable oil.

Can't find a reference for Athens Food and Refining, per se.  A couple "Athens Foods" came up, along with a reference to Philadelphia, once known (maybe still is if you take a civics class in Philadelphia) as the "Athens of America."

[thomasjmdavis]

That same reporting mark list does have an "Allegheny tank car company", but reporting marks were ATKX.  They built and leased tank cars.  This link has an ad from 1919
http://www.petroleumhistory.org/OilHistory/pages/TankCars/Builders.html

[nkalanaga]

"Food and Refining" could also be animal fats.  Before modern processed vegetable oils, lard and tallow were a big business.

[sd45elect2000]

They could have either sold or abandoned the AORX mark.

[randgust]

The neat logo is an oil derrick with a gusher on it.

So animal fats are out.    And the site down in Verona is most famous for being a superfund site now.

The Bachmann HO triple domes are a real obvious foobie, white car with the same logo and bright red colored domes.   The oil storage tank the same way.  https://shop.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=5992
That's a lot more painfully obvious.

But I'll have to admit, I'd read about an "Allegheny Refining" somewhere, well, yeah, but it was "Allegany".  Around here, you've got about four different spellings of the same word - The Allegheny River runs through Allegany, NY next to Allegany County, NY.

There's a couple different websites documenting reporting marks, and they can be repeatedly taken and released by the AAR.   I was surprised the other day to see cars stencilled "WCCX" which I always knew was a local car repair shop with leased molasses tanks, it was released in '82 and now its a car leasing company and it's on plastics hoppers.

I have an HO model railroader as a friend that did me up some "Pennsylvania & Maryland" N boxcars commemorating his HO layout and I treasure those, so I'm not completely opposed to fiction, just not usually fooled!  I'm concluding its a foobie but a pretty darn good one.

[OldEastRR]

Who's this Al Legheny guy? Must have been very popular in that part of NY. 

[randgust]

At the risk of extreme thread drift:   

https://www.kayakmapspa.com/allegheny-river-1

I grew up within sight of the Thompsons Island battlefield sign.

To me the funniest part is that like most europeans, they actually got it wrong.   Pittsburgh (Three Rivers) where the Ohio, Monongahela, and Allegheny meet, is 'wrong' even by river naming standards where the primary river name stays and the tributary leaves; the Allegheny is actually bigger than the Monongahela so the river should be named the Ohio.    And before you think I'm nuts, the very independent Seneca Nation tribe that has a reservation in New York has their own signs up on highway bridges over the Allegheny river - The Ohio River, spelled in their alphabet.   So it's not even the right indigenous name.

https://www.wivb.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/97/2018/03/allegheny-river_38500819_ver1.0.jpg?w=876&h=493&crop=1

[Mark5]

Allegheny Refining in Verona, PA did do some food additive "related" business - here's a bit from the 1961 Federal Register:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

But, most online sources have that business starting in 1948.

Unless some real evidence emerges, I'd say the Bachmann cars are fantasy.

Mark

[cv_acr]

I found a listing for "AORX" that says is was "Athens food and refining company".
http://pwrr.org/rrm/rrma.html

AORX      ATHENS FOOD & REFINING CO., INC.

"Food and refining" seems an odd mix, but I assume they refined sugar, or refined vegetable oil.

Can't find a reference for Athens Food and Refining, per se.  A couple "Athens Foods" came up, along with a reference to Philadelphia, once known (maybe still is if you take a civics class in Philadelphia) as the "Athens of America."

I like this reporting mark listing as the entries are actually dated, but Athens Food and Refining is also the only AORX listed (1950-54)
http://nakina.net/other/report/reporta.html

[randgust]

When you can fake out both the name and the reporting marks, that's a pretty fine foobie.

This area was the absolute center of the 1860's oil boom, quite equal to the California Gold Rush in many respects, and the number of companies that emerged as railroads, pipelines, and refineries is mind-boggling.   Also remember that this is literally where John D. Rockefeller got his start, by taking on PRR, building pipelines to Cleveland, and consolidating competitors.   So many odd companies were in that era that 'sounds like' still works.

I have a 1974 Official Railway Equipment Register, and my favorite, bar none, is HOCX.   For real.  "Head On Collision Line".

And you also have to admit, and may not have realized, that the ultimate vanity plate is a railroad - R. J. Corman.   I'd met him professionally, remarkable man and gone way too soon, but now with an entire corporation and 17 shortlines, it's still red and silver R J CORMAN wherever it goes.   If there's another railroad, shortline or group named for an individual that ran it....  is there?    Look at all the reporting marks now for RJC_   

[nkalanaga]

HOCX has been used at least twice:

HOCX      *HUNT OIL CO.
HOCX      *HEAD-ON COLLISION LINE

http://www.pwrr.org/rrm/index.html

[nscalbitz]

"Food and Refining" could also be animal fats.  Before modern processed vegetable oils, lard and tallow were a big business.

Indeed, rendering of the nasty bits (by-products) was used in your favourite margarines and 'other extracts'!
Here I think my father was chief operator for 30 odd years post war; after what he'd seen I think dead animal pieces @abbatoir were the least of his concerns.
 And yes 'tallow' is all that, and more. It was transferred (piped) to bulk railway tanks but by 70's they were just using raod tankers parked on the train tracks!

Another department pumped out the 'blood and bone' fertiliser powder from huge boiler/ heater silos and when the wind blew from the South, you could smell the factory 3 miles away (from home). This was the fertiliser every commerical and
~d