RE: (erielack) #3599, Drew Chemical

["Tupaczewski, Paul R (Paul)" <paul.tupaczewski_@_alcatel-lucent.com>]

> I have often wondered WHAT did Drew Chem really do?Bill 
> Shep's 1974 track diagrams show the schematic; Sanford maos 
> give dimensions.
> 
> A search on Drew gave some info, relating to margine. But no details.
> 
> Tabor's books say that they were one of the Lack's largst 
> customers, and that up to 50 tank cars would be there at times.


Drew Chemical produced a wide variety of consumer and industrial products based on refined vegetable oils and other fat sources. Synthetic greases and margarine (yes, margarine!) were products of Drew.

Drew sold its Boonton operation to PVO (Pacific Vegetable Oil) International in the early 1970s, who ultimately closed down the plant in the early 1980s. Drew was later bought by Ashland Chemical Company. PVO is apparently still around, but there's almost no information online to be found about them.



 
> A visit to their site some 10 years ago, found little remaining.

Today there is a Walmart on the site, and you'd never know there was a chemical factory there. :(


 
> Specicly, what products came in, and out, and in what types of cars?
> and to which buildings?

Well, according to some old DL&W waybills  have, they received a LOT of "soya" (soybean oil in today's terms) and animal tallow (i.e., "fat"). Coconut oil was another inbound product. They did receive some covered hoppers of chemicals used to produce some of the products, and an occasional boxcar of 55-gallon drums would arrive at the "warehouse" adjacent to the main office building. The oil was unloaded at either the "oil" track (adjacent to the water track) or the main track in front of the primary production building on Division Street. 98% of the inbound traffic was tank cars, with covered hoppers and the occasional boxcar making up the other 2%.  I'm not sure how much was shipped out by rail, but if it was, it went out in tank cars.

As a kid, I used to love staring at all those ACFX and GATX tank cars as we drove past. And that smell of FAT and GREASE will forever linger in my mind!



 
> I heard somewhere that used water was hauled, in tankcars, to 
> Secaucus, and dumped into the river; were these
> cars specific to this traffic, or were they cleaned 
> somewhere, and used for other products?

The process of making some of the products involved a ton of water, and the town's sewer system couldn't handle all the wastewater, so Drew originally used a fleet of old SHPX tank cars to load the wastewater into. The DL&W (and later, EL) would haul these down to the Hackensack River and just dump it in there. This continued into EL years, when the town complained about it, and they reportedly started unloading it right into the Croxton swamp :)

In later EL years, the SHPX cars were pretty worn out (one of them reportedly was responsible for one the Montville wrecks), and a fleet of used 50' cars was purchased. A large "W" was spray painted on the side to indicate its use for wastewater service.  Bill Sheppard's diagram book points out the "water" track where these cars were loaded.


 
> so many questions...... and so little time.

Keep 'em coming! :)

	- Paul

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