lettering set for Hecules Powder 8000 gallon tank car

Hercules Powder was a chemical and munitions manufacturing company based in Wilmington, Deleware. It was formed in 1882 as a DuPont company. In 1911, antitrust ruling by the Supreme Court resulted in its being spun o from DuPont de Nemoiurs into a separate company: Hercules Powder Company. Hercules produced smokeless powder and was a major manufacture of dynamite and double-based gunpowder. Subsequent to 2008, Hercules continues today in space travel rocket engine power under the name Ashland, Inc.

 

By 1946, the Hercules Powder Company owned 173 tank cars under HPCX ownership reporting marks. They also leased many more from Union Tank Car Company: UTLX, and General American Tank Line: GATX (General American Transportation Corp), and consequently it is dicult to track these addtional cars. Tank car loads included rosin and glycerine; most had heater coils. Very few were insulated tanks.

 

This decal set is designed to enable the modeler to letter a tank car for Hercules Powder Company as seen in various in-service photographs. UTLX and GATX used their lettering style for their leased car reporting marks, and Hercules used as least two distinctive reporting mark lettering styles for their own cars. (Note: GATX reporting marks are not represented in this decal set) Lettering colors used system wide, were as seen on UTLX 10673: yellow and orange lettering with the red devil on a yellow background rectangle.

 

Decal set designed and created at Protocraft Decals