This page provides information about wine transport by rail. This information herein is not comprehensive, and is intended to give the reader a good sense of how common this activity was. Included by reference is the excellent information about Chateau Martin that has been developed by Jim Lancaster; thank you Jim!

Bulk Wine Transport

It is interesting to know the magnitude of bulk wine transport. Here are some photos: This is a 1960s view of the Fresno, CA yards. While the subject of the photo is the San Joaquin Daylight train, look at all the tank cars in the background. All are for the bulk transport of wine. Here is a closeup photo of one of those cars. And here is a photo of a similar car lettered for Roma Wine; these cars have been produced in kit form by Thomas , imported RTR decorated and undecorated by PSC, and imported RTR by Sunset/3rd Rail. This photo and this photo show an entire train of wine tank cars.

About Chateau Martin

Chateau Martin was a New York City-based wine company. Chateau Martin's operation in NYC was to bottle and distribute the bottled wine. The wine that was to be bottled was purchased in bulk (by the carload) from wineries in California and shipped to NYC where it was bottled.
Initially cylindrical tank cars were used by Chateau Martin for its transport. Later when house cars with internal tanks that had been built for the transport of milk from dairies to creameries started being displaced by trucks, Chateau Martin purchased several of those cars for use in bulk wine transport.

Long-time New York City residents have recalled Chateau Martin's broadcast commercials where its wine was promoted as an alternative to wine from upstate New York.

Jim Lancaster's excellent Chateau Martin web site is the best source of information about cars used in the Chateau Martin wine transport operations. Here is a link to it. The car photos are in road number order lowest to highest. Please note the photo of CMWX 142 in the Bronx, New York City, and the date information below the caption. Also contained on Jim's site is a link to a roster of the Chateau Martin cars; you can use that info to see how the Chateau Martin car fleet changed over time.

Note on Jim's site the various locations where the photos were taken; proof that these cars roamed widely off a direct route from the greater San Francisco area to New York City.

Also note the variations in the lettering on the cars. In reviewing the photos on Jim's site, we have identified six different schemes:

Chateau Martin name centered vertically, motto is ANOTHER CARLOAD above the name, WINES below the name. See CMWX 108 on Jim's website.
Chateau Martin name centered vertically, motto is OVER 100,000,000 BOTTLES SOLD above the name, IT MUST BE GOOD - TRY IT below the name. See CMWX 119 on Jim's website.
Chateau Martin name slightly below center, motto above the name is For GOOD-ness Sake ... drink. See CMWX 141 on Jim's website.
Chateau Martin name at top of car side, motto below the name is AMERICA'S FINEST VERMOUTH WINES & CHAMPAGNES. See CMWX 155 on Jim's website.
Same as the preceding scheme, and with a large period between VERMOUTH and WINES. See CMWX 158 on Jim's website. CMWX 158 appears to be a very close match to the Lionel milk car model.
Same as 4. above except the period is in centered vertically between the words instead of at the bottom of the words line. The convention will not produce this scheme as dry transfers for it are available from Clover House. See CMWX 1008 on Jim's website.

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