Atlas beer can tank cars

Lackawanna Consortium Oct 21, 2021

  1. Lackawanna Consortium

    Lackawanna Consortium TrainBoard Member

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    Hello all. I am thinking about purchasing a few of these cars for my layout. My question is were/are these

    actual cars or a fantasy production? If they were actual cars what was the gallon amount the car could hold

    and the approximate length of them? Would I be correct in assuming Atlas took liberty with cars that have

    beer logos on them or did they actually exist also? Thanks Paul
     
  2. Grey One

    Grey One TrainBoard Supporter

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    I love my 'beer can tank cars' but, (and I could be wrong), I'm pretty sure they are a 'generic' design. To my knowledge they did not carry beer or belong to a beer company. Rather they carried 'normal' tank car loads for customers whose:
    * Track could not support heavier cars
    * Did not need as much material.
    I don't know if there were ever any advertising done with beer paint schemes.
     
  3. Carl Sowell

    Carl Sowell TrainBoard Supporter

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    Paul,

    I can not tell you if Atlas ever put beer company logos on their 28' shorty tank cars aka beer can cars, however, I do know and there is a set currently listed on the bay, they did make a a 4 pack of larger cars all decorated for Coors. I think these were typically for heavier products and capacity ran 3,000 -3,400 gallons.

    The "beer can" cars that I have are 28' sill to sill. Most of these cars were decorated with chemical companies names and even a molasses car. Here are two images of cars that I re-painted for use in my refinery scene:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    O000ps, I forgot to cut them down in size, oh well I'll do it next time.

    Be well,
    Carl
     
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  4. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    Here are some real ones. Well, they're "shorty" tank cars that may have carried beer.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  5. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    They weren't nicknamed "beer can tank cars" because they were used to carry beer. They were nicknamed that because they look, roughly, like a can of beer.

    BTW, Atlas has sold them for over 50 years!

    Doug
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2021
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  6. Mr. Trainiac

    Mr. Trainiac TrainBoard Member

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    I know of wine being transported in tank cars, but not of beer specifically. RBLs were more commonly used for finished product, the 'beer can' name is just from the shape, not the commodity.

    Short cars are usually used for dense commodities, I could see them being used for acid or even corn syrup service. These are usually pretty specialized cars, so you may need photos from your specific industry to see what kind of cars they would ship/receive. A lot of obscure or rare chemicals could be transported in cars like this, and you would probably need photographic or waybill evidence of what the cargo was.
     
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  7. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member

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  8. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    Yes, these are fine little cars and I've acquired more than a few over the decades. They look great and are perfect for my model railroads, all of which have been forced to contend with smaller radius curves.
     
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  9. umtrr-author

    umtrr-author TrainBoard Member

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    I consider the Atlas Beer Can Tank Car to be the first release in the Atlas Second Generation. I'll eventually get to the initial advertising for it in my perusal of Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman back issues. (Right now I'm still in 1968.)

    As Doug points out, they were nicknamed "beer can" because of how they looked, not what they carried. And what they carried was heavy liquids. The cargo in a small tank car would have weighed about the same as the cargo in a larger tank car.
     
  10. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    I can pretty vividly see the initial advertisement, in my mind's eye, in MR of them but I don't remember exactly when it was. I'll have to look, too. It was that ad that "compelled" me to get the first four - #2461, GATX; #2462, Atlas Chemical; #2463, Dow Chemical; and # 2464, Diamond Chemical.

    The 1968 - 1969 issues of MR are my favorites. So much going on in early N scale then and they featured the project "New York & Quebec" layout. I don't know how many times I have read that series over the years. It inspired me to construct my 1975 layout using the same methods, particularly the "L" girder frame and wiring.

    Doug
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2021
  11. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Now I am trying to remember the year. When they came out, I did buy one, just for fun. Long since gone...
     
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  12. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    I think I remember the ad too. Black and white, was it? Ends up that I have only one of the first series, the No. 2463 Dow Chemical in yellow. I have a pair of No. 3247 FMC Chemicals in white, bought at a little soda fountain/magazine/drug store in a small NJ town just up the road from my apartment, some 40 years ago. Happy memories; that was back in the day when you could come upon that sort of thing.
     
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  13. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    Trovestar shows 1973 and that would seem to be correct. Most of my MRs were thrown away long ago, just no room for them. :( Isn't it something that some ads and articles are forever etched in our minds after all the decades gone by?
     
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  14. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    Here it is. April, 1971. Not the best scan.

    Beer Can Tank Car Ad smaller.jpg

    Doug
     
  15. BigJake

    BigJake TrainBoard Member

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    I vaguely remember seeing some shorty tank cars at the Diamond Shamrock plant where my dad was a chemical engineer (and I worked a couple of summers in college). I don't remember any details about them, but these photos clearly show a centered platform with off-center ladders and main hatch, differing from the Atlas models. The tank design/fabrication is different than the Atlas models portray, especially the shape of the end-bells and the sump on the 2nd pic. Rounded end-bells are for higher pressure contents (likely gases or liquefied gases). Are there any N scale models of the short tank car prototypes shown?
     
  16. mtntrainman

    mtntrainman TrainBoard Supporter

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  17. engineer bill

    engineer bill TrainBoard Supporter

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    remember back when you could buy a kit and use a real beer can for the tank ? I think it was in HO.
     
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  18. BigJake

    BigJake TrainBoard Member

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    No, I don't remember it, but it was more likely in O scale...

    Was this in the era of tin cans with crimped tops and bottoms (and no pull-tabs, you had to use a "church key" to open them)?
     
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  19. Shortround

    Shortround TrainBoard Member

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    I thought I remembered such a thing way back. I was tinkering with O at the time.
     
  20. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    When I was a teen in the sixties, the local convenience store had a pop machine outside and the cans had no pull tabs yet in 1966. To open the can, you put it into an opening in the front of the machine, pulled a lever down, and two sharp points came down, out of sight, and punched two holes in the top of the can, one to drink from and the other, the air hole.

    We never thought a thing about it but that was really pretty unsanitary, all that sticky pop drying and building up on those pointed thingies, unless the store or machine owner cleaned them regularly, which I doubt.

    Doug
     

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