They run well... they have a small weight inside the tank... but is maybe a little too light. Adding weight would be very easy. The shell pulls up easily from the chassis. As mentioned before... they use Accumate knuckle couplers. Those couplers are okay... but... IMHO... the couplers look way too big and the separation is a bit too wide (almost enough to drive an N Scale tractor trailer through ). In common practice for model railroading... these relatively light cars should not be in the front half of a large consist due to the potential of 'stringlining' on curves.
Regarding era... I'm pretty sure I saw one of these cars on the Santa Fe transcon in 1994. I remember noticing because I had a couple of the Atlas cars already back then.
Atlas beer can cars are always in demand at our swap meets, along with the shorty hoppers. I have bought and sold them for years, and have a few left today, my choice roadnames. But when I sell them with the rest of my stuff, the beer can cars always go first, and I search other tables for them as well. I agree with Jose (Calzephyr) about the couplers, but on a couple I used short shank Red Caboose Unimate couplers and they do couple closer, but are still far apart. There is a chorine and corporate chemical supply company, Jones Chemical, along I-95 in Ft. Lauderdale and they always have tank cars sitting on their siding. I get real excited when I see whale bellies, and the tank cars with the built in bend, and shorty tank cars. I pulled over and was photographing the shorty cars when a highway cop and told me to move along - for my safety, as the area was "high risk". I knew what that was about as Jones Chemical has caused many mass evacuations from many neighborhoods over the years (including my own, and one at the recreation department of the city where I worked). Of all places, their safety program is so deficient, and their risk is the highest. My chemical plant on my layout is much safer and have not had one scare to date. arf arf arf. Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
Here is a pic of one of my 10 that I painted up for my refinery modules. When the string of 10 are together they look good. I intended to use the etched railings on top side to improve the looks. That's just another " roundtoit " that I have not done. BTW, they run very well with other full sized cars.
Like Carl, I did up a few of these in a (very freelanced) Pemex scheme for use on my layout. I just didn't do as nice a job as he did. Hey, small cars for a small layout. Regards Ed .
I just started to think about the liquid chlorine that was transported by these little tank cars. In an earlier post, I alluded to Jones Chemical Co, which is the main supplier of private and commercial liquid chlorine in the area used for water treatment and swimming pools. In 1982, I lived in Hollywood, Fla, next to Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, and Jones delivered a large cannister of chlorine to a sub-complex of water treatment, as the main water plant could not accept the delivery. The cannister sat in the sun before being discovered, and that sub-complex was just blocks away from my first home. I was notified in the City Hall where I worked, that Hollywood ordered a mass evacuation of the entire quadrant of Hollywood where I lived. Then the news station got into the act, warning the public and ordering the evacuation. Then they showed what damage could have been done had the cannister blown. Mass loss of life by the "deadly cloud", notably the area surrounding and to the west (downwind). All news stations showed the swelled cannister being loaded in a dump truck full of ice and transported to a safer area out west. Very close call. The City I worked at had a similar problem. Jones delivered a cannister for a Pool late when the pool was closed and it sat on the porch overnight. Needless to say, we cities banded together and coordinated our combined complaints to Jones and confronted them to straighten up, and their non-cooperative and arrogant response belied the fact, we all needed liquid chlorine for water treatment and for pools, and they were doing everything they could. Finally the Public Service Commission got involved and kicked their hindquarters and it is supposedly safer. But everytime I drive by Jones, I look at their tank cars and their understandably rusted out compound. They are loaded with liquid chlorine and after watching History and Discovery Channel with the disasters, I shrug in fear thinking if that company went up in flames, or worse resulted in a deadly leak. Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
