I went to the Anaheim show yesterday and picked up couple of the new Bachmann three dome cars. As already noted, they are very nicely detailed and lettered. But, while I appreciate Bachmann's' effort to include metal wheels and body mounted couplers, those are the weakest elements. The wheels are very wide, which looks particularly obvious on a tank car, and the couplers are HUGE, again obvious on a smallish car like this. First thing I did was to replace the wheels with FVM .553's and the difference is amazing. The couplers are harder because MT's don't fit; I used some spare McHenrys which look a little better but I'm not really happy with them...I also looked for Bachmann single dome cars, which we really need much more that the relatively rare specialty cars, but couldn't find any....I wish I could buy those in black by the dozen with different numbers (UTLX, GATX, etc.) but for some reason Bachmann prefers to colorful and unusual cars... Otto K.
Bachmann makes 2 plain jane black single dome tank cars , the Frontenac car is a Canadian prototype and the Phillips 66 car is a nice black car. Alphabet sets make renumbering fairly easy if you can be happy with GATX cars. I'm not happy with the fact that converting to micro trains trucks and couplers is nearly impossible but the MT and the intermountain underframes will fit. Randy
I was in my local hobby shop a while back the day they received their stock of Athearn's new N scale 33,000 gallon LPG tank cars. As I model the modern era, I thought I could use a few of these very nice cars on my layout. As luck would have it, funds were a bit tight that week so I figured I could come back the following weekend and pick up a few. After all, he had a full box of them. Of course you can guess what happened. By the time I returned next Saturday, you couldn't find one for love or money. Sold out. I'm sure the guy who owns the store had a good laugh at my expense when I asked if he had any left... Even my wife made a comment about "you snooze, you lose" and she knows next to nothing about about my hobby and 21st century marketing practices. Long story short, I was subsequently able to pick up three of these tank cars on Ebay, but I haven't seen one on there in a while now. But it did hit me reading through this thread that I too do have a thing for tank cars. I counted 26 in my collection thus far, more than any other type of freight car. Guess there must be some psychological explanation as to why some of us are drawn to the mystique of the tank car, whatever era we choose to represent on our layouts. Frank B.
Yeah I know Randy, I have a few. I'd just rather do something a little more creative with my modeling time.... As to the original MT cars, agreed they are a bit dated, but with new wheels and body mounted couplers, they are still respectable and I have quite a few. (I am not as organized as you are to tell you how many). And the size seems okay, my cowboy math tells me their capacity would be roughly 10,800 gallons? I'm attempting to keep the fleet makeup proportional and I suspect I have too many specialty cars already.... Having fun anyway, Otto
I'm not really organized.. just obsessed for now. I also suspect that I may have too many specialty cars. I tend to agree that the Micro trains cars appear to be roughy 10,500 or better. The Bachmann single dome cars will fill the need for common cars very well with the scarcity of the Intermountain 8000 gallon cars. I have three of the Bachmann 3 dome cars , I think I have all I need. I also have 5 of the Microtrains 3 dome cars and two homemade kitbashed 3 dome tank cars so I think I'm set on multi dome cars. This obsession all started when I did a car inventory and found that I only had 40 tank cars and the tank fleet just didn't make any sense as far as car types and road names. I'm working on correcting these shortcomings. ps, another shortcoming in my fleet is flat cars...perhaps another obsession is coming? Randy
I know I'm late to this thread, but I feel for you. I have a covered hopper fetish, mostly the two and three bay variety. I also love grain elevators, so I guess that works except that I model the WP and there aren't many, if any of the old style wooden grain elevators that I love here.
You want to talk about tank car variety, check out this: http://jimsands2.rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?&cid=12&NumCols=2&Page=1
Thanks ogre427 for posting the link to the tank car proto photo archive. You're a sweet guy... for an ogre.
I too have a thing for tank cars. Here are a couple of pics of my soon to come scratch build. First picture was made shortly after car construction, by RESCAR and second is after some mods were made to car. I was involved in getting this car to various Chevron facilities as well as any hazmat handling facility that requested the car. As delivered ................ After mods .............
Wow, this thread is old, I didn't think it was so far back in the forums. Anyhow, I currently have 197 tank cars, I have some unique cars that I will get photo's of soon. Does anyone have sources for 1940s vintage tank car decals, I see Oddballs has a couple sets but I don't know if they are still in business , I hear from some that hes is gone and others that he is still going , I suppose I'll have to give a call at some point and see for myself. Anyone have any news regarding their own tank car fleet ? Randy
Randy (and others) - have you seen these? Some interesting tank car information: First is history with great photos frrom the perspective of UTLX: utlx.com/pdf/TankCarHistory.pdf This one explains the various markings of tank car contents: http://www.mcor-nmra.org/publications/articles/reading%20hazardous%20materials%20placards.pdf These are the diamond-shaped signs on tank cars. By the way, MTL calls these tank car order boards. The prototype term seems to be tank car placards.
Mike, that is a nice link to have. I glanced over the info and yes tank cars loaded with a Hazardous Material as defined in CFR 49 nust have the appropriate placard. I did not see something that did apply when I was playing with hazmat cars for Chevron (I retired in 1996). It is possible that CFR 49 has changed the rules but that is doubtful. An empty hazmat car is as dangerous and in some cases more dangerous than a loaded car. For that reason D.O.T. required a "RESIDUE" placard for the commodity just unlaoded. Did I miss that in the link? Carl
Carl, I just read it and spotted what you missed. It said: When tank cars are emptied, they are required to continue to be placarded until they are washed out, or cleaned out such that all traces of the hazardous materials are removed. “Empty” tank cars with some product still left in them are known as “residue” tank cars. “Residue” tank cars may have as much as 3% of their original contents st ill in them, but be listed on the train list as “empty”. So when you are watching tank cars going past you at a railroad crossing, you may not know if the car is full, half full or almost empty because they will all be “placarded” the same. This is where a check of the compression of the springs on the trucks may help, or being able to read the train list if you can talk to the train crew. At one time, placards could just be turned around in their holders, because on the backside was the same placard markings, but it read “residue”, but those are gone now.
Ok...I could use some help here... I'm drawing out and planning my 'tank farm'. It will be a small fuel disribution center. Gasoline and diesel brought in by rail... pumped into the storage tanks and then loaded into tank trucks to be delivered to gas stations within a roughly 100 mile area. My layout is freelance and roughly 1980 to present. I'm looking at maybe 4 to 6 tank cars. So can ya tell me what type and/or model tank cars I would need ? I havent a clue about tank cars. TIA ** Pictuures would be a big help
First decide who's gas you are going to sell. Sunoco had thier own refinery that shipped to distributers around the country. Texaco would'nt sell gas from Standard oil etc... I barely remember 1980.. too many REO speedwagon concerts perhaps but I do think that Atlas 11,000 and Atlas 17,000 gallon cars would work with either the petroleum company markings or plain black leased cars like GATX. Randy
I'm actually looking for some decent pictures of Mid-Continent petroleum Co. from Tulsa Oklahoma . Reporting marks were C.O.S.X . I want to do some D-X (Diamond X ) brand cars for my collection. Randy
Here is a link to two prototype photos of D-X tank cars: http://www.protocraft.com/category.cfm?ItemID=254&Categoryid=22
That's a great link Mike, especially if you click on the link at the top of the page, marked: Return to list of all Tank Car Decals in 1:48 scale. That will take you to the manufacturers list of other tank car decals. While the decals are O scale, each listing has at least one photograph of the prototype car for which they are intended. I especially like the large Victor Wine six dome tank car at the bottom of the page!
