I'm putting a soap factory on my layout and wondering what type of cars should be set out there. I'm pretty sure that it would have in-coming lye in tank cars, in-coming boxcars full of packaging materials, and outgoing boxcars carrying finished product.
However, I'm unsure how the more organic parts of the soap making process arrived by rail in times past. Nowadays, most of it arrives in covered dump trailers. What type of car would be used to carry animal byproducts from a packing plant to a soap factory? Would it be primarily grease in tank car form?
Even these days I see a fairly large number of black tank cars stenciled for "Inedible tallow." I assume soap could be one of the uses. And many, many tank cars are stenciled as carrying caustic soda, which is another major soap ingredient. Whether the cars I see are headed for a soap factory I do not know but the ingredients themselves are still shipped in tank cars.
Some soaps have abrasives added -- most obviously "Lava" brand soap, but there are others. So those could be inbound loads as well. Covered hoppers? If you ever made home made soap as a school project you might remember what a dull and dirty color real "raw" soap can be. So various dyes would be shipped in as well. Perfumes too.
A really large soap factory might ship out glycerin in bulk as a by-product, itself in tank cars, or could package and sell the glycerin, suggesting yet another outbound load.
Maybe this could be a chapter in another of Jeff Wilson's industries beside the tracks books.
Dave Nelson
AlienKingI'm putting a soap factory on my layout and wondering what type of cars should be set out there.
Even at $43. ea. they're going fast:
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Tangent-Scale-Models-HO-19012-02-Tank-Car-GATX-p/tsm-19012-02.htm
Good Luck,
Ed
That Tangent 8,000 gallon tank car is certainly appealing, but I'm having trouble justifying any of the available liveries on my 1950 era operation. Deep Rock had ceased to be listed in the January, 1953 ORER, although it was listed in the July, 1948 issue. Was that livery in use in 1950? Anybody know? The other available liveries all seem to be too early or too late for me.
Tom
I received two of those cars a couple days ago. This one has a 1920 BLT date, and, except for needing the wheels and axles painted, application of a mid-'30s re-weigh date, and some weathering, is truly ready-to-run. This paint and lettering scheme should work for a '50s-era layout, too...
If not, why not buy one of the cars as an undecorated kit? You'll save seven bucks-or-so, and can put whatever paint and lettering scheme you like (and can find) on it.I plan on doing the same thing on this one:
Wayne