I came across this photo while researching other tank cars. Don't quite recall ever seeing one like this...
Anyone ever see such a critter or have any further information on it? Seems like it would be a little more costly to manufacture than a three-compartment tank car.
It would make for a neat scratch-building project. Looks like the lettering is silver. I can not make out what is written in the band across the end, obscured by the brake wheel.
Lots of excellent tank car and other photos were added to the Barriger Collection; ACF Album:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/albums/72157649155982802
Regards, Ed
Ed, wow, what a find. You wouldn't believe how many different searches I've done on tank cars, with all different configurations in the search wording, looking for info on a tank car made by UTLX, that had the heater on board, AHM did a model, with the little tank on top of the car, next to the dome, I have a advertisement picture, but can't find it at the moment, and I have never come across a car like this. Excellent find.
Mike.
My You Tube
I'm pretty sure that all multi-compartment cars were built like that EXCEPT that there was a single external wrapper.
So, actually, it would be cheaper to make this funny lookin' thing because you could avoid the single wrapper.
If you look at the riveting on multi-compartment tank cars, like the Tangent triple, you can see that there were two bulkheads at each intersection of compartments--as opposed to a single wall.
The rather large advantage of a single wrapper is the strength of the structure.
Ed
mbinsewi Ed, wow, what a find. You wouldn't believe how many different searches I've done on tank cars, with all different configurations in the search wording, looking for info on a tank car made by UTLX, that had the heater on board, AHM did a model, with the little tank on top of the car, next to the dome, I have a advertisement picture, but can't find it at the moment, and I have never come across a car like this. Excellent find. Mike.
The AHM car was modeled after UTLX 85785. It was called a "Unitemp" tank car.
This quote from article about cars for eastern Europe around 1990 but lost link and it is not showiing in History.
"The Uni-Temp system warms liquids that might have thickened during cooling, said a source at Archer Daniels Midland Co. in Decatur, Ill. ADM has about 25 Uni-Temps that are used in tankcars hauling corn syrup, he said."
This site has articles about Uni-Temp equipped tank cars for Soviet Union petroluem industry in 1989
http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/transcisco-industries-inc
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
Ed, I just went back to the thread in March, 2016, where we talked about this car, and you sent an advertisement to the OP's blog.
That's the only prototype photo, or illustration I have ever found. I guess that's all I'm going to find.
Two emails to Union Tank have not been answered. They are probably wondering who the nut job is that keeps seeding the email.
It appears that the silver band says MCB something - probably referencing the couplers.
The more typical all in one car wasn't just this design plus another outer wrapper, the outter wrapper was the outside of each tank. It could be that this car was built before they figured out how to add mutliple internal bulkheads to a single main tube.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
AC&F built 100 of these for Union Tank Car.
I went through Kaminski's "Tank Cars, American Car & Foundry Company, 1865 to 1955" and found the same photo as above. There were also a fair number of two and three compartment cars, all "normal" looking and all build at least 20 years later.
I would surely like to see photos or drawings of other multi-compartment tank cars from the period.
An advantage of this funny looking car is dealing with leakage. If one of those tanks leaks, the problem (and its accessability) is the same as on a single-tank car. But, with a "normal" car, what do you do if one of the internal bulkheads leaks? And what do you do if two adjacent bulkheads leak, possibly causing cross-contamination of cargo? Don't forget, a reason for multi-compartment tank cars is to ship DIFFERENT cargoes in one car. With the pictured car, that ain't a problem.
My guess is that "normal" multi-compartment cars were delayed until a reliable seal at the bulkheads was developed.
rrinkerIt appears that the silver band says MCB something - probably referencing the couplers.
MCB refers to the Master Car Builders Association, and most likely refers to something regarding the car's construction...as you mentioned, the couplers or draught gear, etc.
That car number (not specifically, but the series 13500 to 13824) is mentioned in my October 1968 issue of the ORER, with a mechanical designation of TM: Tank car equipped with container of ARA or AAR Specification I, II, III, III Experimental Welded Seams...blah, blah, blah.
Wayne
rrinker It appears that the silver band says MCB something - probably referencing the couplers. --Randy
That is such a neat old photo, and clear as a bell - even the trucks and the track are of interest. The Railway Prototype Cyclopedia 10 has an ACF drawing of the interior three tanks of a more normal three compartment tank car and it indeed looks very much like this car, even to the way the expansion domes are mounted on the three tanks (and the caption says "note the interior heads of the compartments were virtually touching."
The 1922 Car Builder's Cyclopedia entry on tank cars, partly reprinted in Train Shed Cyclopedia No. 12, has a normal 3 compartment tank car from General American Tank Car Corporation with that same end band that says "M.C.B. Construction" on it. I believe MCB stands for Master Car Builders and indicates the status of the car as meetings standards making it fit for interchange.
Dave Nelson
Wayne, that group of cars are listed as 70 and 100 ton cars. No way our (cute) little fella (which is riding on 30 ton trucks in the photo) is in that series.
From my earliest ORER (November 1926), the subject car(s) is in the series 8100-16487, number of cars 5120. Not looking real useful to me.
Indeed, those old glass plate negatives were HUGE which gave highly detailed images - look at Shorpy's. You can really zoom in. On further investigation it indeed says "MCB Construction" in that band. REALLY zoom in, you can see the foundry imprint in the wheels!
I suspect that UTLX reused car numbers after scrapping those old cars, that's the only way a car that old would appear in a 1968 reference. Unless it was in MOW service and not interchanged, but the whole point of UTLX was interchange.
You're right, Ed, and I wouldn't have thought that it would still be in service in 1968, although tank cars did seem, at one time, to hang around longer than what was once that "40 year rule". Perhaps it was the nature of the lading: nothing to overload the car, as is possible with a gondola, nor any roof to leak or ends to bulge, as often occurred with boxcars.
I'm glad to see this thread has generated so much interest, and information.
I have seen the double-row of rivits on the outer shell of compartmentalized cars that you refer to, Ed. It never really occurred to me that the divider would be concave or dished like the ends but now that you mention it, it makes sense in order to resist buckling. Noting the distance between the rows of rivets being nearly the same as the three individual tank type.
I wonder if there was a weep-hole in the dead space between the dividers in order to detect leakage? Also, I wonder about the corrosion that could have occurred in that space? At least in the open design of the three individual tanks, both sides of the shell could be inspected.
Quite interesting,