I'm sorry if this has been discussed before. Prior to the 50s tank cars were mostly painted either black or silver. Was there a general reason for this? Was it to distinguish them visually from a distance from boxcars, which were mostly reds and browns?
I can't ever recollect seeing a brown or reddish-brown tank car, although there were the occasional black boxcars.
Thanks,
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I don't know but I don't ever remember seeing a brown or reddish brown tanker car either. I think silver was a better idea reflecting the sun than black with flammable liquids inside. With the sun beating down I would speculate black cars were for low flammable and non-flammable liquids.
Supposably flammable liquids are not flammable without the presence of oxygen so I guess a darker color technically wouldn't matter. You would still think higher flammable liquids were put in silver cars like the tankers on the highways though.
I will be interested to see what pans out in this thread.
TF
tstageI can't ever recollect seeing a brown or reddish-brown tank car
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Track fiddlerI think silver was a better idea reflecting the sun than black with flammable liquids inside. With the sun beating down I would speculate black cars were for low flammable and non-flammable liquids.
Track fiddlerSupposably flammable liquids are not flammable without the presence of oxygen
Track fiddlersilver cars like the tankers on the highways
Mike
If you go back to the 1800's many of the early tank cars were red/oxide brown or green because those were the colors used by Union Tank car.
They were painted black because most of the tank cars back then were used to haul oils, and spills, stains didn't show up as much on a black car.
The temperature really doesn't have anything to do with it and flammable/non-flammable really doesn't have anything to do with it. There are black LPG cars.
One also has to remember that on an insulated car, used for termperature sensitive commodities, you aren't looking at the "tank", you are looking at a thin metal sheath over insulation over the actual tank car shell.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
One also has to remember that prior to 1960's there were really only 3 placards for railcars : Explosives (generally used on boxcars), Dangerous and Poision Gas. That was it. The modern multicolored diamond placards didn't come into use until 1977. Before that pretty much anything hazardous, except a poison gas, that was shipped in a tank car (inflammable/flammable, corrosive, oxidizer, flammable solid, etc) was placarded as "Dangerous".
tstageWas there a general reason for this? Was it to distinguish them visually from a distance from boxcars, which were mostly reds and browns?
I think you'd be able to tell the difference between a boxcar and a tankcar at a distance, regardless of the color?
I have read, however, that reefers were painted yellow or orange to help separate them from other 'house' cars, since iced reefers had to be expidited and re-iced since the ice inside was melting. The bright colors helped them stand out in a freight yard.
Note that very few tankcars are/were owned by railroads. Most were owned by a company like Union Tank (UTLX). Often the tankcar owning companies leased cars to private companies, who could paint the tankcars in their own corporate colors if they wished.
There were some colorfu tank cars if a petroleum company had a particular color associated with it, such as Shell's yellow. Of course the older the picture the more likely it is black and white anyway; looking at my 1937 Car Builder's Cyclopedia, there were some I'd guess to be yellow, orange, or red amongst the blacks and aluminums. Morning Sun has two color books of tank car photos and Vol 1 has older cars. Staley had red, aluminum and yellow. Hooker had red. There are some greens and blues.
The Morning Sun book (Vol 1 -- the second volume is the more modern tank cars without center sill) is valuable again because most pictures of older tank cars you have to guess the color.
Dave Nelson
Track fiddler Supposably flammable liquids are not flammable without the presence of oxygen
Supposably flammable liquids are not flammable without the presence of oxygen
That's what burning is... an oxidation reaction.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
tstage I'm sorry if this has been discussed before. Prior to the 50s tank cars were mostly painted either black or silver. Was there a general reason for this? Was it to distinguish them visually from a distance from boxcars, which were mostly reds and browns?
No significance. The most common colour for tank cars in 2020 is also black.
As mentioned black is a good colour for tanks carrying various oils when spillage is an issue.
As I recall, the contents of tanker cars should not only be kept cool in summer, but also warm in winter. Thick liquids of low volatility will not flow out of the tank car easily if they're too cold. Think of how hard it is to start your car on a very cold winter morning.
It may be that light-footed cars are generally used for thin fluids like alcohol or gasoline, while darker cars are better for heavy oils.
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MisterBeasleyThick liquids of low volatility will not flow out of the tank car easily if they're too cold.
That is why some types of tanks are insulated and may also have steam coils against the tank body for heating the contents for unloading.
Fuel oil, pitch, asphalt, liquid (molten) sulphur, corn syrup are all such examples that require heating prior to tank unloading, although the sizes and other particulars of the cars will vary due to the relative densities of the commodities.
Would liquid latex tank cars of the 40s and 50s have been equiped with heating?
Tim
Late to the model railroad party but playing catch-up.....
MisterBeasleyIt may be that light-footed cars are generally used for thin fluids like alcohol or gasoline, while darker cars are better for heavy oils.
The color of the tank car has no real bearing on the contents. Its just whatever color they wanted to paint it. Pretty much, for every commodity, you can find both a black car and a light colored car.
The vast majority of alcohol tank cars are black.