I'm kind of new to tank cars, I am just curious what tank cars were used during the steam era quite frankly this one in this picture.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Santa_Fe_Super_Chief.jpg
Generally speaking, any tank car with rivets on the tank would probably be from the era you are interested in. You didn't mention scale so, my examples will all be HO scale. All of Tangent's cars including the welded acid tankers are steam era cars. The 11000 gallon cars by Atlas and Kadee and the 8000 and 10000 gallon offerings of Intermountain are also usable behind steam. Walthers has produced ACF Type 21 cars in the insulated and non-insulated 8000 gallon capacity. There have been numerous craftsman resin kits from Sunshine and I believe, Funaro and Camerlengo that are steam era cars. If steam era tank cars are a subject of much interest, the Morning Sun tank car color guide for tankcars with full center sills and "Tank Cars-American Car & Foundry Company 1865-1955" by Edward S Kaminski (Signature Press) will be valuable references with my choice being the Kaminski book although it is predominately black and white illustrated. In the steam era, no one was using expensive color film on railroad tank cars. You may notice I referred to the high end models instead of the less expensive cars available. The reason is, once you buy one of the more expensive cars, your satisfaction with the lesser models might begin to rapidly deteriorate and you will regret your investment in them. How do I know? When I bought my first Kadee 11000 gallon car, I suddenly had a dozen lesser cars to dispose of. I'd rather have one quality car than four or five less authentic cars so, if it matters to you, spend the money up front instead of spending it twice.
Hi,
There's a "History Of Tank Cars" by Union Tank Line here:
http://www.utlx.com/pdf/TankCarHistory.pdf
Much broader in scope than the era you're looking for but interesting just the same.
Good Luck, Ed
Generally all riveted designs 10,000 gallons or under should be OK for the steam era.
.
I am fond of Life-Like Proto 2000 models of the 8,000 gallon tank car. These are my favorites.
There are many other appropriate tank cars available.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
In addition to the printed resources mentioned in an earlier post, the Train Shed Cyclopedia series of reprints from older Car Builder's Cyclopedias had one on tanks cars 1922 1943. You'll see prototype photos of cars familiar from the old Athearn blue box, Varney, and other lines of model trains.
https://www.amazon.com/Train-Shed-Cyclopedia-No-1922-1943/dp/B001B7L1WM
Dave Nelson
I wouldn't limit my choices for steam era tank cars to only rivetted cars, although the 10,000 gallon upper limit on capacity is perhaps a good benchmark.
Ted Culotta's "Steam Era Freight Cars Reference Manual, Volume Two: Tank Cars" is, as the title suggests, a good reference for tank cars of that era. Starting on page 118, there's a multi-page sequence of photos showing the construction of an all-welded tank car at ACF, in Milton, Pa.
The book consists of b&w photos with informative captions, and the range of tank cars shown is much broader than I would have thought...single dome, two, three, even six, high and low walkways, and all sorts of owner/lessee names and commodities.
The book is available from SPEEDWITCH MEDIA.
I have various tank cars dating back to the Varney plastic model of the '50s...
This one is a more recent build, a free Varney tank from a train show, shortened to fit onto a Tichy underframe. Lettering is decals, from Black Cat...
I have several Athearn tank cars, too, and despite picking up some kits for the very nicely-done Tangent cars, the Athearn ones won't be retired....
Here's Athearn's "chemical" tank car...
...and another, shortened, one....
Their standard tank car, also shortened...
...and their three-dome car, modified with old-style high walkways...
When LifeLike came out with the r-t-r versions of their good-looking tankcars, I was able to pick up several of their kits at very good prices. I stripped the paint from most of them, then built them, substituting metal grabirons and stirrup steps for the kit's plastic ones. Lettering is C-D-S dry transfers...
The Tichy tank car kits build into good-looking cars, too...
Intermountain also offers some good-looking kits for tank cars...
As mentioned, the Tangent cars are very well-done. They're available, r-t-r, or as undecorated kits. All but one of mine were built from kits. This one was the first...
Lettering is decals, 168 individual pieces, and I also replaced some of the kit's plastic parts with metal.
This is Tangent's radial course tank car...
...and the insulated version....
Lettering for the latter two is a combination of custom decals and stock data decals, both from Rail Graphics. Both cars are shown pre-weathering.
Wayne
doctorwayneHere's Athearn's "chemical" tank car...
The Athearn Chemical Tank Car, with the addition of wire grabs, A-Line stirrups, and a Tichy AB Brake set builds into a beautiful freight car.
I don't have any idea what prototype it follows, but that does not matter to me in my world.
Oregon_SteamerI'm kind of new to tank cars, I am just curious what tank cars were used during the steam era quite frankly this one in this picture.
I have seen that pic before. Somewhere is a website devoted to tank cars, with pics. I never bookmarked it.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
The cars in the picture, especially the one nearest the camera appear to be ATSF cars in diesel fuel service. The gallonage capacity on the first car is 12070 gal. The closest thing in HO would probably be Athearn's offering which would possibly be acceptable but by no means exact.
I really like that scene. I think it was Ed, gmpullman, that posted that once, a while back, and an interesting discussion followed.
Mike.
My You Tube
I can't take all the credit. Jack Delano helped
If you don't mind paging through dozens of pages of photos (which I don't mind at all) there are lots of builder's photos of 1920s era tank cars, plus many more, here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/albums/72157649155982802
More are being added all the time. Here's an example:
ACF5646 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
Lot 176-001 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
Look at the Indian head in the TIONA lettering. It sure looks similar to Dr. Wayne's herald!
This would be fun to model:
lot 7514 045 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
gmpullmanLook at the Indian head in the TIONA lettering. It sure looks similar to Dr. Wayne's herald!
It looks like the female version.
mbinsewiIt looks like the female version.
Aah, you have good eye, kemosabe!
TRFX_216crop by Edmund, on Flickr
Yes, indeed! Ed