I have seen NS tank trains on Horseshoe Curve and they have had covered hoppers at the front and the rear of the train. I understand they are filled with inert material to be used as a buffer if the train derails. What I am looking for is what model covered hopper is used? I am looking to replicate the look in HO scale.
Thank you,
Bill
I can't speak for the NS trains you saw but, the most popular car of choice for buffer service happens to be a General American twin-bay Airslide of 4180 cu. ft. or higher capacity, usually loaded with sand. Tangent, Scale Trains, and at one time Walthers produce such cars in HO.
I think that they'd be of little use in a derailment, but are more likely there in the event of a collision. Usually such buffer cars are seen on oil or chemical trains.
I've seen all kinds of covered hoppers used in this service, and most are marked as "Buffer" cars.This one looks like a PullmanStandard car, but difficult to tell for certain...
While this one's not a designated buffer car, I've seen similar ones in that service...
This one was backing to pick-up its train, but the car doesn't have any legible lettering denoting it as a buffer car...
Another hard-to-see one, but it looks like an ACF product. The trailing train is carrying ethanol...
Wayne
NHTX I can't speak for the NS trains you saw but, the most popular car of choice for buffer service happens to be a General American twin-bay Airslide of 4180 cu. ft. or higher capacity, usually loaded with sand. Tangent, Scale Trains, and at one time Walthers produce such cars in HO.
In addition to these (which, in my observations, have been the most common), I've seen centerbeams in that service too.
For instance, here: https://goo.gl/maps/MjdpCtvZyBU2 Notice the locomotive and two centerbeams waiting on the main to get on the rear/front of whatever direction that train is ultimately going.
There is no "required" type to be used, its whatever the railroad has handy that it wants to put in that service. It can be pretty much any kind of car. They may load it with something so its not light and won't cause problems with the weight distribution in the train. It has to be there to comply with Federal hazmat placement rules.
A loaded ftank car of flammable liquid requires 5 cars of cover unless train length does not permit", in which case it has to have at least one car of cover. Since the trains are unit trains, there are no cover (non-hazardous, non-placarded) cars naturally in the train so "train length" does not permit cover to be made from the train itself. Therefore the railroad has to add one cover car between the engines and the loaded hazmat cars as cover.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
It actually doesn't have to be loaded, because the vapors are still flammable. If it's been cleaned that's another story.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
Althought Tangent's BNSF buffer cars are out of stock, I'm sure they are available online somewhere.
https://www.tangentscalemodels.com/product/bnsf-buffer-car-1-gatc-4180-airslide/
Covered hoppers are good to use as buffers as they're easy to fill with something heavy to provide the needed weight - like rock or dirt - for stability. Putting a light / empty car between the engines and a long string of loaded cars could cause problems.
The rules prohibiting cars with flammable materials in them from being next to the engine goes very far back into steam railroading days.