I was poking around on eBay earlier today and saw a brass two-compartment tank car for sale. While I've seen photos of three-compartment tank cars and have 2 of the Tangent 6K gal versions, that's the first two-compartment I remember seeing.
Q: Would these have been as common or less common than their triple-compartment cousins?
MR did a nice review of the Southern Car & Foundry two-compartment tank car urethane kit back in Dec '09. However, there don't seem to be any available from either eBay or from the manufacturer's website. I enjoy unusual models so that would make a nice kit to obtain and assemble - i.e. should I locate one online or at a train show - whenever those get going again.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Sounds like a neat kitbash project Tom.Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
I have a Sunset brass model of an 8,000 gallon two dome tank car.
Overland imported a very interesting model of a 4,000 gallon two dome tank car. I do not have one of these, but I would like to.
I believe two dome tank cars were a bit of a rarity.
I would really like to know what was hauled in the 4,000 gallon two dome tank car.
This is the 4,000 gallon tank car:
I would also like to have this model. It is a 10,000 gallon insulated two dome tank car built in 1930.
Side note: Not all three dome tank cars had three compartments. A very small specialized few of them were intended to haul commodities with a high expansion rate, and the extra two domes provided space for expansion.
There was an article about this where they pointed out that the O.R.E.R. showed a single compartment tank car, but prototype photographs of the car had three domes. I am certain these were quite the oddity.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
RR_Mel Sounds like a neat kitbash project Tom.Mel
Sounds like a neat kitbash project Tom.Mel
Thanks, Mel. That's a good idea.
SeeYou190Overland imported a very interesting model of a 4,000 gallon two dome tank car. I do not have one of these, but I would like to.
Kevin,
It was the OMI 8K gal that I saw on eBay earlier that caused me to post the question.
And I figured that it might be a rarity because I've only found one prototype photo of a 2-compartment tank car so far on the internet.
tstageIt was the OMI 8K gal that I saw on eBay earlier that caused me to post the question.
I just went to eBay and checked it out. That is a nifty model. I have not seen that one before.
$200.00 is a bit out of my price range for rolling stock.
Odder yet is this two dome with the second dome offset:
Tank_car_2dome by Edmund, on Flickr
Tichy makes a nicely detailed dome in styrene that would lend itself to kitbashing nicely.
57001 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
The rivet lines clearly delineate the internal bulkheads.
Cheers, Ed
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
SeeYou190 I have a Sunset brass model of an 8,000 gallon two dome tank car. Overland imported a very interesting model of a 4,000 gallon two dome tank car. I do not have one of these, but I would like to. I believe two dome tank cars were a bit of a rarity. I would really like to know what was hauled in the 4,000 gallon two dome tank car. This is the 4,000 gallon tank car: I would also like to have this model. It is a 10,000 gallon insulated two dome tank car built in 1930. Side note: Not all three dome tank cars had three compartments. A very small specialized few of them were intended to haul commodities with a high expansion rate, and the extra two domes provided space for expansion. There was an article about this where they pointed out that the O.R.E.R. showed a single compartment tank car, but prototype photographs of the car had three domes. I am certain these were quite the oddity. -Kevin
Mark Vinski
Here’s the two prototype photos I managed to find… 2 dome by Bear...
That's the same photo that I found, Bear. Thanks for the other one.
And your Athearn kitbash turned out very well. It's amazing how squadron putty, metal grabs & ladders, and a lick of paint can spruce up an Athearn BB.
gmpullmanOdder yet is this two dome with the second dome offset:
That is indeed an odd one, Ed. And it appears that the slightly shorter dome is outfitted with some sorta ventiliation spout protruding off to the right.
tstage gmpullman Odder yet is this two dome with the second dome offset: That is indeed an odd one, Ed. And it appears that the slightly shorter dome is outfitted with some sorta ventiliation spout protruding off to the right.
gmpullman Odder yet is this two dome with the second dome offset:
If memory serves, we discussed this car in the long lost thread "Waldorf And Statlers Photo Of The Day" and I think the special venting was for logging RRs that had very steep grades. I stand to be corrected.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
BATMANIf memory serves, we discussed this car in the long lost thread "Waldorf And Statlers Photo Of The Day" and I think the special venting was for logging RRs that had very steep grades
I think that your memory serves you well Batman, though I wouldn't necessarily trust the Bears!!!
Thanks for your kind remarks, Tom, that kit bash was fun. (??)
Cheers, the Bear.
In Ted Culotta's Steam Era Freight Cars Reference Manual - Volume Two: Tank Cars, there is a wide variety of single-dome tank cars shown, including some under construction. There are several photos of three-dome tank cars, but only a few of two-dome cars, with the caption under one photo of a 4,000 gallon 2-dome car noting that there was not a great demand for the two-dome type.
The book also shows a couple of six-dome insulated cars, made specifically for carrying wine. The cars are quite long compared to the others, but carried only 1100 gallons in each of their six compartments.
Wayne
mvlandswRMC had plans and some information on the NATX 4000 gallon car in the April 1989 issue. It was one of a kind, leased to Pennzoil, probably for carrying lube oil.
Oh, that kind of makes me sad.
I was hoping since it was only 4,000 gallons it was designed to carry a liquid with a very high specific gravity, so it still weighed 100,000 pounds.
If I ever get one, I am going to make the data reflect that.
What is the specific gravity of GERN High Density Liquiflux? That might be the load.
The black 4000 gallon, two compartment tank car imported by Overland Models looks like a model of North American Car Co. (NATX) 18902, which was built in 1960. It was equipped with heater coils and leased to the Pennzoil Co, probably for the transport of different grades of lube oil. It was removed from service in 1983 or 4 and sold to the Tioga Central of New York's Southern Tier.
An article with photographs and HO scale drawings by Chuck Yungkurth appeared in the April 1989 RMC. Most of these unusual tank cars were built as one, or two car orders. It was Lionel's two compartment O gauge Sunoco tanker that hastened my departure from American Flyer to HO scale, 65 years ago.
RR_Mel Sounds like a neat kitbash project Tom.
Sounds like a neat kitbash project Tom.
Alton Junction
Heater coils? For specialty high-value or high-weight lubricant -- which by implication would be used at very high temperature? That makes me think of ultrasupercritical steam turbines, which were becoming a 'thing' in electric power generation around that time... Hey Mike Lehman? What were the oil requirements for large deployments of Bomarcs or components of other strategic programs?
This raises another possibility for specialty tanks -- high-temperature organic heat/transfer agents. Some applications involved 'coolant' that would not boil at 500+ degrees F but that wasn't a multieffect hazard like NaK. Those would have to travel in 'industrial quantities' with fairly competent heaters.
And then there's the stillborn idea of organic primary coolant in nuclear reactors, as in the experiment at Piqua. There is quite a bit of actual tech information on the Web characterizing the precise nature of the 'best' alternatives. That none turned out to be particularly 'good' alternatives ... after running the reactor at power an interestingly portentous length of time! ... does not diminish the usefulness of the idea as an excuse to run a specialty tank car...
In all probability, though, this was for specialty lube for equipment in steelmaking or heavy fabrication. Surely someone will know.
I took a picture of NATX 18902 in an eastbound Conrail train on the ex PRR Connemaugh division in 1981. It was going through Millvale, just outside side of Pittsburgh, Pa.
NHTX It was equipped with heater coils...
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1424190
Bear, I agree. Truthfully, Not much in that photo indicates recent use, by the rust on the wheel treads.
It would appear that the heater coils were not in use in this photo.
I once read an article on tank cars that said that most specialized tank cars were built with heater pipes whether or not they were known to be needed. Since these were inexpensive to add at the time of building, if there was any chance you might need them in the future, it was prudent to include them in the car when built.
Keep in mind that heater coils are not in use when the car is in transit; there is no economical source of steam either on the train or in logical yard facilities. In most cases the car will handle far better with the contents fully 'congealed' in transit: there can be serious stability problems with certain kinds of viscous loads (glacial acetic acid as I recall is one) which have large inertial moment but slow 'slosh' period. I remember standing next to a tank car in Shreveport one night that was creaking and rocking dramatically for this reason.
In the recent discussion of 'honey tank cars' I came across mention that something like 10 hours of heating was allowed to get the load to flow. A load with bulk insulating properties, which I think heavy lubricant might exhibit, might take longer to heat, particularly if excessive spot overheating might occur when using superheated steam at pressure to get high enough temperature in the coils, at high enough mass flow to 'hurry things ups. That might cause product degradation or even outgassing.
There were more modern multi-compartment tanks built as well.
2-compartments:
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=prox1029&o=procor
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=acfx71672&o=ge_railcar
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=acfx71674_2&o=ge_railcar
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cgtx29603&o=cgtx
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=gatx14495&o=gatx
A couple with 4 compartments:
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=eusx448038&o=exxon
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=prox4407&o=procor
They are of course less common than single tanks, but then multi-compartment tanks are very specialized, allowing shippers to send smaller quantities of multiple commodities to the same receiver. You can clearly read the different hazmat placard IDs on the two halves of ACFX 71674 (middle photo in the 2-compartment selection).
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog