Live loads Tank car's

[tomikawaTT]

My call on the basic idea?  If you can't see it, why do it?

Open-top cars are either loaded or empty, and , if loaded, you can see what's in or on there.  Closed cars (tanks, boxcars, covered hoppers) look the same whether loaded or empty.  Considering that ANY liquid material on a layout is bad news, having to fill and empty a car that doesn't immediately show which it is could end up making parts of your layout Superfund sites.

I use live loads for flats and gons, and try to model a coal mining operation accurately (loose loads, plus empty-in/loads-out.)  Closed cars are closed.  If you want to know if the ammonium nitrate tank car is empty or loaded, check the waybill.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - as simply as possible)

[Lone Wolf and Santa Fe]

Sometimes I put real loads in my reefers so nobody can see them. LOL

[dknelson]

I am relying on my memory now (increasingly a dangerous practice) but didn't the famous MR article about the pressurized basement [to eliminate supports for the upper floor from interfering with the track plan]  mention that his airtight model tank cars were exploding until the modeler drilled relief holes in the tank car bodies? 

So if you decide to go with real liquids in your tank cars you might have to forego pressurizing your basement, which would be a crying shame.

While I enjoy operating on layouts that feature "live" (removable) loads on gondolas and flatcars (including TOFC), somehow I do not see much of a future in "live but invisible" loads in our model tank cars (or boxcars, reefers, and covered hoppers for that matter).  Stock cars?  Hmmm.  maybe ..... 

There is certainly more we could do as modelers to replicate prototype practices without having to go to the point of putting liquids in a loaded tank car and removing them from an empty.  We could for example pay more attention to FRA rules about car placement for tank cars, and to rules about not coupling tank cars next to flatcars lacking bulkheads which are loaded with pipe or wood (ditto for gondolas where the loads are higher than the car ends) because a shifted load could puncture the end of the tank car.  We could also do more to replicate car cleaning routines.  A friend of my father's used to tell about his worst ever summer job in the 1920s: being lowered into railroad tank cars at a meat packing plant used for transport of edible and inedible tallows (by-products of meat packing) to clean the interiors.  That was pre-OSHA. 

I would think the technology exists to make our locomotives "work harder" and our trains seem to show "more inertia" depending on whether the cars are "loaded" or "empty."  Whether anybody has implemented it to do so, I do not know.  I do know of modelers who have wheel reports for each train that detail the empties and loads and tonnage.   Whatever it is, it can be approximated electronically without having to fuss with real liquids.

Dave Nelson 

["JaBear"]

"You should get that sloshing motion when you start and stop? "

 

Having spent a few years driving an aircraft loader truck with a tank capable of carrying 800 US gallons of AvGas, over back country roads, I can assure you that “slosh” is the last thing I’d have wanted. I suspect that Railroad Men had similar feelings with their larger tank cars.

 

 

Further to Eds’ latest contribution, John Armstrong, in the February !955 Model Railroader, wrote an article on building a flywheel boxcar, it was in O gauge though.

Cheers, the Bear.

[gmpullman]

Gee, 

Here it is 24 hours later and I'm thirsty again!

Well, here's to 'ya  Thanks, fella's

Speaking of marbles... (naw, that's too easy) but, seriously now, don't I recall some kind of "Train handling skill test" where a flat car was fitted with a slightly "dished" rail on the deck and a rather large ball or marble was placed on it? The idea being to operate your train and not allow the marble to hit either end and cause you to lose points or some such scheme?

I'll have to do some digging! **

Seems like I recall some kind of "Inertia car" as well, something with a works inside like the old friction toy cars had.

Cheers, 

Ed

** Here it is!

[hon30critter]

fieryturbo

If this was Facebook, I would +1 your pun.

I'll drink to that!

Dave

[fieryturbo]

gmpullman

 

 

hon30critter

A whole new facet to the hobby!

 

 

...and a literal reference to the phrase "Getting Tanked" 

Gee, I'm thirsty all of a sudden 

Fun Stuff! Ed

 

If this was Facebook, I would +1 your pun.

[0-6-0]

gmpullman

 

 

0-6-0

Has anyone tryed this or am I trying to shrink the real world to much. Any thought's  

 

 

Hi, Frank

I'm aware of several G scale "Schnappswagons" that can carry a supply of your favorite beverage. There's even one for wine that has real oak casks!

 

The Pola G scale water tower could be used as a drink refresher, too. It had a waterproof reservoir and a silicone tube that would dispense your prefered liquid.

Anything in smaller scales would be, as others have pointed out, an excercise in futility, IMHO.

Have Fun! Ed

 

Thanks Ed now I am switching to G scale..

I know liquid is never a good idea around the layout. But was looking for something defferent. And I don't need to add any problems to the layout.  If real tank car has baffel's in them the liquid should settle shortly after they get moving or stoping ? So what about a few marbels with some space so they would roll back and forth then settle. You should get that sloshing motion when you start and stop? I don't know maybe I am trying to hard. Have a nice day Frank

[mbinsewi]

Ya know, I'm kind a' rethinking the wife's idea of garden train, along with a fleet of schnapps wagons.    hmmmmmm, with a long spur to the hot tub.

Mike.

[CGW121]

A spill would be a perfect reason to model a hazmat crew.

[BRAKIE]

A live load has never been a good idea exception being Ed's tank car of course.

I seen the results after 5 live loaded hopper cars derailed at a club I was a member of several years ago and you could still see traces of the spilled coal several months after the derailment.

[Texas Zephyr]

0-6-0

I think the car would ride defferent with liquid moving inside it ?

Why? You aren't in the locomotive so you wouldn't notice the difference.  Besides the sloshing of liquids does not scale down (you've seen those old war movies with the ships that are obviously models because of the way the water moves around them).

Has anyone tryed this or am I trying to shrink the real world to much.

Once again why?  One wants to load and unload open cars like hoppers and flats because it looks silly to be pulling full coal cars out of a power plant and pushing full coal cars into the mine.  This "problem" doesn't exist with closed cars.   A tank car looks perfectly fine going in or out because one cannot see the load so can't tell if it is loaded or unloaded.  (un)Loading a tank would have no purpose.

On the other hand I think you should try molten sulfer as a load.  One could have live heating elements powered by the DCC electricity from the rails.  Imagine tank cars at $200 each. 

 

 

 

[gmpullman]

hon30critter

A whole new facet to the hobby!

...and a literal reference to the phrase "Getting Tanked" 

Gee, I'm thirsty all of a sudden 

Fun Stuff! Ed

[hon30critter]

Ed!

I do like that tank car! Let's see, what shall we put in it? Hmmm, the possibilities are endless! A whole new facet to the hobby!

Dave

["JaBear"]

Gidday Frank, I quickly tried to find a cutaway diagram of a tank car but failed, but would presume that especially with the viscous fluids, there would be internal baffles.

So while I like that you’re thinking outside the box (or in this case tank), in this case, you thinking too hard.

Cheers, the Bear. 

[gmpullman]

0-6-0

Has anyone tryed this or am I trying to shrink the real world to much. Any thought's  

Hi, Frank

I'm aware of several G scale "Schnappswagons" that can carry a supply of your favorite beverage. There's even one for wine that has real oak casks!

 

The Pola G scale water tower could be used as a drink refresher, too. It had a waterproof reservoir and a silicone tube that would dispense your prefered liquid.

Anything in smaller scales would be, as others have pointed out, an excercise in futility, IMHO.

Have Fun! Ed

[fieryturbo]

This sounds like a recipe for disaster that would undo a lot of hard work.

Just my two cents.

I can appreciate the attempt at realism though ;)

[mbinsewi]

My thoughts, Frank.  Why ?  My cars are weighted to the NMRA standards, and everything runs good.  Whats the purpose of tank cars filled with a liquid? 

So, are you going to have the prototypical unloading procedures? Draining or pumping the liquid in to a truck, or "inside" an industry?  Would you have the operating valves to do this ?

I guess I just don't get it.

Mike.

[hon30critter]

Hi Frank:

I can't think of any positives that would result from having live liquid loads, but I sure can think of some negatives! Mind you, the spills would look pretty realistic.

Dave

[babefluff]

0-6-0

Why cant we carry some liquid in there. Maybe mineral oil?   

Have nice day Frank

 

 

Doing as you suggest would present a lot of potential catastrophies.  I would definately avoid trying it.

[0-6-0]

Hello I am working on some coal cars that will carry loose coal. And I tought what about tank car's? Why cant we carry some liquid in there. Maybe mineral oil? You would need something to put the liquid in so it wont leak out. I think the car would ride defferent with liquid moving inside it ? Not sure how defferent.  Has anyone tryed this or am I trying to shrink the real world to much. Any thought's  

Have nice day Frank