General Discussion (Model Railroader)

A friend of mine gave me this tank car..

It's a 26 footer and I was curious as to when this type car came into service and for how long.  Also what it would have been likely to carry?  The model is from Roundhouse and is an "Old Timer".

JaRRell

Jarrell,

Given the I-beam suspension, trucks, side-mounted valve and the vent in the dome, my "guess" would be 1870-1890?

Tom

Ok some of this is hearsay, some of it's not.

Cars with those trucks didn't last beyond 1919.  WWI pretty much saw to that.  Those trucks weren't meant for heavy service.  HOWEVER...some of the cars were stored and eventually hoisted and new trucks put underneath just in time for WWII.  The were quickly disposed of during and right after the war. 

I searched for this issue on another early rail group and one fellow went through 240 digitized old time tank car photos and only saw two with Fox trucks.

SSRC 201: St Louis Syrup Refining Co 5000 gal car
KCP&G 'CAR A": Stillwell Oyster tank car

Everything else had arch bar trucks.  That does not make it definitive I realize. The Fox trucks may have just been MDC's way.

Rich 

jacon12 wrote:

A friend of mine gave me this tank car.. It's a 26 footer and I was curious as to when this type car came into service and for how long.  Also what it would have been likely to carry?  The model is from Roundhouse and is an "Old Timer". JaRRell

These were also called Gramps Cars. There were variations.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=gramps+tank+cars&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-501&pstart=1&b=1

Rich 

Hi!

Your tankcar is a model of those in service in the late 1800s thru WWI.  As mentioned earlier, the small tank and the trucks are the giveaways.  Most tankcars were in oil service of one kind or another, but other chemicals were making inroads.  After WWI, they got bigger and bigger until they were somewhat standardized in the late '30s and '40s.  Again, petroleum oil/products were the main products carried.  Post WWII, the petro chemical products kicked in and tankcars grew and became more specialized - number & size of domes, insulated, with steam coils, etc., etc.  Size became a major factor too, and of course it was just a matter of time before the frame disappeared and became the tank itself!

The biggest tankers I saw were at Mobil's Beaumont (Tx) refinery in the late 1980s.  They were huge, and had two trucks on each end.  I wanted badly to take pictures but this was not allowed at that time.  However, a number of years ago (in an issue of Trains) I saw them mentioned regarding that they were put out of service as they were too big for most places that could use them.

ENJOY,

Mobilman44

trainfan1221 wrote:

Was there really a tank car that looked like that?  Seems a bit odd.

Not really. To give their model some weight, MDC dramatically exaggerated the size (height) of the diecast boxed I-beam frame of the car, raising the tank section to the sky. The actual prototype car on which the model is based had a far more normal appearance about it. Many hobbyists consider this model to be one of the most inaccurate ever offered (see the NEB&W Guides).

Here's what the car actually looked like:

http://www.p-b-l.com/Gallery/Tankers/Tanks-1.html

CNJ831 

CNJ831 wrote:

trainfan1221 wrote: Was there really a tank car that looked like that?  Seems a bit odd. Not really. To give their model some weight, MDC dramatically exaggerated the size (height) of the diecast boxed I-beam frame of the car, raising the tank section to the sky. The actual prototype car on which the model is based had a far more normal appearance about it. Many hobbyists consider this model to be one of the most inaccurate ever offered (see the NEB&W Guides). Here's what the car actually looked like: http://www.p-b-l.com/Gallery/Tankers/Tanks-1.html CNJ831

In light of that, I found this interesting link concerning the advertising MDC used for this car.

http://hoseeker.net/mdclist/roundhousecatalog1977pg11.jpg

That site has quite a few MDC Roundhouse catalogs and dealer advertising.

Rich 

CNJ831 wrote:

Not really. To give their model some weight, MDC dramatically exaggerated the size (height) of the diecast boxed I-beam frame of the car, raising the tank section to the sky. The actual prototype car on which the model is based had a far more normal appearance about it. Many hobbyists consider this model to be one of the most inaccurate ever offered (see the NEB&W Guides). Here's what the car actually looked like: http://www.p-b-l.com/Gallery/Tankers/Tanks-1.html

Not really, that's a picture of a narrow gauge car.

What the NEBW guide says is it is a model of a 1900-1919 era standard ARA II car.  There is a picture of one in Vol II of "Classic Freight Cars".  The underframe is about a foot too high.  Other than the frame thickness the rest of the car is accurate.  Cars like it with different trucks were photographed in use into the 1950's.

By the way Fox trucks weren't light duty trucks, they were as heavy duty as any other freight car truck in their era 1890-1910.  They were just not as popular as some other types of truck designs.

Dave H.

Ok!... so the car was first introduced in the last decade, or so.. of the 1800s and some were still in use until about 1950, was used for oil products mostly.  It has Fox trucks and about the only thing that is out of scale is the center beam, which is roughly a foot off.  That about right?  Oh... and it's not the same as a "Gramps".  Was Fox the name of the designer of the trucks?

BTW, I measured the center beam with my trusty HO scale ruler and it's 2 feet high.  How close that is to accurate I don't know and unless I came across scale drawings of th prototype, I'll never know.

I think it's a neat little tank car. 

Thanks for all the information.

JaRRell 

This prototype the model attempts to emulate looks extremely top-heavy and doesn't look like it would be safe to move at any speed.  Makes me doubt the model's dimensions are close to an actual prototype.

Mark

markpierce wrote:

Makes me doubt the model's dimensions are close to an actual prototype.

It is, I've seen pictures of the real ones.  What makes it look top heavy is the high walkways (which are prototypical).

I plan to use several of the tanks (which are the right size for a tank car of that era) on a "flatcar" underframe to make a more common style of tank car.

Dave H.