I suspect that I may have asked this before but...
6 Axle Tank Cars...
What were they? When were they? What did they carry? ...and why were they six axle not four?
Did anyone ever make a good model of them other than expensive brass?
Thanks
Dave-the-Train I suspect that I may have asked this before but...
Well, somebody did
Unfortunately some of the linked-to sites in that thread seem to be gone.The key phrase is 'whale belly'
http://www.railcarphotos.com/index.php? go to this site and look at the tank cars. you might also enjoy the fallen flags site. you can find it on google. E. I. Dupont had some really big tank cars in both the 6 and 8 axle configuration. i think they were in the 28000/29000 series. the 8 axle cars were used to haul anti knock compound before leaded gas was outlawed. i first saw these oversize cars on the railroad back in the early 70's.
the reason for the extra wheels was to spread the load over the rails since they were used to haul extremely heavy commodities such as anti freeze etc. or they had such a large capacity that the axle loading was extremely high.
these things were rolling bombs. i remember once when we had a derailment at St Jacob Illinois and one of these oversized tank cars took off like a rocket and wound up about 1/4 of a mile from the right of way out in some farmer's field. it was a load of vinyl chloride. around the same time the NW had one blow up in Decatur and the A&S had one explode at their hump yard in E St Louis. these accidents happened before the DOT required tight lock couplers and head shields on this type of car. all three of these were caused by the couplers overiding the end of the car and puncturing the tank.
grizlump
Heh, the thread I linked to before must have gotten bumped, and Eric has updated it with the new url for the Rail Whales site which includes an all time roster.
Have fun...
Hi!
Having been around refineries from the mid '60s thru the mid '00s, I've seen and been up close and personal with a lot of tankcars. However, I have never seen a six axle car. That is certainly not to say they did not exist, but I just don't recall any.
On the other hand, I was around some HUGE 8 axle (4 - 2 axle trucks) tankcars at Mobil's Beaumont Texas refinery in the late '80s. They were easily the biggest tankcars I have ever seen! I am not certain if they were hauling gasoline additives or lube stocks, but they were bringing material into the refinery and leaving empty.
As I understand, these cars were subsequently taken out of service because they were just too big, and that translates to "just too dangerous" to me.
I'm anxious to read other's comments, as tank cars are of special interest to me.
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Hi again,
I just visited the t/c website shown above and saw some terrific pictures! And, I sure did see some 6 axle cars!!!!!
Thanks,
There is a 6 axle tank car at the Railroad Museum Of Pennsylvania ...it sits out front on the right side of the entrance.....if I get a chance in the next week or two I will try to get a few pics of it and post for you.
Dennis Blank Jr.
CEO,COO,CFO,CMO,Bossman,Slavedriver,Engineer,Trackforeman,Grunt. Birdsboro & Reading Railroad
I saw one of these 8 axle behemoths in a westbound Seaboard Coastline freight at Pensacola, Fla. in the mid 80’s. I certainly did a double take! I believe they were outlawed not long after.
Have fun, Rob
Dave-the-Train I suspect that I may have asked this before but... 6 Axle Tank Cars... What were they? When were they? What did they carry? ...and why were they six axle not four?
What were they? - They still are!
When were they? - See above.
What did they carry? - Chemicals
Why were they six axles not four? - To carry heavier loads.
.
The use of six axles and eight axles (double four) was directly related to capacity. Prior to 1970 tank car volume was not restricted. Following a series of incidents in the 1960's DOT limited shell full volume of tank cars to 34,500 usg, which is still in place today. As freight cars built prior to July 1, 1974 are limited to a forty year life, better get out there and get your photos of 'whale belly's' now. After 2010 they will all be gone.
Also, for those interested, following the hurricane damage in Galveston, UTLX 83699 was deemed to expensive to restore and dismantled where she landed.
I just joined the group today, so I looked for my favorite subject, tank cars. I love the six and eight axle, and the smaller odd ones too. To answer the question, did anyone make one other than brass. There was only one done in brass, the OMI UTLX eight axle whale belly. Quality Craft did the eight axle GATX whalebelly in wood and metal. It's a easy kit to build, and looks very nice. I scratched three of the RailWhales, two eight axles, and one six axle. No one made the correct 11' wheelbase Buckeye trucks, so I cast my own. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I did a 2225 Gal Bromine car from an article in Feb 01 MR. Below is the link to my flickr site where photos of these and a few other scratchbuilt tank cars are located. There are three pages. Page one has a few prepaint photos of my six axle car and the trucks. Page three has the other cars. Page two has some engines I super detailed. Take a look if you will. Thanks, Tankcarsrule
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53243414@N00/?deleted=3941799745
nice work. i remember the first time i saw one of the little bromine tank cars. actually, it kind of make me laugh out loud. they were evidently few in number and only came through where i was working on rare occasion. i wish one was available in HO scale or that i had the time and skills to scratch build one. evidently, bromine is a very heavy liquid and i believe the cars were lead lined since it is so corrosive.
Thanks. Bromine weighs 28 Lbs a Gal., and the cars are Lead lined as you stated. I saw a photo of one on one of the photo sites that was taken in 2007. I'm sure they're all timed out by now. All my work is HO btw.
Here's the one at strasburg Railroad
Springfield PA
I read that two were built, but one was loaded with a cargo that spoiled and had to be scraped. Great detail shot on the American Steel Foundries truck, I saved it. I don't think anyone has done the truck in HO, except OMI in brass for their Whopper Hopper. If anyone knows of another, please let me know. Thanks
Well...does that explain why there are alot of 33K LPG tank cars stored
"Look away...look south"
tankcarsrule I read that two were built, but one was loaded with a cargo that spoiled and had to be scraped. Great detail shot on the American Steel Foundries truck, I saved it. I don't think anyone has done the truck in HO, except OMI in brass for their Whopper Hopper. If anyone knows of another, please let me know. Thanks
If you go to my photobucket account, you can download a higher res picture. The size would be about 9 meg.
Stored 33K LPG cars. The economy!? BTW the CELX Acetic Acid six axle cars were given a ten year extention.
Thanks, I will. I notice my flickr addy is black on my copy of my post, is it blue to others? If I'm doing something wrong, please tell me what I need to do. Thanks.
no. If you use firefox or others you have to manually add the [url commands.
tankcarsruleI guess have no idea. It would have been nice if someone had told me.
No Like this
"link"
Do it like this. Instead of rounded brackets replace them with the square brackets [ ]
(url)http://www.flickr.com/photos/53243414@N00/?deleted=3941799745(/url)
tankcarsrule Stored 33K LPG cars. The economy!? BTW the CELX Acetic Acid six axle cars were given a ten year extention.
Yes, most of them had AMOX reporting marks.