"Well C.H, why in heck did you bounce this old Funnel Flow thread for?"So in the early-1990s I began working full-time and had some pocket cash (which is great), but no girlfriends (which sucks), so I had money to buy some of the new wave of products coming into the hobby market at the time (which is nice, but didn't really compensate for the ladylessness). This included of course the then new Walthers Funnel flow tank-cars. I did some work on them, put them away half done (can't ebay them now...well, at least I couldn't) and a mere 2+ decades later have stumbled across them and have time to complete them. The 40ft and 54ft ones I know what they will be 'tasked' for (syrup for the 40ft, waste oil for the 54ft, plus a few generics just passing thru) and...the two 30ft funnel flows.I know these would handle dense liquid loads, but my questions are:1) How common were these shorties anyway - I can find images of 54s (23Kgal) and even 40s (16Kgal) on line for the era I model (late 2010s), but shorties, not so much.2) What companies would own them, under what reporting marks, in the far distant past of 2-3 years ago? Where did they roam and what were they carrying, or were they a small odd-ball fleet since scrapped?
Thanks.
I cannot assist in any way on the girlfriend-less problem, if it still exists, other than to observe that usually having pocket cash resolves it - so long as that pocket cash is spent on them, not on trains
The Morning Sun book on center-sill-less tank cars has a whole section on short wheelbase tank cars, most are not funnel flow but the loads mentioned might still be instructive. Unfortunately for most cars pictured they do not know the load, but can speculate based on the name on the car.
There is a short wheelbase funnel flow UTLX 76917 blt 7-1969, leased to NL Industries, formerly National Lead. Load unknown but NL was "a large manufacturer of titanium dioxide pigments." The car had a capacity of 10,239 gallons so it was a large tank on a short wheelbase.
Another short funnel flow UTLX 78363 blt 7-1968, is lettered for American Maize Products Co. Part of a 3 car set by the way. Corn syrup would be a good guess. Curiously the car had solid bearings not roller bearing trucks.
A non funnel flow but short car lettered for Cargill says it carries "pure cane molasses." Other non funnel flow but short cars carried zinc chloride, water treatment chemicals, dyes and pigments, pure sweet molasses, and rosin.
It strikes me that the demand for short funnel flow or other tank cars might not always be due to density of the product. The need for the product's quantity in any one shipment might be an equal factor. Perhaps a short storage life also plays a role.
If you can find them I strongly recommend the two Morning Sun color books on tank cars by James Kincaid. There is a lot of good info in the captions, and the photos are varied and interesting.
Dave Nelson