Modeling less-common tank cars
AC&F PHOTO: ED KAMINSKI COLLECTION
This 7,000-gallon car (above) is an example of a tank car built for acid service. It is an ear- lier, riveted car, but it shows general features, including a typical group of acid dome-top appliances. The photo of this Stauffer 7,000-gallon acid car (below) shows the lettering and paint scheme, though somewhat different in proportions from the model. This car was built by General American, while the car modeled has an AC&F underframe. Although this car has a dome platform, other Stauffer acid cars did not have dome platforms. Most Stauffer tank cars had the black center band.
located across the center sill from the cylinder. One end of the reservoir is glued to the crosspiece already present on the underframe, then the channel is moved into place to support the other end. The AB valve can be located just behind the cylinder (toward the A-end) and supported by styrene strips. I post- poned adding wire to represent brake rods and piping since these parts are best applied when the model is nearly complete.
CHET MCCOID PHOTO: COLLECTION OF BOB’S PHOTO
ticles in the 1980’s (see the bibliogra- phy). This article describes two cars built in a way somewhat like Mark’s models, but quite different in others. I had a couple of tank car types I wanted to create. One was the distinc- tive acid car design with a tall, slender dome. The other car, similar to acid cars, is a more general chemical car, ex- emplified in model form by Feddersen’s version of a peroxide car owned by Bec- co (Buffalo Electro Chemical Compa- ny). Both prototypes had welded tanks. The key to these cars is to start with the Tichy tank car underframe set, ap- propriately modified. An excellent piece of modeling by itself, it happens to duplicate an interim design of Amer- 62
ican Car & Foundry, but it is quite sim- ilar to AC&F underframes used throughout the 1920’s.
I assembled the Tichy underframes for both cars according to the kit direc- tions with two exceptions. First, the Tichy underframe is intended for K brakes. By the time I model, 1953, K brakes had all but disappeared, so AB brakes need to be fitted. This is not dif- ficult. I used the AB brake parts in the Tichy tank car detail set.
I began by attaching the AB brake cylinder in the location for the K brake cylinder. I then added a short piece of styrene channel (Evergreen .080″) be- tween the center sill and running board to support one end of the AB reservoir,
The second exception to the under- frame kit is that the tank cradles must be adjusted to accommodate a smaller tank. Using a piece of the tank tubing (see below) to judge this, I removed about a scale foot from the center of each cradle and also shortened the lo- cating rib molded on the bolster top. Many cars like the ones I was setting out to model had tanks of 6,000-gallon capacity or thereabouts. A common though not universal tank diameter found on drawings for tank cars like these (see, for example, Ed Kaminski’s book, Tank Cars American Car & Foundry) is 70 to 77 inches. I chose to use Plastruct tubing of ³/₄″-diameter to model this, which is a little undersize. Some might wish to use ⁷/₈″ Plastruct tubing, which is about 76 HO inches. I used a length of about 30 scale feet or so for the tanks.
Plastruct also offers matching ends for their various tubing diameters. The Plastruct “elliptical” ends have too small a radius, but since they are a fair- ly soft acrylic plastic they are easily filed and sanded to a shape more like a typical tank car end. When corrected they add about one scale foot to the length at each end.
I weighted my tanks with a pair of lag screws using a size for which the heads would just fit inside. They are 2″ JANUARY 2012
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