Modeling less-common tank cars
the “short” side of the dome top. This manway cover can also be obtained in the Tichy detail set.
For the acid car, instead of a conven-
The stock Plastruct elliptical cap is at left, while at right is one filed down to a flatter con- tour (above). This is quick work on the soft acrylic material of the cap. A tank with flattened end cap is placed on the frame to check clearances (below). An overall view of the tank body on the underframe (bottom) illustrates the necessity of narrowing the tank cradles.
tional manway, there is a pressure clo- sure. Rather than scratchbuild one, I used a Precision Scale Company part made for pressurized oil fuel locomotive tenders, part No. 3157. It was located to one side of the dome top, as with the Becco manway. The hinge side of this fitting goes toward the A-end of the car. The rest of the dome top appliances vary with car type. The acid car has an air valve cover and a small fitting for a frangible-disk safety outlet (a pressure relief device designed to break at a pre- set pressure). I turned a piece of ¹/₈″ styrene rod in my motor tool and used a file to make about a 45-degree slope on the end. This is a cover for the siphon. I added a small nut-bolt-wash- er to the top of the cover (³/₄″ scale size) using Detail Associates part SY 2203. For more about such appliances, see Chapter 5 of Kaminski’s book, Tank Cars American Car & Foundry. I made a frangible-disk safety outlet by using a Precision Scale Company steam piping gland attached to a short length of .028″ brass wire. Holes for all of these parts were drilled in the dome tops, and they were glued in place. The dome on the Becco car has one
needs to be cut in it for the manway support. The easy way to do this is to clamp a piece of the sheet between two pieces of scrap wood and drill a ¹/₄″ hole completely through the assembly. That keeps the hole in the styrene fairly clean. I then took this piece of sheet and drew a circle around the hole using the dome tubing as a guide. The circle should have the hole off center, almost to one edge. For the acid car, simply mark the same size circle but do not drill a hole.
After cutting out the circles, file the edges until they match the diameter of the aluminum tubing and glue them onto the flat end of the dome tubes us- ing cyanoacrylate cement.
The dome tops on both these cars are slightly rounded. I filed and sanded a rounded edge onto the dome top, leav- ing most of the top area flat. The glue joint to the aluminum tubing is more than strong enough to withstand this kind of work.
For the Becco car, I next inserted a piece of ¹/₄″ K&S brass tubing into the 64
JANUARY 2012
hole from below. It should protrude only a little above the dome’s top sur- face. An Athearn manway cover was glued to this with the hinge side toward
safety valve. I added a Tichy safety valve from the detail set, offset to one side and glued to ¹/₁₆″ styrene rod. On the centerline I approximated a valve fitting with a Precision Scale Company brass pop valve, part No. 3294. To complete the domes, I drilled No. 77 holes for hand grabs fabricated from .015″ brass wire to go on each side of the dome. They were secured with cyano- acrylate cement. At this point I at- tached the two domes to their tanks,
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