What's up with this tank car?

[sirenwerks]

This pic caught my eye for a bunch of reasons, but really has me wondering is what's the history with the tank car directly behind the loco.  To me, it looks like an older Procor car (the saddles look to be cast) with what seems to be an end rebuild (the end looks flat rather than onvex, and has that strange center plate, atrched at the top and extending to the tank bottom).  Was this an older uninsulated car rebuilt to be insulated? 





(Edit - for whatever reason, I don't see the pic after an edit sohere's a link - [size=78%]http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/logging/Alberni_Pulp&Paper_76-10.jpg[/size]

[jargonlet]

Might be a scale car. One of the plants has an older one around here that they use for that.

[RockGp40]

Might be a repair after an accident. I have seen numerous cars with new metal welded on. I don't think it's a scale car as it appears to be placarded.

[Chris333]

Looks like the Atlas 11000 gallon tankcar.

[sd45elect2000]

Might be a scale car. One of the plants has an older one around here that they use for that.

A scale test car wouldn't be placarded.

[Englewood]

Maybe a buffer car to keep the loco from being next to a dangerous load. I see someone riding on the top, I think it might be a lazy switchman who didn't want to climb up on the rear car to watch a shove. Or maybe it's the plant's shoving platform? Interesting photo, whatever is going on.

[davefoxx]

I think the lettering above the circumferential handrail in all caps says, “PROCOR LIMITED.”

DFF

[pedro]

Maybe a buffer car to keep the loco from being next to a dangerous load. I see someone riding on the top, I think it might be a lazy switchman who didn't want to climb up on the rear car to watch a shove.

Lazy? Kinda harsh! I’d say he’s passing hand signs to the engineer from someone else on the ground. I worked with a few old-head switch crews in the ‘90s that still preferred to work with hand signs exclusively, and we were passing signs that way, albeit not while riding the tops of tank cars. Those guys didn’t get pack sets until much later in their careers, and they didn’t like them. There were hand signs for pretty much everything. Drives management crazy when they can’t hear you on the radio! If only our modern switch crews would realize this…

[rail_nut]

The end of the tank car seems to have a cone made in two halves with a flat disc top. This may have been a repair or the original design. Dished ends more expensive and harder to manufacture requiring special equipment and tooling. The half cones are easy to produce using a set of rolls, smooth surface as shown in the photo, or a brake press, lots if flat triangular surfaces. Many metal shops cold produce the rolled or pressed parts. The assembled pieces could duplicate the height of a dished end.

[Ken Martin]

It has placards, so it is loaded or residue remaining.  If a buffer or shove car would it be cleaned empty?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Yep. I'm almost sure it's a revenue car.

And I want it.

Because I want ALL the tank cars.

What a sexy little minx. lol

[sd45elect2000]

It has placards, so it is loaded or residue remaining.  If a buffer or shove car would it be cleaned empty?

A cleaned and purged car would have no placards.

[sd45elect2000]

Yep. I'm almost sure it's a revenue car.

And I want it.

Because I want ALL the tank cars.

What a sexy little minx. lol

I have 490 tank cars, are we friends?

Randy

[sd45elect2000]

Might be a repair after an accident. I have seen numerous cars with new metal welded on. I don't think it's a scale car as it appears to be placarded.

This is my guess. Maybe the jacket got bent up and they needed to re-insulate and install a new jacket. It looks like they cut a circle around where the steam piping coils would be on the end sheets and did some internal repairs to the coils.

Randy

[cv_acr]

Yeah, it's definitely a PROCOR car. Before the early 1980s PROCOR used UTLX reporting marks from parent UTC.

Definitely looks like an insulated, jacketed car.