Modern Tank Cars

[ljudice]

Has anyone done any research to see if Athearn's 30k Gallon Ethanol car is similar to anything built prior to 2005? I've looked through various online freight car galleries and there certainly seems to be a family resemblence to earlier UTLX cars, but without the capacity info visible it is hard to really tell.

What I'm really looking for are things close that may have been around in the 1990-1996 era...

Thanks

[Blazeman]

I'm looking at the UTLX Blue Book page for 30MG general purpose cars, non-coiled non-insulated.

Load limit is 196,900, empty tare is 66,100.

Car is 15',3" H, 10-8 W, and 60-11 long (over couplers).

Manway diameter is 20"

Platform is designated 2-board, 2-way.

I don't know if that's what you are seeking. Best I can find.  My book is from 1996.

[Robbman]

MFCL... join.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I think these were the first cars of this kind. There were other similar cars, but they were about 25k gal capacity.

[ljudice]

Thanks guys for the help - and Robbmann - I've joined MFCL...

Someone should do a definative book on tank cars from 1960-2010... 

It is crazy complicated to keep track of the variations....


Lou

[Robbman]

Thanks guys for the help - and Robbmann - I've joined MFCL...

Someone should do a definative book on tank cars from 1960-2010... 

It is crazy complicated to keep track of the variations....


Lou

Find Tim Frederick

[GonzoCRFan]

Someone should do a definative book on tank cars from 1960-2010... 

It is crazy complicated to keep track of the variations....

But who has the time to compile a phone-book sized volume of information?

[ljudice]

I know...  Actually most of the info is out there - it's just not indexed in a way that is easy to get to...   We need a data warehouse!

[Mark5]

I wonder if the situation is worse than the one with intermodal 1960-1980 ...

[ljudice]

Well I'm sure it's equally as bad...

The problem is - and look, I take my hat off to everyone who takes the time to post photos on the various repositories - that there is not enough information or misleading information to search. You really need a catalog of the catalogs and everyone to go back and enter all the metadata for each photo. And it's not going to happen.

Good example - looking for IPD boxcars on Railroadpicturearchives.net...  They are indexed under the CURRENT Reporting marks. Few people go to the trouble to code in the paint scheme they are in.

Railcarphotos probably has the best search facility - and I like the "range" option - but it's still at the mercy of what people enter.

The other problem is people like me - I have about 500 PRINTS of photos of freight cars I took on CR from 1991-1994 or so. I need to take the time to scan the suckers in.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I had an old MDC tank car that I was using to test paints when airbrushing. After a while, there was so much paint caked on that I had to strip it.

After stripping the model, I found out the tank isn't that bad. I detailed it up with an extra GMM CC tank detailing set, some brass wire and brake details. It looks pretty good, but trying to find a prototype for the tank is damn near impossible. Compairing it to the new Atlas 20k gallon tanks, the MDC car is wider and shorter, but I assume its in the same 19-21K gallon range.

It would be nice to know what prototype, if any it was based off. Same thing goes with the MTL 56' tank.

[GaryHinshaw]

It would be nice to know what prototype, if any it was based off. Same thing goes with the MTL 56' tank.

I don't know the answer to this, but I agree that once it's detailed, it's a pretty nice model that adds variety to the fleet.  My modus operandi for deciding purchase like this is to compare model photo to proto photo, eg:

http://www.athearn.com/ProdInfo/ATH/450/ATH11780-450.jpg
vs.
http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=13351

Generally no rulers involved, just visual cues.  This one definitely passes my threshold (once detailed).

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I don't know the answer to this, but I agree that once it's detailed, it's a pretty nice model that adds variety to the fleet.  My modus operandi for deciding purchase like this is to compare model photo to proto photo, eg:

http://www.athearn.com/ProdInfo/ATH/450/ATH11780-450.jpg
vs.
http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=13351

Generally no rulers involved, just visual cues.  This one definitely passes my threshold (once detailed).

The detail set makes the MDC car look a lot like this:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=123473

This will probably be the paint scheme for the car I built. I have three others that will be detailed with the MDC upgrade kit, which I assume will have platforms that match your photo.

[FrankCampagna]

Working only from memory, but I believe there is no prototype for the MDC tank car. They were just generic "modern-looking" cars. At the time, they were the only game in town, however.

Frank

[GaryHinshaw]

The detail set makes the MDC car look a lot like this:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=123473

I agree, the GMM/CC detail set has that kind of railing.  If you can find one, the old Con-Cor funnel flow makes a pretty good rendition of a car like that too (it's worth the hunt):



[I was going to do this in GATX, like your photo, but something funky happened during the gloss coat, so I've set it aside for awhile.]  Here's a shot of my MDC car-in-progress:



[Same problem with the gloss coat... >]  I was going for something like this:

http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=44386

Here is a shot of something closer to the MDC prototype, in a scheme Athearn recently released:

http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=53141

-gfh

P.S. I wish we had a better selection of modern tank car decals, including the "spreadsheet".  The sets I could find from Microscale and Oddball were only so-so.