Athearn 20,000 gallon acid tank car

[spookshow]

Is this a new model or just the old Athearn/MDC/Roundhouse "50' Modern Tank Car" with a new name?

Thanks,
-Mark

[wmcbride]

The product info on MB Klein lists body-mounted couplers which I don't think the Roundhouse cars ever had ...

https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/athearn-n-17613-20-000-gallon-acid-tank-car-ppgx-10850/

[unittrain]

Same old tooling  .

[MK]

But probably not same old price. 

[unittrain]

But probably not same old price. 

That's for sure 

[jpwisc]

Athearn said the last batch was supposed to have body mounted couplers. They lied. They actually changed the promotional material after the cars started selling. Old crappy tooling. They should retool and detail these to the level of their LNG cars.

[Jbub]

Athearn said the last batch was supposed to have body mounted couplers. They lied. They actually changed the promotional material after the cars started selling. Old crappy tooling. They should retool and detail these to the level of their LNG cars.

I haven't purchased any yet but MBK's description does note body mounted couplers.

[CRL]

Don’t know about body mounted couplers, but the pdf on these cars is interesting, especially the ‘primed for grime’ designation in a couple of the cars, but not all.

http://www.athearn.com/newsletter/012618/09_N_GATC_20K_Tank_012618.pdf

These are outside my era - not the build dates, but the DOT markings - so I won’t be a buyer.

[sirenwerks]

The PDF is a serious misrepresentation. The ends of the two cars are markedly different - the MDC car being a rolled dome and the illustrated car being a flat seam.

[spookshow]

Annoying that Athearn doesn't have pictures up on their website. Guess I'll just have to order one and see what I get.

Thanks,
-Mark

[carlso]

Mark and all,

Let me show my ignorance by saying that I think a 20K acid car is a foobie all the way. Why do I say this:

1. Max allowable weight on rails is normally 268,000 lbs unless the car is moving under a special dispensation and the weight could be 315,000 lbs.

2. I used Sulphuric Acid as an example and find it to typically be 15.24lbs/gallon. This may vary some with the % of pureness of the acid. Let's use 15 as an average and for a 20,000gl load the product weight alone would be 300K and then we have to throw in tare weight of car, say 70K and we are way above the highest possible weight on rails.

3. In my days with a major West Coast Oil Company, our acid T/C's were typically 13K capacity or 195K
    product weight plus lets say 73K for car and we have 268K total weight on rails.

4. Of course I have not figured the weights using a 2% outage load capy. that would cut these totals
    somewhat but not enough to be legal loads.

It's all just numbers but I see no way their car can be prototypical. But of course it's just my opinion. They would work for other lighter products.

As always, have fun,
Carl

[Jbub]

Mark and all,

Let me show my ignorance by saying that I think a 20K acid car is a foobie all the way. Why do I say this:

1. Max allowable weight on rails is normally 268,000 lbs unless the car is moving under a special dispensation and the weight could be 315,000 lbs.

2. I used Sulphuric Acid as an example and find it to typically be 15.24lbs/gallon. This may vary some with the % of pureness of the acid. Let's use 15 as an average and for a 20,000gl load the product weight alone would be 300K and then we have to throw in tare weight of car, say 70K and we are way above the highest possible weight on rails.

3. In my days with a major West Coast Oil Company, our acid T/C's were typically 13K capacity or 195K
    product weight plus lets say 73K for car and we have 268K total weight on rails.

4. Of course I have not figured the weights using a 2% outage load capy. that would cut these totals
    somewhat but not enough to be legal loads.

It's all just numbers but I see no way their car can be prototypical. But of course it's just my opinion. They would work for other lighter products.

As always, have fun,
Carl

We get "unit" trains of acid cars through salt lake all the time because of the copper smelter. The athearn 20k car looks to big compared to what I at least on a monthly basis.

[basementcalling]

Mark and all,

Let me show my ignorance by saying that I think a 20K acid car is a foobie all the way. Why do I say this:

1. Max allowable weight on rails is normally 268,000 lbs unless the car is moving under a special dispensation and the weight could be 315,000 lbs.

2. I used Sulphuric Acid as an example and find it to typically be 15.24lbs/gallon. This may vary some with the % of pureness of the acid. Let's use 15 as an average and for a 20,000gl load the product weight alone would be 300K and then we have to throw in tare weight of car, say 70K and we are way above the highest possible weight on rails.

3. In my days with a major West Coast Oil Company, our acid T/C's were typically 13K capacity or 195K
    product weight plus lets say 73K for car and we have 268K total weight on rails.

4. Of course I have not figured the weights using a 2% outage load capy. that would cut these totals
    somewhat but not enough to be legal loads.

It's all just numbers but I see no way their car can be prototypical. But of course it's just my opinion. They would work for other lighter products.

As always, have fun,
Carl

I think it's always been a foobie, even when MDC just marketed it as a "modern" tank car. It's a blend of lots of features found on many modern tankers, but not all on any one tank car. I'm not aware of any actual prototype - not that I am an expert or anything.

But at one point, it was the only 50' tank car in the game.  Atlas and BMLA and Athearn have gone far beyond it with quality of other offerings, but N scale really needs more good tank car models. Are you listening Exact Rail?

[jpwisc]

The body is a lot closer to the right size for the HCl cars than the beast Atlas put out last year. The Atlas was a far superior car in the detail area. It’s too bad it was so oversized.

[Mark5]

I saw these at MBK - they are indeed the old MDC tankers, enhanced with body mounted couplers.

Mark