New Atlas Kaolin Tank cars - what era?

[bdennis]

I have a question re the new or updated Atlas N scale Kaolin tank cars.
http://www.atlasrr.com/NFreight/nkaolin4.htm
I have at least 2 paper mills on my layout and need tank cars for the plants. I model the early to mid 70's.

I see from the atlas site that they the cars were made in the early 70's.

Are there specific spotting features that make any of these cars that Atlas has announced appropriate for the early 70's? Or are the all late 70's and more modern?

Any info would be apprecaited.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I am pretty sure they started in service in the late 60's. Atlas has produced them in all sorts of eras... no lube stencil (60's) single and double lube stencils (70-80's), tri-box lube stencil (90's), qualification spreadsheet (2001-2005), q-spreadsheet with conspicuancy stripes (2005+)

[bdennis]

Daniel,
Thanks for the info.

In terms of the Lube stencil. Is that the black box label on the side of the car.?
I see a number of them in the latest release have 2 boxes or 3 boxes on the same label.
Most of the cars in release 3 seem to have 2 boxes on the black label. - http://www.atlasrr.com/NFreight/nkaolin3.htm

Any info is most apprecaited..

[Kisatchie]

I am pretty sure they started in service in the late 60's. Atlas has produced them in all sorts of eras... no lube stencil (60's)...

Spookshow's website says "...the 14,000 gallon non-pressure tank car first built by ACF® in the late 1970's..."

See: http://www.spookshow.net/freight/atlaskaolin.html

Spookshow's dates are pretty accurate from what I've seen (but that doesn't prove anything). I just can't see his dates being off by a decade.


Hmm... do Kaolin tank
cars even exist? I haven't
seen one ANYWHERE...

[bdennis]

Kisatchie,
Thanks for that. The info on Spookshow's site is directly from Atlas..
They may have started building them in the early 70's but they are still using them so just keen to get the cars that are decorated for the 70's era.

Thanks.

[bbussey]

Choose the cars that have the double black box for 1970s.

[bdennis]

Bryan,
Thanks for that..
So this one has the 2 black boxes and therefore 70's / 80's


But cars like this one seem to have 3 parts to the back box and that would suggest its an 90's era car?

[daniel_leavitt2000]

My dates are generalizations, but the single/double black boxes are the cars you are looking for. Those would be good for the early 70's until the mid 80's.

[bdennis]

Daniel,
Thanks for that.. Yep thats all Im looking for.. Just something that fits the general era..
I tend to run anything from a S2 all the way up to the C424's that the D&H had so that takes me from the late 60's to the early 80's..

[nkalanaga]

The "double black box" was first used in early 1974.  The "single black box" dates to 1972(?) or thereabouts.  No box at all would be late 60s or very early 70s, but usable into the later 70s.  The "single box" was used mostly on new or rebuilt cars, and the "double box" wasn't universal for a few years after 1974, as it took a while to put them on all of the older cars.

If you can read the service date, usually to the right of the LT WT stencil, that's a better guide, but that usually requires having the car in hand OR a cooperative manufacturer who posts the information.

If the car has a LD LMT and LT WT, but no CAPY, it's probably 90s or later, as the CAPY line was eliminated sometime around then.  Does anyone have a date for that change?