More on tank car placards

I have written a number of posts about the hazard placards used on tank cars, concentrating on my modeling era (1953). Placards were used to identify cargoes that were dangerous, and also to indicate dangerous empty cars. A summary of prototype practice was an early post of mine on this topic (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/03/tank-car-placards-prototype.html ). 

Recently Michael Litant gave me two prototype placards. Both have tack or staple holes in them, indicating that they had been used on tank cars. Most tank cars had wood-faced placard boards, so this method of attachment is natural, but Union Tank (UTLX) cars had a metal frame into which a workman could slide a placard without tacks or staples. That usage then spread to other tank car owners from the 1930s onward. I’ve blogged about that too (see this example: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2013/10/model-tank-car-placards-refinement.html ).

Here is one of Michael’s placards. This type of placard became standard in 1930, and was intended to be used to warn of any corrosive cargo, whether acidic or basic or otherwise capable of causing corrosion. As with most placards, this one was issued by a railroad (in this case, the Nickel Plate, as can be seen at the top of the placard; you can click on the image to enlarge it if you wish.) It was the railroad’s Form 841 and is dated 11-33, consistent with the introduction date mentioned above.

An earlier placard, with a date blank at right center indicating its introduction in the 1920s, is this one for flammable cargo (or as was then synonymous, “inflammable,” a possible source of confusion later eliminated by standardizing on the word “flammable”). This was Nickel Plate Form 761, and like the placard above, is 10.75 inches on a side.

It seems to me an obvious point that our model tank cars should carry these placards, depending on their cargo, or an “empty” placard if moving as an empty car. The most important category of “empty” cars is those containing small amounts of dangerous liquid or, sometimes even more dangerous, the vapor of the prior cargo. (Gasoline is an excellent example; a car full of vapor is much more explosive than a car of the liquid, having only a slight volume of vapor above the cargo.) Here is such a placard, helpfully showing its dimensions:

I have also posted several times about my methods for modeling and applying these various placards in HO scale (see for example, this one: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/03/tank-car-placards-modeling.html ). I have made HO scale images of all the various placard types, and printed them out at my local copy shop, which has a high-resolution color printer. (Incidentally, 10.75 prototype inches converts to just a hair under 1/8-inch on a side for HO scale placards.)

Then in practice, I apply a loaded-car placard on one side of the model, and the empty placard on the other. That way, I can simply reverse the physical orientation of the model between sessions, to change its status from loaded to empty. In the examples below, the car belongs to Shell Chemical Co. In this first view, it is inbound to one of my industries, Pacific Chemical Repackaging, in Ballard, with a flammable placard.

In a future session (not necessarily the next one following),the car will be outbound as an empty, heading back to its owner. It’s shown below during switching at Shumala, being made ready for pickup by the mainline local.

I do think that model operations benefit from presence of placards, and was delighted that Mr. Litant gave me the two examples I’ve shown here. Thanks again, Michael.

Tony Thompson