Mundane models

 In a recent conversation with an acqaintance, the topic of my blog came up, and during the discussion he asked, essentially, “Are all your model projects complicated ones, like the Hendrickson one?’ (He was remembering the Santa Fe automobile car of Richard’s that I had completed; the concluding post is here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2018/11/hendrickson-auto-car-part-6.html ). 

Like most modelers, my answer was “no.” I do lots of projects that can only be called “mundane,” thus the title of this blog. But reflecting on this point, I thought I would show some examples of such projects, always remembering, of course, that I am definitely a “freight car guy.” (For background on that term, see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2019/10/whats-freight-car-guy.html .) 

The topic of mundane models returns me to something I’ve often mentioned, usually just in passing. It’s my idea to separate mentally, what I call “mainline models,” by which I mean cars that will look all right in a passing train, but might not look so good up close during switching, from better models. I talked about the philosophy of all that in a previous post, too (it can be found here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2020/08/layout-models-and-all-that.html ).

But today’s post is to illustrate a few models, and perhaps clarify what a mundane model is. It need not be a “mainline model,” but may be quite a nice freight car, just not anywhere approaching contest quality or even worthy of a detailed description of its construction in this blog. I have felt from the beginning that following kit directions needn’t be posted here, but some models so built can turn out quite well.

I’ll begin with a automobile car finished recently. This was kind of a silk purse affair, in that I started with a C&BT Shops kit, kits known for their poor detail sprues. But replacing most of them, and in particular adding wire corner grab irons on the roof, and an etched metal running board, can make a pretty decent final result. There was a distant view of this car in a post last year (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/09/forty-foot-automobile-cars.html ).

 A second box car in work is more mundane than the car above; it is simply a Branchline kit for a postwar 40-foot box car. I happen to have won it as a door prize at a Prairie Rail operating weekend, and so far it has its internal steel nuts for weight added, underframe complete, and starting to add body details. Roof not yet attached; it will receive an etched metal running board. Shouldn’t be long till it’s done.

Awhile back, as part of purchasing several of the very nice Broadway Limited 6000-gallon high-pressure tank cars, I received one lettered for the Ethyl Corporation. The car came with a dome platform and railings, but a prototype photo I have shows an EBAX  car with only short dome walkways, no platform. I removed the platform and ladders (used them on another project), and am preparing to add the walkways and new ladders. A small project, to be sure.

This car will likely only operate in mainline trains, because I have no industries on my layout that would either ship or receive Ethyl Corp. cargoes, but such a restriction won’t be on account of model shortcomings.  

Finally, I’ve just completed an Accurail box car, chosen in honor of Paul Weiss’s Central Vermont layout (and could be used to receive cargoes from industries on his layout). This is of course an extremely simple kit, with minimal number of parts, though I added A-Line sill steps and a Cal-Scale brass brake wheel soldered to the brake staff. It hasn’t yet been weathered.

All these cars are mundane in construction, but all have roles to play, and in fact none of them would be relegated to the “mainline” category because of quality shortcomings. Cars like this can be the majority of any freight car fleet, as they are in mine. 

Tony Thompson 

An Athearn “Blue Box” tank car, conclusion

I began this project under the inspiration of a new decal set from National Scale Car, set D-245 for Shell Chemical Co. tank cars. The set can do two cars, one of them an anhydrous ammonia car. 

The size of that car was quite similar to the Athearn “Blue Box” tank car that Athearn terms a “chemical” car, though there is no such category; it is simply a model of a high-pressure insulated tank car of about 11,000 gallons. I showed the prototype photo in the first post (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/07/reworking-athearn-blue-box-tank-car.html ).

In the succeeding posts, I described my upgrades to the deficiencies of the Athearn model, most recently showing all the parts ready for assembly (covered in my post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2025/04/an-athearn-blue-box-tank-car-part-4.html ). 

Installing Kadee #158 couplers, adding trucks with InterMountain wheelsets, and temporarily putting together the rest of the car (except for the handrails, which will be added after decal application), the car looked like this:

The decals are well designed and taken directly from the prototype photo, and accordingly are quite easy to apply in the correct locations. Here is the car with the decals applied and protected with a coat of clear flat.

Next, I assembled the handrails, then added the dome platform with ladders, in the position shown in the upper photo above, attaching them with canopy glue.

A drawback to the use of the Broadway Limited tank car platform and ladder is that it is for a smaller (6000 gallons) tank car, so not only are the ladders too short, but the ladder rungs aren’t correctly located — note that there is not a rung at the level of the handrail, and there is one right below the handrail which should be removed in favor of a new one at the handrail level.

The ladder stiles are matched by styrene scale 1 x 3-inch strip, and the rungs by 0.015-inch styrene rod. I attached both with canopy glue, and when glue was set, painted them black.Then I lightly weathered the car, using washes of acrylic tube paints, as I’ve described and illustrated in the “Reference pages” linked at the top right corner of this post.

The car was now ready for service, and I’ve spotted it at its natural destination, the Pacific Chemical Repackaging Company in my layout town of Ballard, delivering a load of anhydrous ammonia. 

This has been an interesting project, yet another upgrading and conversion of one of the Athearn “Blue Box” tank cars, taking advantage of its accuracies and correcting its inaccuracies.

Tony Thompson

An Athearn “Blue Box” tank car, Part 4

In previous posts on this topic, I have been describing a project to model a Shell Chemical high-pressure tank car, starting with an Athearn “Blue Box” tank car. Athearn has usually labeled this as a “chemical” tank car, though that term conveys nothing specific. The background and prototype photos for the project is in the first post of the series (you can view it here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/07/reworking-athearn-blue-box-tank-car.html ). 

In the previous post, Part 3 of the series, I showed how I modeled the tank hold-downs, with their distinctive turnbuckles (that post is at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/08/an-athearn-blue-box-tank-car-part-3.html ). Meanwhile, I was also adding wire grab irons at each corner of the tank, using brass wire. The tank has already received a coat of blue-gray primer.

Next I turned to the Athearn underframe. As I showed in the first post in this series (see link in top paragraph above), the extraneous extra outlet pipes have already been removed. Now I reworked the coupler pockets, which I modify so that the coupler box lids are separate from the underframe, and are fastened with screws (see, for example, this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2019/05/fixing-athearn-tank-car-coupler-pockets.html ). 

The Athearn power hand brake arrangement is wrong for nearly all transition-era tank cars. I fill the hole in the running board meant to accept the Athearn brake stand, and drill a hole to insert a brass wire with brass brake wheel soldered to it (as shown in previous posts, such as: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/05/small-project-replacing-brake-wheels.html ). Finally, I added wire to represent brake rodding, which you can just see below. 

Another part of the project requiring attention was the dome platform, which I confiscated from a Broadway Limited high-pressure tank car. This required several modifications, the first of which was to enlarge the opening in the platform to accommodate the diameter of the Precision Scale brass valve bonnet part. Here is a photo of the platform temporarily in place, prior to painting.

Next the two halves of the tank body, and the platform, could be painted. I used Tamiya “Haze Grey” (TS-32) for this. The paint has a semi-gloss finish, quite suitable for decal application. Below I show how they look at this point (the dome platform parts other than the deck will be hand-painted black later). The frame hasn’t had its black paint touched up.

With this work complete, all parts are ready for assembly and lettering. I will turn to those topics in a future post.

Tony Thompson

Small project: an old brass tank car

I have in my collected brass items, a Soho “1920 tank car,” so called, with two compartments. I first acquired this model way back in 1979, when it was not very old. I once painted it black and lettered it for a Union Tank Car prototype, UTLX 289, a prototype that was much the wrong size, being only 6000 gallons, distinctly less than the size of the Soho model. This has always kind of bugged me, and I decided to do better.

First, let’s find out how big this model tank car really is. The volume of a cylinder is of course easy to calculate, as we’ve all learned, but you then need to convert your cubic inches or cubic feet into water gallons. I explained and showed how to do this in a tank car post some time back (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/10/naperville-tank-car-handout-part-2.html ). 

For the model being considered, here are the dimensions. The diameter is 96 scale inches, the length 384 scale inches. This is a volume of 12,300 gallons. The usual allowance for the internal bulkheads of the two compartments is 10 to 15 percent, making the net volume about 11,500 gallons.

Here’s a view of this model, repainted a “muted black,” Tamiya “Rubber Black” (TS-82), to cover the old lettering. The elbow safety valves are kind of oversize, and the steel “diamond tread plate” running board a little unusual for a car of this age, but I going to live with all of that.

There happen to be Tichy decals for a two-compartment tank car of about this size, Tichy set 10360, for a SHPX car leased to J.M. Huber printing inks. The decals offer several car numbers, but only one of them, SHPX 91, is for a prototype two-compartment tank car. I decided to letter the Soho model for this car. It needs to have route card boards added underneath the running board, located at the lefthand body bolster on each side, made from scale 2 x 6-inch styrene.

I have discussed the Huber ink company previously on this blog, and have even shown a prototype photo of SHPX 91 (see that post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/10/small-modeling-project-huber-tank-car.html ). The real SHPX 91 was a smaller and more slender-proportioned tank car, but I will accept the Soho model as a stand-in.

Since I have a printing company on my layout, I have a destination for this car to be switched. I already have a model of another Huber car, SHPX 6031, as was described in the post linked in the preceding paragraph. For that car, I created artwork for custom decals, following the prototype photos shown in that post. But here is the Soho tank car with the Tichy lettering.

Note that the lessee’s information is centered on the tank, instead of toward the right end of the car side, as was commonly seen. But that right-end location is common on single-compartment tank cars, because it locates that information away from any spills from the dome. Here, the centered location accomplishes the same avoidance of any dome spillage.  

Having protected the new decals with a coat of clear flat, I weathered the tank with my usual acrylic washes, added route cards with canopy glue, and included a few chalk marks. The appearance is now definitely not merely a black tank car.

As I mentioned, I do have a layout industry to which this car cab suitably be switched, and below is an example of that in progress.

This has been an interesting upgrade and, I think, improvement of an old brass tank car model, despite its shortcomings as an accurate depiction of a prototype. I will enjoy seeing it being switched on the layout.

Tony Thompson

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

Painting and lettering a brass tank car

In a previous post, I discussed some 1920s waybills from the Coudersport & Port Allegany Railroad, all of them for shipments of the Gray Chemical Co. of Roulette, PA. This company and the railroad that served it survived past my modeling year of 1953, so I wanted to take advantage of the fine decals for a tank car of this company, offered by K4 Decals (see their tank car range at: ttps://k4decals.com/collections/tank-car-decals ). That previous post can be found at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/08/waybills-part-116-early-prototype.html .

I dug around in my stash of tank cars, both kits and various brass cars I’ve collected, and came upon a nice Overland Models brass 8000-gallon AC&F car, catalog number 3130. It’s shown below. I don’t know for sure that the Gray Co. cars were built by AC&F, which this model represents, but decided to take a chance on that. The alternative, if the Gray cars were built by General American, would be an undecorated Tangent 8000-gallon car.

A more serious issue is that it is a typical riveted tank, but most if not all of the Gray Chemical tank cars were aluminum, and such tanks usually were all-welded aluminum, once aluminum welding was established. Before that time, though, aluminum-lined steel tanks were built. I decided the model could represent such an older car.

Obviously with a fully constructed brass model, no additional modeling was needed (with a minor exception I’ll come to). I will just show the steps I follow for painting and lettering a model like this.

My first step was to carefully wipe down the model to remove any oils, using paint thinner. I then sprayed the entire tank (above the bottom sheet) light gray. The strategy here was to paint the gray tank and not worry about overspray onto the frame, then carefully mask the upper tank that would remain gray, and spray the underframe, trucks and bottom sheet black. Here’s the first step.

Next came the masking. I have come to strongly prefer Tamiya tape for any modeling tape needs. It’s flexible and can be made to fit over projections and around corners; it sticks well and never allows paint to bleed underneath; and it comes off cleanly when you’re done without ever lifting any paint. I taped all of the tank above the bottom sheet, and left the ladders outside the tape.

The flat black was then applied, allowed to make a good start on drying, and the tape stripped off. Nearly everywhere, the separation line was sharp and correctly located. Of course, a few minutes work with a brush would correct any errors. In the photo below, you may notice that the brake wheel has been removed. It struck me as undersized, and that I should replace it. 

I wondered whether to paint the handrail black. Looking at Ed Kaminski’s fine book, Tank Cars, AC&F, 1865–1955 (Signature Press, 2003), and concentrating on tanks with light tank colors built during the 1930 to 1950s, handrails in body color, or in black, were about equally frequent.  I decided to stay with body color, but leave the ladders black. I can always hand-paint the handrails if a prototype photo surfaces showing that feature.

Next came decals. I used the nice K4 decals as provided, with many lettering groups already assembled on the decal sheet. Only issue I could mention is that the company emblem seems oversize; it barely fits on this 8000-gallon tank car, which was indeed the prototype size. An option would be to also buy an N scale sheet for a better-size emblem. Below you will also see the new, unpainted brass Cal-Scale brake wheel attached to the brake staff. (You can click on the image to enlarge.)

This completes the main tasks with this model. Kadee couplers were then applied, and the car was weathered. This was by my usual method of washes made from acrylic tube paint (see “Reference pages” at the top right corner of this post). I included some spillage on the done. Note also there is an “empty” placard on this side of the car.

Now to make some waybills for the Gray Chemical Company’s acetic acid, and this car can begin work on the layout.

Tony Thompson

An Athearn “Blue Box” tank car, Part 3

 This series of blog posts is about using many of the parts of an Athearn “Blue Box” tank car, with the insulated tank body, as the starting point to represent a particular prototype tank car, a Shell Chemical Company high-pressure car I showed in the previous post in the series (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/07/an-athearn-blue-box-tank-car-part-2.html ).

At the end of the previous post (just cited), I had prepared the Athearn bottom sheet part for addition of the turnbuckle hold-down of the tank bands on the car. Below is a repeat of the close-up prototype photo from the previous post (link shown above). You can see that part shielding the emergence of the tank band from under the jacket is right at the longitudinal joint in the jacket.

My intention was to make the cover shield parts, then add turnbuckles. For the cover shields, I began with an Evergreen styrene scale 8 x 8-inch strip, and drilled a #75 hole through it near the end. I then carefully cut off the approximate cube containing the hole, from the end of the strip, and in turn carefully cut the cube at a 45-degree angle. A couple of these parts are shown below. Any parts that don’t come out properly are readily replaced with better ones.

Next these parts were glued to the bottom sheet, right at its top edge (see prototype photo for location), and aligned with the bolster position, as molded into the bottom sheet. 

These are now ready for turnbuckles. The Tichy parts, no. 8021, are cored for 0.0126 wire, meaning that 0.012-inch wire will fit nicely. These need only be short lengths. I cut the wire pieces over-length, glued them into one end of the turnbuckle with canopy glue, then cut the wires to the correct length and glued the wire into the shield pieces,again with canopy glue. I did this with the bottom sheet inverted, as you see below, so that the wire ends were inserted vertically.

The bottom sheet modeling work is now completed, and as soon as work on the upper tank is finished, the two parts can be painted together. I’ll describe all that in a future post.

Tony Thompson

An Athearn “Blue Box” tank car, Part 2

In the preceding post, I showed my collecting together of the main parts for one of Athearn’s insulated tank cars, that they call a “chemical” tank car — a term with no specific meaning as to tank car type. I also showed my early modifications, primarily replacing the huge valve bonnet of the original. And I mentioned the car I wished to represent, owned by Shell Chemical Co. That post is here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/07/reworking-athearn-blue-box-tank-car.html .

Having stated the goal, I show below a photo of the prototype car. This photo, taken October 26, 1952, at Pittsburg, California by Chet McCoid  (Bob’s Photo collection, courtesy Ted Culotta) was the basis for the recent decal set, D-245, available from National Scale Car (see their listing at: https://nationalscalecar.com/decals-ho-scale/ ).

Several interesting details are visible in this photo. One is that the gray color of the upper tank extends to the bottom sheet, though many tank cars like this had black bottom sheets. The underframe, though, is black. And note the tank hold-down band, which emerges from the tank jacket right below the junction of the top and bottom halves of the jacket, and is connected directly to the bolster via a turnbuckle. Here’s a closer view:

The Athearn bottom sheet, as noted in the previous post (link in top paragraph, above) was obviously designed for the three-compartment uninsulated Athearn model. To represent the double tank bands of the prototype single-compartment car, Athearn molded a pair of “fins” on each side of the bottom sheet, doubtless a more practical choice than a pair of slender bands.

These fins were removed and the area sanded flat. What they would be replaced by is a representation of what you see in the prototype close-up above, a turnbuckle connection to the bolster. I have some nice Tichy turnbuckles in my parts drawer, part no. 8021, which should do fine. With fins removed and roughly sanded, here is the bottom sheet. Sanding will be refined before painting.

I will continue to additional details for the car, and paint and lettering, in a future post.

Tony Thompson

Reworking an Athearn “Blue Box” tank car

I have written numerous times in this blog about the uses I have found for Athearn’s old “Blue Box” (40-foot) tank car, whether the conventional car or the insulated car (called a “chemical car” by Athearn). I won’t go into all the background here, but will just give one example of previous work: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2011/05/modeling-sp-tank-cars.html .

I have in mind a conversion of the insulated version of this car, to create a credible high-pressure tank car. I rummaged around in my various stashes of tank car kits and parts and left-over pieces, and soon found one of the insulated bodies, but no other parts from a former kit. No problem. Years ago, I purchased multiples of nearly all the parts for this kit, directly from Athearn (see this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/12/athearn-tank-car-parts.html ).

The goal is one of the Shell Chemical high-pressure cars, for which decal set D245 has just become available from National Scale Car (here’s a link: https://nationalscalecar.com/product/d245-shell-tank-cars/ ). These are for a car in series SCMX 2001–2147, which were General American Transportation Co. (GATC) ICC 105A-300W insulated and pressurized tank cars of nominal capacity of 11,000 gallons for transportation of anhydrous ammonia. This is close to the size of the Athearn insulated tank body, and its underframe, though crude, is intended to represent a General American frame.

So I could quickly put together what are the basics: the insulated body, one of Athearn’s bottom sheets, the two-part underframe, and most important, a package of Precision Scale parts 31005: correct-size brass valve bonnets for high-pressure cars (for more on valve bonnets, you can visit this: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2010/12/upgrading-old-models-2.html ).

The first step is to remove the immense Athearn attempt at representing a valve bonnet (oversize even for S scale), filing the area smooth, and fitting a Precision Scale bonnet in its place. For joining dissimilar materials like these, I have found canopy glue to be the best choice, making a good bond regardless of the two materials, and being quite tenacious when set.

The next step is to remove all the rivet detail from the bottom sheet, correctly placed for a three-compartment car but obviously extraneous for an insulated car, with its smooth outer jacket. I simply filed and sanded the rivets away. Incidentally, many tank car owners chose to make the bottom sheet black, along with the underframe, while applying various colors to the top part of the tank. Such a paint scheme is quite easy with the Athearn design, as the two parts are separate.

Here are both these parts, as modified, and the Athearn weight, which from experience I know to be about right for these cars, and which I will use.

There is an additional modification which, though minor, does need to be made. The Athearn underframe, as mentioned, was designed for their three-compartment tank car, and as such, has representations of three outlet or drain pipes in the underframe. Naturally the outer ones would be removed for a single-compartment car, and all should be removed for a pressure car, which cannot be unloaded from a bottom outlet. The photo below shows, at left, that center outlet and at right, one of the three-compartment outlets. These are simply snipped off.

With these parts of the project completed, I can go ahead and paint the tank body parts a light gray color. Safety appliances such as grab irons, ladders, and dome platform were usually black on cars like this, so I can install and paint them separately. But I will cover those steps, along with assembly and lettering, in a future post.

Tony Thompson

The Timken promotional freight car(s)

Sometime in the mid-1940s, the Timken Roller Bearing Company purchased one or more freight cars, applied roller-bearing trucks, and painted it (or them) in vivid paint scheme(s). One report is that these cars were exhibited at one or more railroad fairs, others that they were moved around the country on various railroads for publicity purposes. 

Certainly one of the cars was exhibited at the Chicago Railroad Fair of 1948–49. Below is a photo of the car at that fair, from an internet site (you can visit it at: https://www.railarchive.net/rrfair/rrfair4869.htm ).

It is hard to get much more specific than what you read above. About 20 years ago, Bob Weston wrote, on one of the on-line forums, this comment: “The Timken Roller Bearing Company painted several freight cars in color schemes to promote its products. I've seen pictures of two boxcars in different schemes. Or was it one boxcar in two schemes? One car was done in conjunction with the Akron, Canton & Youngstown RR, I believe it was numbered 600. There was also a gondola painted in red and white and blue. I’ve also heard that a tank car may have been painted for the Timken Co.”

The photo above proves that there was at least one car, a 1937-AAR design box car built for Timken in a one-car order by AC&F. It was evidently originally painted green, but soon became yellow with the wide white stripe and Timken logo. It was then numbered TRBX (for Timken Roller Bearings) 88, but one source references a TRBX 81; or maybe there were two cars. The car which became AC&Y 600 was transferred after 1950 but before 1953. (The Timken plant was in Canton, Ohio.)

Back in the days of Athearn metal car kits, there was a model of a Timken box car, though Athearn first advertised the version with red instead of yellow sides. Note in the page below, from the 1948 catalog, that Athearn mentions “You’ve seen this car in all the national magazines – now have it on your layout.” (Catalog page from the “HO Seeker” site: https://hoseeker.net/AthearnBrochuresAds/brochure1948pg1.jpg ) The car number appears to be 88.

There is evidence that the red scheme was at least something promoted by Timken, whether or not it was applied to an actual car; below is a 1947 ad from Railway Age (maybe one of the “national magazines” mentioned by Athearn). These cars have three-digit numbers. Note that the white stripe is lower in this artwork than in the Athearn model photo above.

Athearn’s red scheme car was joined later by an Athearn metal model in the yellow scheme, as you see in the Internet photo below, also numbered TRBX 88. The roof is supposed to be black.

By the 1953 catalog, Athearn offered not only the yellow and red schemes, but also a silver Timken box car scheme. That was included in their 1954 catalog as well, but by 1957 all Timken cars were absent. Here’s an internet photo of an Athearn model in the silver scheme:

Athearn also did one of their 12,500-gallon metal tank cars in the yellow scheme, and I have one of them. These were never pictured in an Athearn catalog, but they were listed in the catalogs from 1948 through 1954, inclusive. In 1957 Athearn had dropped them from the listing. Like all the Athearn metal tank cars, they have nice two-rung sill steps and free-standing tank hold-downs.

These Athearn metal cars are from the modeling era when imaginary paint schemes were still rare, so I give them some credence. 

It is interesting that on the web one can find a couple of paintings by a prolific artist named John F. Gould. These might have been commissioned by Timken. They show dramatic views of Timken rolling stock, though I have no idea which or how many cars really got painted this way. Below is one example (the fifth car back is a tank car). To see the variety of Gould’s work, you can visit https://johngouldart.com/gallery/ .

So I can’t find firm information about how many or which kinds of freight cars may really have worn these Timken schemes, nor how long they lasted. I only operate my Timken tank car occasionally, and only in through trains. But I’d like to know more.

Tony Thompson

Three-compartment tank cars

I recently had an interesting question sent to me by email. The essence of the question was, “Is it realistic to operate three-compartment tank cars?” I did send the questioner a link to Richard Hendrickson’s article in Model Railroad Hobbyist on the topic (“Multiple-compartment tank cars” in Model Railroad Hobbyist, in the issue of February 2015). But it occurred to me that I could add some comments here.

Multiple-compartment tank cars of any kind were relatively rare; by one estimate about 95 percent of all tank cars in the transition era were single-compartment cars. Nevertheless, tank cars with two or more compartments did exist and were often photographed. In HO scale, the most familiar model of such a car is the old Athearn “Blue Box” three-compartment plastic model.

I show an example below. Note that the car has low-height expansion domes with single safety valves, correct for the car as shown, and has the double rivet rows between domes that represent the attachment of the internal bulkheads that separate the compartments. It even has three outlet pipes, one beneath each dome. 

Problem is, no one has ever found a prototype three-compartment car this big, though this may well be what one would look like, if one existed. (Typical prototype three-compartment cars were usually much smaller, and had taller and narrower domes, by the way.)

This is an interesting model, with a discernible history. I have previously talked about the 1950s Athearn and Globe metal tank car kits (see that post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2017/10/some-old-metal-tank-car-kits.html ), and it’s long been evident that when Athearn chose to create a new plastic tank car, they began with the three-compartment car shown above. Yet they once had a very nice metal tank car kit for a three-compartment car (shown in the post just cited).

As noted above, prototype three-compartment cars were considerably smaller than the Athearn model shown, often about 6000 gallons total capacity, half the volume of the model shown above. For background on real cars, I recommend John Riddell’s article in Mainline Modeler entitled “ACF Tank Car” (issue for September 1995, pages 42–47). Beyond that introduction, a much fuller account was is the Richard Hendrickson article published in Model Railroad Hobbyist, February 2015.

What occasioned Richard’s article was the release of the beautiful Tangent model of a 6000-gallon three-compartment tank car in HO scale. Here is Richard’s version of this model, lettered with Black Cat decals and with added placards, chalk marks, rust stains at tank bands, and spillage from the domes.

An even better model of a car like this was the Southern Car & Foundry resin kit, modeling a car built by Standard Tank Car Company (a model developed with Richard’s input on the prototype). Moreover, it models a car which later in life, had two new end compartments added, making three altogether (and the new domes are smaller, since they serve smaller compartments than the original single compartment). Here is one of these models built up, lettered to match a prototype photo.

As this SC&F model reminds us, many three-compartment cars came into being as modified single-compartment cars. I have accomplished the same for one of the common uses of such cars, wine transportation. (For much more about tank cars and the wine business, see my “Getting Real” column in the Model Railroad Hobbyist issue for May 2023.) Here is an example, shown spotted for loading at the winery in my layout town of Ballard:

This model began as a Proto2000 insulated tank car, and I added the two end domes, deliberately in a quite different style, consistent with many prototype wine cars. I described the modeling in that MRH article, and also in a prior blog post (see it at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2017/05/creating-wine-tank-car-part-2.html ).

My recommendation to modelers over the years has always been put those Athearn plastic three-dome cars in a storage box somewhere, to ensure no one sees them on your layout, and if you’re at all meticulous about freight cars, do the same with the Athearn plastic single-dome cars, with their hold-over low dome from the 3-dome model. 

It’s a shame to have to say that, because the Athearn plastic single-dome car is a very accurate Southern Pacific 12,500-gallon tank car — except for that very obvious wrong dome, and a few lesser details. I have for years converted them, a full dozen cars by now, with dome correction and fixing all the other details. A pretty full description of how that is done is here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2011/05/modeling-sp-tank-cars.html .

But in summary, yes, three-compartment tank cars are entirely prototypical (if fairly rare), they just aren’t much like that old Athearn monster.

Tony Thompson 

A new vinegar tank car

Vinegar tank cars, made from wood, were unusual, but not rare, cars in prototype service. Vinegar is in essence mild acetic acid, and corrosive; a steel tank car would require a lining, while wood seemed to stand up to vinegar all right. I have long wanted one, having seen a photo of one being repaired at Southern Pacific’s Sacramento General Shops.

Below is a photo from the internet of a preserved car of this type, at the John Street Roundhouse in Toronto. You can readily see many details of construction. Note that there are a substantial number of circumferential rods, connected with cast clamping devices, holding the tank staves together, along with tank hold-downs that are flat strapping, and that comes down to the side sill. The heavy end bracing is also evident.

Sunshine Models, many years ago, produced a kit for such a car. Their Prototype Data Sheet or PDS #60 for these cars showed a good prototype photo, shown below with credit. This is a car owned by Standard Brands Inc., thus the reporting marks, SBIX.

The Sunshine kit was infamous for its complexity and tedious assembly, not to mention the challenge of getting all those rods to look right, with somewhat even but not exactly even spacing, lying flat on the tank.

One of the best Sunshine kit assemblies that I know of, was built by Lester Breuer; he described the process in his blog (you can read it, and appreciate the assembly difficulties, here: http://mnrailroadcab100.blogspot.com/2020/09/vinegar-tank-car-sbix-1641.html ). But it is inevitable that some parts are oversize and it is difficult to avoid glue getting onto the tank. I’m not criticizing Lester here; practically every completed versions of this kit that I have seen is rather clunky compared with this.

For these reasons, I had shied away from buying and building the Sunshine kit. But there have been brass vinegar cars too, notably a Heinz car in brass from Overland Models. Unfortunately this is a quite different-looking car than the Standard Brands car shown in the uppermost photo of the present post. Here’s a representative photo of a Heinz car (Henry Ford Museum collection), dated 1915, and you can compare it to the prototype photo above:

Accordingly, I was really thrilled to hear that North Bank Line was going to import brass models of the Standard Brands car in brass, and I signed up to receive one. These models have just been delivered, and I am delighted with mine (as far as I know, they were all sold out on arrival, though some may be available at dealers; for example, https://resourcedrails.com/products/copy-of-ho-new-brass-nbl-north-bank-line-various-roads-sbix-1605-standard-brand-vinegar-car ). Here’s an overall view of the model, and you can readily see the realistically small rods around the tank:

The lettering, often red in the 1950s for these cars, is very nicely rendered on this model, as are all the details, and here again, you can admire the tank construction; Kadee couplers and Tahoe Model Works trucks provided (thankfully, no “roll like sleds” brass trucks).

And I have to mention the nice end detailing, including crisp lettering. It may seem unusual that the gallons capacity of the car is not lettered on the end, but that is true also in the prototype photo I have. We can of course look it up in the 1955 Freight Tariff 300-H, “Showing Capacities of Tank Cars,” and we find that car SBIX 1641 had a capacity of 7965 gallons, very similar to all the 97 cars shown in this tariff entry without expansion domes, as is this car.

I look forward to lightly weathering this model and putting it into service on my layout. And congratulations to North Bank Line for an excellent product!

Tony Thompson