@Bob Bubeck posted:No Mobilgas for you! (said in the voice of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld).
Please recall that the tooling for the complete tank dated from 1946 (Ah, those 625 orange Shells). Injection molding tool design had advanced considerably in the intervening 14 years. Because one is molding an enclosed cylinder requiring an insert that has to be retracted before ejecting the tank, the total cycle time per part would be longer than the two halves of the split tank, one half of which includes its own chassis. The physical act of assembly likely went faster with the new arrangement, too, as Rusty suggests.
Bob
Yep, that makes sense now, cheers!
Then there is the other tanker that had a relatively short life and lack of various decor, the 926 3-dome model. I have a soft spot for these as well and was disappointed many years ago to find that it had very limited variation options. I know that has changed now with Lionel but it now features the split tank config which for me spoils it. Again just a personal view.
