Tank CARS

The number 9369 Sinclair tank car is my favorite Lionel tank car .

Lionel and Bachmann have made 3-dome tank cars that have chunky details, yet they look scale sized with Atlas O and Weaver box cars and open-top hoppers. Do you need finely detailed models instead? 

The broken, plastic, roller bearing trucks were replaced with metal, journal bearing trucks on this MPC/LIONEL 3-dome tank car. 

Andrew

Here are some two and three dome tank cars that a two railer friend picked up for me in 2016 in Chicago and two tanks cars I picked up  back in March 2017 during my second visit to the Chicago O scale show.

I could not make it to Chicago in 2016, so I ask my two railer friend to find me a two or three rail car. He found this great looking UTLX tree dome tank for me.

I picked up these tow 2 dome tank cars in Chicago back in March.  The Texas Company two dome was an undecorated brass model. My two railer friend painted and lettered the car for me, and I added the Atlas three rail trucks.

I found this Tydol Veedol two tank car ready to run. all I had to do was add the switch out the two rail trucks for Atlas three rail trucks. Atlas has announced a single dome Tydol Veedol tank car in the Masters Line that I will have to order for sure.

I like the fact that two and three rail O scale tank cars always come with private ownership markings. The Lionel 3 dome tank cars and MTH three dome tank cars are nice, but more often then not they are made with railroad road names, which is just not prototypically correct for most  tank cars.  

Take care,

Richard

I have the brass Roma tank car that was made by Thomas but I love single dome cars. That's what I saw as a kid in the late 40's. Black single dome cars, hundreds of them. Full trains pulling out of Southern California, Signal Hill had strings of them. I rebuild every single dome tank I can find. Don

Wow. More than a 26 month jump on this thread from SantaFeJim's post on 5/3/15 to Falconservice's post two hours ago! A time traveler.

I think someone earlier in this thread asked about scale 3 dome tank cars.  I could be mistaken, but I believe that the MTH Railking tank (1, 2 and 3 dome) cars are true 1/48 scale.

Trainguymcgee,

Yes the MTH cars are 1/48 Scale but they lack the detail found on Atlas tank cars and usually have railroad names instead of private ownership names

Richard

pro hobby posted:

K-Line all metal single dome tankcar.  Nice detail.  How close to scale on this one???

 

 

I have always considered these to be scale size. IIRC, This one is not all metal, rather, it hs a metal frame and a plastic body.

This is the old AMT mold from 1951 or so.

One thing about tank cars: they come in a variety of sizes:

Rusty

"One thing about tank cars: they come in a variety of sizes:"

Yes, they do. Some guys thought my project below was "inaccurate" - then I showed them a prototype photo similar to the one above. The repaint's road name, etc, is correct, though the capacities are wrong, if you care to think about it. (The Marx data is probably closer.)

Before and after examples. I added some brake equipment details, but you can't see them here. 

D500 posted:

"One thing about tank cars: they come in a variety of sizes:"

Yes, they do. Some guys thought my project below was "inaccurate" - then I showed them a prototype photo similar to the one above. The repaint's road name, etc, is correct, though the capacities are wrong, if you care to think about it. (The Marx data is probably closer.)

Before and after examples. I added some brake equipment details, but you can't see them here. 

There are a number of Marx scale tank cars converted to S gauge on my pike. It's cool that they are different than the basic postwar Flyer, especially the orange shell cars.

Hate to revive a really old thread, but has anyone ever seen or heard of a Lobaugh CHEMICAL tank car kit?  I have seen lots and lots of the J&L cars(most painted silver), lots of the SP Crude Oil ones(though never one painted correctly), and quite a few of the other assorted Magnolia 3 domes, Mobilgas single dome, Shell double dome, etc ones, but this kit has a chemical dome and I have never seen one like it before.

Really like tank cars, have quite a few from all manufacturers.  In and on my list of things to do, when other projects are completed, wish to re-letter tank cars like these pictured.  These are historic for the early 20th century oil company, and forerunner of Continental Oil Co..... CONOCO.  Also, the original MARX cars??

Jesse   TCA

Nice

I had these pics for quite some time from research on tankers for a club car project.

ADM set

Now this is a Tasty Tank Car

Hope to find or build one next year.

Charlie

The MPC #9278 was one of the most colorful tank cars that Lionel produce. If you have one, hopefully the chrome is still sharp.

Nice older thread.  I really like tank cars.  However, due to my later entry into O-gauge, I don't have a big fleet built up yet.  But here's a couple of several that I have right now.......................

The tank car on the left is a PW Lionel tank car, with ProtoCraft decals and late model Lionel trucks.  Although not a lot of detail, I really like the Lionel PW tank car with its die-cast metal frame and stamped/rolled metal tank, tank ends, and ladders.  I selected the "North American" decals from ProtoCraft's website, because Lionel's tank car is a pretty darned good stand-in for the prototype picture that ProtoCraft shows for this particular road name.

The tank car on the right is one of Menard's new single-dome tank cars.  I really like the looks of these tank cars, but those fantasy paint schemes are something else, oy vey! (Sorry Mark )!  About the only thing I've done so far before giving it the rattle-can flat black paint job, was to razor-saw off those ubiquitous molded-on stirrups and add some staples for better looks, and also add some internal weight (the cars are a little too lightweight, in my opinion).  I'm also debating whether or not to scratch-build some new ladders (the existing ones are molded plastic, and fairly chunky-looking), and maybe scuff and paint those "chrome" hand rails.  And lastly, select some decals to finish it up with.  Like the Lionel tank car, not a lot of detail, but for twenty bucks, I think it looks good and suits my purposes just fine. 

AFAIK, the RailKing single dome tank cars that have a "porch" and guardrail on them like this and the "3-dome" tank cars are very close to scale size.  However the RailKing "modern tank car" seen here is not.

While it is true that the MTH Railking modern tank cars are narrow at 9'3" (instead of 10') I prefer them.

Who doesn't like tank cars?  Here are a few of mine....

Oldies, but, goodies.  I've been running these conventionally for 30 years.

These are two Famous American Railroad tankers.  You might be able to make out the logo on the left side.

These are my favorites.  Love the large size, and they go perfectly with the engine.

Part of the LOTS warbonnet SF series.

These four are Menard's SF triple tankers.

Menard's UP's.

I've never cared if they are prototypical.  To me, they are all gorgeous.  I would never consider weathering cars for my toy train layouts.

Jerry

Here is a “1/3  -2/3 tank car I picked up at the Chicago O scale show last March. I switched out the two rail trucks/ couples for Atlas 3 rail trucks. I believe the tank car may be a Williams product.

 Thanks,

Richard

I am always looking for freight cars that were painted in a scheme that was around in the late 40s.  This Hooker 11k gallon tank car paint scheme was used before the scheme seen on most model Hooker tank cars currently available. It lasted to 1950.  Thanks AtlasO.

An Atlas Bardahl and a Menards Valvoline spotted on the S&Y RR.

Not a regular style tank car by any means, Helium cars first came about in the late 1920s and later versions lasted through the 1990s. Here is my recently finished restoration and 3-rail conversion of a 2-rail kit car that I purchased at a train show.  After a small repair for a missing roof panel, conversion to 3-rail, adding some missing details the original builder never installed, a repaint and re-decal, it finally came together and turned out great.

mountain482 posted:

Not a regular style tank car by any means, Helium cars first came about in the late 1920s and later versions lasted through the 1990s. Here is my recently finished restoration and 3-rail conversion of a 2-rail kit car that I purchased at a train show.  After a small repair for a missing roof panel, conversion to 3-rail, adding some missing details the original builder never installed, a repaint and re-decal, it finally came together and turned out great

Neat car!  I have some of these in N-scale (although a later prototype version, but still look a lot alike).

Dog gone it all, anyway.  Now I've got another project to add to my list of things I want to do.  I guess it will become project #7,394 on my ever-growing list! 

Thanks Paul! I have seen the N gauge version and it's a 3rd generation or later car with 30 tanks (all were visually similar). Mine is a 2nd generation car with 28 tanks.  It's a worthwhile project to take on if you can find one!  The first picture below is what it looked like when I first got it. The second and third show it after converting it to 3-rail and repairing the roof panel.

mountain482 posted:

Thanks Paul! I have seen the N gauge version and it's a 3rd generation or later car with 30 tanks (all were visually similar). Mine is a 2nd generation car with 28 tanks.

Yeah!  I think these cars would be fairly easy to scratch build.  I could simply measure up my N-scale cars, and make new O-scale drawings, if a search for scale drawings comes up empty.  The hardest part for me would be running down some decals.

I really need to learn how to make my own decals.  I think that's #2,943 on my list of things to do. 

Heinz pickle car, anybody?

Paul,

It shouldn't be too bad to build one from scratch but I have seen some partially built on eBay including some that have been mis-listed as other types of cars. I have not come across any O-scale plans online.

The decals I used came from Tichy Train Group except for the eagle.  I got my decal set from eBay.  The Tichy set is for the third and later generation cars and comes in U.S. Navy, Department of the Interior, and Atomic Energy Commission. The latter two owned the cars after the U.S. Navy.  I adapted the set for my car since it's a second generation car.  I made the eagle decal by heavily editing a clear photo I took of the original that was on my car. I then resized it and printed it on decal paper.

Lionel Sunoco tank car. 

Here’s one of mine from Atlas.

Andy

And this one from MTH.

Andy