I love the pic, but tell us more. Did you paint and superdetail it?
Nothing fancy,
It’s an Athrean kit. I’ve added Kadee 5 couplers and Intermountain 33 inch wheels. She’s been lightly weathered.
Thank’s for the interest.
[Edited by selector for content.]
My limited research into the Athearn 3-dome SHELL tank car is that the actual car had three compartments for carrying refined fuel such as gasoline (but I am not sure if this is true). This may not an oil tank car, and would not be handled in the long drags of black tank cars loaded with oil. The car was built in the late 1930’s (?).
Now, I could be wrong! Does anyone have the background on this car?
A little further research;
My sample is SCCX 2010, while the photo shows 2011.
Lettering reads:
CAPY 100,000 NEW 8-29
ICC 103
Heater pipes
SCCX 5-20-49
Built 8-2-29
So this means the lettering is for a car built in 1929 and re-lettered (and inspected, repacked, repaired, reweighed) in 1949. ICC 103 means it is a standard bulk oil carrier, while Heater Pipes means it can carry crude oil, as that would require heat to unload in cold weather.
The 1943 ORER lists Shell cars SCCX 2010 and 2011 as 10,000 gallon, 100,000 lbs, so that checks out OK, but the ICC class is 105 A300, which means what? 3 compartments? I hope so.
I put Andrews trucks with Intermountain wheels under mine, as I model the WWII era. I also painted the handrails yellow to help them blend in with the rest of the car, and reduce their apparent thickness. Regardless of what purpose it served, I like this car as the color gives us a break from the mostly black tank cars of the era.
According to an article in RMC 6/83:
ICC class 105 A300 means the car was insulated (unlike the Athearn car), pressure tested to 300 psi, which leads me to believe the lettering on the Athearn car really belongs on a different model. The RMC article states the Arthearn model is actually a 13,000 gallon ICC class 103, non-pressure, non-insulated car, built in 1930 by Pressed Steel. The ORER states the Shell cars of that number series were quite different. So we have a typical model railroad situation where a paint job from a photo was applied to the wrong car. Still, a nice looking car.
It could also carry something like #6 fuel oil (bunker C), which is very viscous in cold weather and requires heating so it will flow.
As I suspected…and all too typical.
Mark
Hi!
Athearn does make a nice kit for the money, and with some light weathering & KDs, and perhaps metal wheelsets they will last for decades. The domes are for product expansion, one for each compartment. Typically they would hold different grades of gasoline, and were in major use before the 50s/60s when pipelines became more prevalent. There were a number of colorful tankcars back then, and while I’m partial to Mobil Oil cars, I have a collection of many from the various companies.
Mobilman44
Never new this would start such a neat discussion. Thanks for the interest.