Carbon black cars are commonly seen at factories that make rubber products such as tires. Beer cars are commonly seen in cities that have thirsty sportsfans living in them. The models look pretty nice – has anyone built one?
Greenway Products at www.greenwayproducts.com provides a wide assortment of Beer Reefers. These are the old-fashioned 40-foot “billboard” cars that our no-fun-allowed government has disallowed. (They were, admittedly, popular targets for theft, and the railroads and brewers didn’t put up much of a fuss.)
These cars are re-painted Athearn blue-box reefers. I’ve got Harvard Ale and Mule Beer, and I love running them around the layout.
I have one of the carbon black kits, but haven’t built it yet. The kit is nicely laid out and the parts SEEM to go together nicely. But it’s definitely NOT an easy kit to build, as there are a LOT of small parts in it, and a few that need to be trimmed. The kit is along the complexity level of a resin or Tichy kit (and more difficult to build than a Branchline or P2K kit). Keep in mind that these are older prototype carbon black hoppers, originally designed in the 1930s! These cars wouldn’t be seen on the rails after about 1970.
I built 5 of the RBLs (“beer” cars) back when they were made by Eel River Models. They came out quite nice. The ends, sides, roof, and floor are all seperate pieces, as are the ladders. They come with brake equipment and some wires to model the brake rigging on the bottom. It was much easier to build them than I thought it would be.
By the way, “beer” cars haul much more than beer. They frequently haul various canned foods.