Homer Simpson’s not real?!! [:0]
I’m hearbroken . . . [:(]
D’Oh! [;)]
If memory serves, Athearn’s two-bay rib-sided hopper is a decent representation of a Pennsy H-31 hopper. Their offset-side hopper is also a fairly good and cheap model of a common type of steam-era hopper. Fix some details here and there with wire and castings and you should end up with a fine hopper. But to get back to the point about Athearn tank cars, they are imperfect and don’t look very good when sitting next to a Life-Like or Red Caboose tank car.
I just saw this post, which caught my interest…
If you wanted to be very daring and scratch build or kitbash something, you could try building a model of one of the two LPG / Anhydrous Ammonia cars built by Union Tank Co. In 1963. Commonly called “Guppies,” one survives in Galveston, TX at the Galveston Island Railroad Museum. Here is the description from their roster website:
http://www.tamug.edu/rrmuseum/FREIGHT.htm
My father worked on this car when he was with Union Tank. Ironically, I was at the museum last weekend and showed the car to my girlfriend. Had I seen this post, I would taken some pictures. I do have photos of the car, but I have just moved and don’t know where anything is! [:(!]
If there is enough interest, perhaps I can find the photos and scan them and post or e-mail them to the interested parties. Let me know.
The Athearn 60’ tank car is right on for a number of prototypes. Great Northern had two series which match very closely, just add heating pipes on the end.
It is also a great start on a lot of other cars. Try shortening it to 50’ to backdate it a little. Then add a fat dome and it matches another GN fuel tank car. Try cutting out the frame leaving only the stub ends to match the “frameless” cars that started to come in the sixties.
As for any inexpensive model, you can improve the model by adding some brake equipment.
The “olde time” 30’ MDC tank car can fit the sixties, too! I found a 1969 photo of UTLX 58041 that matched perfectly at the rr-fallenflags.org website. The only flaw is the basic flaw of the car; the underframe is doubly thick. Use ARR trucks and change the brake to AB to update it.
To tag on to the first section: What type of tank cars ran in the Northwest from 1910 thru
1920s?
Rivit Estimator? I love that term!!