I can’t find any good plans for a pickle car. I would suspect there would be a standard height for the tanks to make loading and unloading easier, but the photos I have looked at (especially of models) seem to vary between 4 and 7 feet! Was their a standard and if so can someone inform me on what it was? (I’m modelling the mid '30s) If not, can someone tell me a resonable range?
Thanks in advance. I can always count on you guys!
Jim,
Here is a picture of a vinegar car but the pickle cars are identical.
The height fron the bottom of the deck to the top not including hatches is 1 inch.
Hope this helps.
Bob
From HO Seeker:
Ambroid Pickle Tub Car
http://hoseeker.net/ambroid/ambroidpickletubpg2.jpg
http://hoseeker.net/ambroid/ambroidpickletubpg1.jpg
Northeastern Scale Modeles Viniger Tank Car
http://hoseeker.net/northeastern/northeasternvinegartankcarpg1.jpg
http://hoseeker.net/northeastern/northeasternvinegartankcarpg2.jpg
This Thread includes some plans:
http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/heinz-vinegar-car-plans?reply=30713143848739953
Westerfield lists a Heinz “coffin” pickle car, which has its tanks enclosed & not exposed to view. Kit 2202 is the standard car, and kit 2203 is the “early” version.
As for the height of the tanks, I looked at the book BALTIMORE & OHIO TRACKSIDE WITH WILLIS McCALEB by Bruce Dicken and James Semon, Morning Sun, 9 Pheasant Lane, Scotch Plains, NJ, 07076, published 1998. Pages 46-55 show a B&O Mikado switching a pickle car at the H. W. Madison pickle plant in Medina, Ohio. Judging by the HWMX pickle car in the photos, the tanks appear to be about 6-7 feet tall. Incidentally, the car would probably have been loaded on the AC&Y in western Ohio and brought by AC&Y to Medina, where B&O picked it up for delivery. H.W. Madison produced the Dolly Madison brand of pickles.
The picture is of a pickle car. Cucumbers were soaked in vats of salt brine at ‘salting’ stations. The ‘cukes’ where then loaded into the vats on that pickle car for transport to the final plant where the pickles were sliced & packed. The Athearn model shown has vats that are 5’ high. The Nov 1956 issue of MR had plans for one of these cars. The article indicates that the tubs are 8’6" in diameter, and either 3’10" rr 5’6" tall.
Vinegar was traditionally shipped in wood tank cars(later glass lined) as the vinegar is rather bad for metal parts. AHM used to import a plastic model many years ago:
Jim
My understanding has always been that the horizontal tanks were for vinegar, and the four vertical vats were for pickles (cukes in brine). It’s possible that I’m wrong about that, but I don’t see how it would be practical to load the horizontal tanks with cukes, or to remove them at the destination. The horizontal tanks seem more appropriate for liquid lading. Can anybody shed some light here?
Based on the drawing, the height of the tubs on the Ambroad car are approximately 5’-7" (top of deck to top of tub) I also looked at the plan in the April 1935 Model Railroader and came to the same conclusion.
Gidday Jim, in a Dollar Car project in the November 1956 Model Railroader the author Eric Stevens refers to two plans for pickle cars of different capacities. The tubs in both cars had an 8’ 6” diameter. The tubs in the 900 bushel capacity car were 3’ 10” high; the 1300 bushel capacity car tubs were 5’ 6” high.
Cheers, the Bear.
Edit. I should have read Jim Berniers reply closer as I’ve refered to the same article.
‘JaBear’,
Good to see our minds are thinking similar - Just 1/2 a world apart!
Jim
Unfortunately David Leider MMR does not frequent these forums, as he is likely the world’s foremost authority for all things pickle as they relate to railroads. He has written for Rail Model Journal as well as Railroad Model Craftsman.
Here is an excerpt http://content.yudu.com/A1unx1/RailroadModelDec2011/resources/89.htm
I’ll email Dave and see if he has additional thoughts that I can post here
Dave Nelson
Thanks everybody. The info I have recieved plus my own scaling of photos and drawings give me a range between 5 and 7 feet. I did a mock-up of seven feet and it looked to high so I was thinking of 5 or 6 ft. Since JaBear found some prototyoe drawings that have 5’ 6" that sounds perfect to me. So 5’ 6" it will be. Thanks everyone for your time and help. You guys are great!
The tanks on the open-sided Athearn pickle car are about 8’3" in diameter and 5’6" tall.
Wayne
Yeah Jim, but I should have still read your reply properly. [:$]
(I wonder if a plug for the 75th Anniversary DVDs will earn me some “brownie points” from our hosts).[:-^]
Dave N, that’s a really useful link, I’d picked up a pickle car as part of a job lot and now, from that link, I know it is appropriate for my modelled era. I’d have thought that a chute would have been used for loading; I’d have never picked wheel barrows.
Thanks and Cheers, the Bear.
[
“I’d have thought that a chute would have been used for loading; I’d have never picked wheel barrows.”
If you go to the blog on my website at http://www.erstwhilepublications.com/#!blog/cms1 and scroll to the bottom, you will find photos of a pickle processing station at Foraker, Indiana on the Wabash. Note that in one photo a gentleman is pushing a wheel barrow around the Vats. In another, a portable conveyer is being used to unload the raw pickles from a farmer’s truck so they can be sorted by size. The pickles here were shipped to Libbys in St. Louis. I have yet to find a photo of a Libby’s Pickle Car but my retired conductor friend in the book remembers the wood pickle cars vertical vats. Some of these photos on my blog should be valuable in modeling such a station. Building this structure on my layout is on my bucket list.
Victor Baird
Erstwhile Publications
Gidday Victor, interesting site you have there…
…are you going to get the time?[swg]
With no intention of modelling a pickle plant myself, I now know where my solitary pickle car would be travelling between.
Thank you.
Cheers, the Bear.
[:)]Yes, as soon as I get some other projects on the railroad completed. I’m going to dig up that old Model Railroader that had plans and photos to help. I also have a color photo of the one at Foraker taken after it discontinued operation but before it was demolished for reference. Yes, A number of interchanges on my layout are planned, so we can interchange cars.[:)]
Dave Leider found plans and sent me this summary: “The wooden tanks were 4’ 6” tall and 8 feet in diameter. There were 4 on a car for a total capacity of 7,000 gallons and 80,000 pounds."
Dave Nelson
Dave, Thanks for the research! I love the people on this forum!