I found this kit while on eBay.
Is there a prototype for this thing, and if so, what does anyone know about it?
Or, is it purely a fantasy creation?
-Kevin
Yeah, and it’s appropriate for your time frame!!
http://www.nakina.net/photos/iox/iox002035.jpg
http://www.nakina.net/private/iox.html
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
Not lettered for Imperial Oil but there is this:
Triple_Tank UTLX by Edmund, on Flickr
Pat’d. Aug 30, 1904; Blt. 3-15 A.C. & F. Milton, Penna.
lot 7514 045 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
My plan, when I’m done with tier I, II and III projects is to gather some Tichy tank parts and kitbash a few cars like these [:)]
Good luck, Ed
I can make out a patent date of late August, 1904 on the Canadian car sill (see below; I found it). It did not take long in the Federal Register of Patents to produce the description and claims. Irritatingly, had I known tha patentee’s name in advance the information would have been quickly forthcoming…
Three-compartment cars (for carrying multiple materials, notably different grades of gasoline) are well-known in their own right; here is a more familiar structure of IOX car (from the reference source the Bear provided):
I would suspect the multiple tanks reflect more a ‘marketing value’ visibly separating more and less ‘valuable’ hydrocarbons than an engineering solution for keeping different vapor pressures separated safely, or transporting just in one of the separate compartments. I’m pretty sure there are separate domed bulkheads inside those rings… which appear to be clamping bands…
I don’t know what a ‘dust collector’ is. But I see there is an AAR spec for this car, although I can’t resolve it, and that might lead to more specific information on construction details and evolution.
Dust collector, dirt collector — lost in the details:
Air_Brake_AB by Edmund, on Flickr
Might be a little different on a K brake setup.
Cheers, Ed
The patent apparently refers to VanDyke’s US748888A, August 30, 1904, which is itself an interesting thing in the history of tank cars. He previously designed what I think is the first tank car without center sill, US738259, September 8, 1903. Supposedly this “V-Car” even though MCB-approved did not go over well at all with railroads, despite his careful description that he understood the “enormous forces” involved in typical switchng and slack action, and hence we have the return to apparently substantial center sill construction (it is a tubular construction of two I-beams with top and bottom plates, wide enough to fit draft gear ‘three springs across’) in these “X-cars”, with special tank clamping arrangements.
It appears part of the individual-tank construction may be to optimize filling with material of different temperatures; the tanks are secured at their middles (by riveting to the underframe, but with an internal plate calked across the inside of the riveted joint so that, even if the tank is torn loose, it will not leak) and expand outward ‘both ways’ from that securement.
There’s going to be a story in the progressive support designs I see in some of these cars. Note that car 2014 has a perimeter frame with separate angled supports to longitudinal members riveted to the tanks. By the time of Ed’s car 13504 the longitudinal members are continuous (even though the tanks are not) and the support is undivided the length of the car.
Thanks for the help and pictures guys!
I had never seen a multiple compartment tank car that had completely seperate tanks. The name of the company “Concept Models”, also had me thinking it might be a fantasy item.
This thing is weird, and would be at home with the rest of my fleet.
-Kevin
Thanks for sharing those photos, Ed! I have a couple of the Tangent 3-dome tank cars, which are very nice. The visibly separate compartments on the rigid wooden frame, however, really highlight their actual size. Very cool!
I know the 3-dome tank cars stayed in service for quite a while. I’d be curious how long the particular version you posted lasted. The spacing/gap between the compartments looks wider than the photo that Overmod posted.
Tom
Those are really neat Kevin. Usually when you find freaky, out of the ordinary or ‘Rare’ rolling stock on eBay they want a pretty penny for it.
If not, …I like them, order me five please.
TF
I noticed on all the pictures Ed, Bear, and Mod posted, there are no ladders to the tank domes.
Did these become mandatory hardware at a later date? I do not have any tank car models that do not have ladders.
-Kevin
Ladders??? WHAT ladders?!? I don’t need no STEEN-KING ladders!
Concept Models are not for the faint of heart. Most of them are poorly engineered resin kits that are very rough and require a lot of extra parts and ingenuity to complete.
A couple of my club members who are very good modelers bought the Halliburton three tank tank car for drilling mud and have never finished them.
Rick Jesionowski
As far as I can tell the ladder is for the convenience of the car owner. The AAR (or MCB in early days) only required that the railroad employee could ride the car safely and have access to the brake wheel and retainer valve.
Tank construction and mounting, expansion chambers, valving and relief valves got plenty of regulation, though. Even going back to 1903 which, I believe was the first meeting of the tank car committee of the A. A. R.
Regards, Ed
Thanks for that heads-up Rick.
The castings do look very rough. I think if I get this kit, I will use a Tichy 40 foot flat car kit to mount the tanks on. That flat car casting is too nasty for me!
I have a couple of the Tichy 40 foot 50 ton flat car kits on hand (somewhere).
-Kevin
I don’t think any of these are flatcars – they are skeleton frames and fabricated plate, with the use of saddles in place of heavy bolsters being one of the patent notes on construction.
I’d use materials like thin styrene and card and duplicate the prototype construction – perhaps putting weight into the riveted ‘center sill’ construction or the tank-side support beams if you use them.
Do what?
You have been reading my posts and looking at pictures of my projects since January, 2017.
When have you ever heard me say something like “I would like this model to look like a prototype.”
I build SEMI-PLAUSIBLE NONSENSE.
[(-D]
-Kevin
Here’s a link to an IO. Group showing a model and a prototype.
Pay careful attention to the groups.io pictures in the link. The walkway and access question is addressed there.
The IOX cars do have ‘ladders and walkways’ on the other side of the car from our pictures, and these would be important to ‘replicate’.
One might even start with a Tichy or Athearn tank car underframe and add side pieces and saddles.
Before this thread was posted, I’d not seen a tank car with free-standing multiple tanks.
For quite some time, I didn’t have more than a couple of tank cars on my layout.
However, around the time that the Proto-2000 kits came out, I started finding a lot of poorly-built or not-finished Proto tank car kits on the “used” table at a nearby hobby shop. Many had missing or broken details, and a lot of them were smeared with an excess of ca. Most were “on sale” for a couple of bucks, so I got a couple to see if they could be repaired.
Most of the ca came off when I stripped the factory paint, and I was able to scrape-off the rest when I removed the grabirons and sill steps (most already broken).
I drilled out any of the mounting holes that had broken-off material in them, then used suitably-sized styrene rod to plug the all of oversize holes. After the cement had hardened, I re-drilled new holes, sized to accept Tichy’s .0125" preformed grabirons.
I used Black Cat decals to finish the re-worked cars, and later, over several visits, got several more tank cars to “rescue”. When LifeLike decided to offer their r-t-r cars, I got a few more bargains, mostly done not too terribly, also at decent prices. I stripped them, too, as all of the grabirons were the too-thick plastic ones.
The Black Cat decals are very complete, and certainly helped to make these two look pretty decent…
I also have a couple of Tangent tank cars, including this little 3-dome car for hauling some very dense GERN liquid compounds…