Can someone point me to an appropriate model for transporting LPG/Propane typical of the late 50’s or early 60’s? I’m really not sure what distinguishes tank cars that transported petroleum from those that transported corn syrup or LPG. Any insight would be enormously appreciated even if its only to direct me to a good book or website. Thanks a million.
The car you want is Atlas’ 11,000 gallon ACF pressure tank car. Its been available in N, HO and O so whatever scale you want it in…
There were other similar prototypes, but the Atlas model is the only readily available one.
The very large 33,000 gallon tank cars started to appear in the early to mid-1960s. The only widely available model is Atlas’ ACF version. Once again available in all three scales.
I trust that helps,
Regards,
Mike
I’m a huge fan of the Atlas 33000 gallon tank cars, very nicely detailed and well worth the money. I have around 20 of them and they sure look good when they are all together. They were built in the early 60’s so they may not be what your looking for. They are rather large as well if thats a problem for you.
Atlas had some 100,000 lb., 11,044 gal. capacity propane / butane cars (smaller and great for branch or earlier service) on the market a while back. Can’t say if those are the ones already mentioned here or not…But I have some and they are very nicely detailed.
Walthers also had some really nice33,000 gal. cap. 65 footers (on the roads about 1960…I think), both in kit and RTR. I did four of those kits, that weren’t difficult to build and look pretty darn good too!
BTW, I say “had” because I really have no idea what is available on the market today!
The Atlas 11,000 gallon tanks are still available, though you have to dig around for them. I’m sure they will do another release at some point, given their usual practices.
The generic leasing company cars (UTLX, SHPX) are the hardest to find, mostly because the real ones would be found anywhere. A lot of the company specific cars can still be found. In the 1950s and early 1960s Most propane companies were pretty regional in scope, so you want to have some idea which company operated in the area of interest of your railroad to know which cars to have.
The Walthers 33,000 gallon car is more typical of cars built starting in the late 1960s or early 1970s up through the early 1980s.
Cheers,
Mike
Thanks a million for the suggestions. Now I’m more frustrated than ever. You are right–they are real hard to find still on the shelves, especially SHPX or UTLX which would work for me. I suspect that Atlas will re-release the undecorated ones soon as both First Place Hobbies and Caboose hobbies seem to indicate that they are on backorder. The Walthers site has the rest of them as simply “sold out.” I think the undecorated ones would work just fine for my fictional home road, since I’ve already spent a bundle on decals. At any rate, it looks like the local propane business is going to have to wait some time for a delivery! Again, thanks for the great advice.