I’m looking for drawings of the Monsanto Nitric Acid tank car with the insulated hull. One is on display at the St. Louis Transportation Museum. I contacted them for dimensions, but got no reply so far. I want to model this car and cannot guess the dimension by looking at the pictures. I also tried to get a copy of the Train Shed Cyclopedia #12 where it is pictures, but this seems to be a rare item. Maybe someone on the forum may provide copy or at least the main dimensions. Also in St. Louis the car has a door on either end. I don’t know if these were also on the prototype or added later, so that the visitors could walk through the car. Any information will be highly appreciated.
I looked up these two cars in the July 1945 “Official Railway Equipment Register”.
MCHX 110 is not entered.
MCHX 117 is. It is an MCB designation “TR”. It is a class “ICC 103C-AL”. Capacity is 8098 gallons and 100,000 pounds. A note says it has an aluminum tank.
MCHX DOES appear in the October 1947 ORER. The description is the same as for MCHX 117, except that the gallonage is 8075.
I have the specifications for the #117 and 110. They are still listed in the 1954 ORER. The 110 has a build date for 1946, so it cannot be in the 1945 ORER. The 117 is build 1940. The pictures I’ve found for the 117 are quite good and I already created the lettering etc. what I really need is the length of the car. Question is, if I may use a RTR tank car model as a basis.
It is a disappointment to many that the ORER does not show any dimensions for tank cars. Car length would seem to be important, because of alignment with loading/unloading facilities. But, as a famous guy said: “But there you are.”
You MIGHT be able to scale dimensions off of a photograph by using the wheel diameter of 33". The term “questionable accuracy” comes to mind, though.
You also might be lucky and find someone who lives in St. Louis and would go measure the car. The odds are with you, as St. Louis is large.
The only Monsanto car that I found in Ted Culotta’s Steam Era Freight Cars Reference Manual, Volume Two: Tank Cars, was MONX 410, with a listed capacity of 4,182 gallons. The caption notes that it’s a two-course tank, with a standard, but shorter, Type 30 underframe. At the time of the photo (1940s), it was the only car in its series listed in the ORER. This car was built by General American Transportation Company, for hauling sulphuric acid, and was lead-lined.
At that time, Monsanto had a fleet of a little over 200 cars.
Wayne, yes Monsanto had a lot of different tank cars for the various commodities. The car I’m looking for was specifically design to haul 95% concentrated nitric acid, and as Ed proved it was really a new design for just this commodity.
What an interesting ad! It appears, from the description, that the outer steel sheath is to protect the aluminum tank from physical damage. Considering the cargo, an excellent move.
Concept Models has a resin kit of this car. It has the #110 and a build date from 1946 which is a bit different of the 1940’s model in the ad. The resin frame and tank has a lot of flash and trapped air bubbles, making a lot of cleaning and filling necessary. That’s the reason, why I want to scratchbuild one. I think the #110 and 117 were the only ones with Aluminum tanks. They are marked ICC103C-AL
