I picked up 6 logging cars from an estate sale last week. The lighting over the layout was great but I was given the cars as a thank you. Upon getting them home and removing one of the loads I realised this were not logging cars but old frames from a tank car.
I will be sprucing them up and retrofitting them into logging cars again.
My question is “have you ever heard of a RR company taking an old tank car and turning it into something else?”
Fergie
Many logging railroads built their own equipment out of whatever they had at hand, so it’s not unreasonable to say that they could have taken the tank off to use for water at their sawmill or to fill locomotive tenders along the line, and then used the frames as log buggies.
The Roundhouse tank car frame is what Roundhouse sells as logging
cars-just without the tank. I have seen these in hobby shops. The manufacturer
is basically getting multiple uses out of a single casting.
I have three of the old roundhouse logging cars that came from thier tank car frames and they are nice. This is the only pic I have. Like cacole says, I am sure there were some prototypes. I plan to scratch build most of mine from a some plans I found, but they will look much like the roundhouse.
Roundhouse offered the log car is a kit of 3 cars to the box. They had several 3 in 1 kits for a snow plow and various other projects. Maybe Horizon/Athearn will reissue them.
Hi Fergie: I have some of the MDC tank car frames that I fitted out as log cars. You didn’t say if they were the old time frames with the heavey center sill or the more moder frames. I have bothe but only fitted the later with log bunks. The log bunks are a piece of channel on its back with chocks on the ends. The old car frames I have made into side dump cars. The heavy frames look better in that service. I made a mold and cast the dump beds with the air cylinders out of resin. They fit over the frame like a saddle. I painted mine box car red, but I suppose you’ed want to use Pink.