I found this amongst a bunch of old rolling stock that was sent to me and I’m trying to find out what it’s used for.
That certainly looks like it. Says there that it’s for transporting helium. OK, I knew it was for some type of compressed gas but not what kind. Thanks.
It is a helium tank car. I saw them a few times in the Santa Clara, California yard. They carry helium under high pressure in each tank. The one’s that I saw were bound for Moffett Field in Palo Alto. Helium is used at as a coolant at the NASA facility there.
They used to call them “helium cars”, cars designed for the transport of compressed gas cylinders. It was something from the 50’s & 60’s. Whether or not they had an actual prototype for this model I’m not sure.
This car was more typical in a bygone era; the age when the U.S. Navy operated a fleet of blimps, particularly off the East Coast during WWII. They were a fairly common sight in N.J. At one time the U.S. had essentially the world’s total supply of helium, which I believe came from Texas. Thus, these cars would have also been seen on certain RRs enroute from Texas to the two coasts. Helium was a far better choice for use in airships than the hydrogen employed by the Germans and others…as the Hindenberg demonstrated.
I’m aware to two models of this car being offered in years past. One was by AHM, which this car appears to be. The other was a craftsman kit by Red Ball, Laconia, or one of the other well known kit makers and was a much more prototypical example.
CNJ831
The MODEL was popular in the '50s and '60s. The prototype(s) belonged to the U.S. Navy and were used to supply helium to the bases that operated airships, non-rigid (aka blimps.) The pressure tanks were permanent installations, filled and emptied through high-pressure hoses. I don’t know how many there were, or when they came into service. Navy blimps were still flying in the 1950s, but went out of service sometime around 1960, at which time the cars would have become surplus to Navy requirements. There is still LOTS of need for helium gas, so equivalent cars might be in service, but not necessarily of that design.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
This one has ROCO Austria on the bottom leading me to believe it’s from Atlas.
This is a model of a helium tank car. The US government had about 200 of them at one time. There are 30 cylinders in each one. They cary helium at 3000 psi in the cylinders. The cars are very heavy(about 115 tons empty) and have two complete air brake systems(one for each truck), They had dual clasp brake shoes on each truck. They carried at least 3 different reporting marks through the years. USNX(Navy), ATMX(Atomic Energy Commision), and MHAX(Bureau of Mines). All have been scrapped about 1996, except for 3 that are in museums. They ran from ‘helium plants’ in the Texas Panhandle Dome gas production area to any location where the government had a facility needing bulk helium. Originally they were used for blimps and ‘barrage’ balloons in WWII. Later NASA used large quantities for purging rocket fuel/oxidizer tanks. The reporting marks had nothing to do with the what service they were in. It was just for accounting(the Navy wanted them off the books after they got rid of the blimps). The USNX reporting marks where changed to ATMX or MHAX sometime after 1955. They were in a ‘pool’ of cars. An ATMX car could show up one day, and a week later a MHAX car could show up at the same location for unloading.
Ambroid had a wood kit available, AHM/Roco produced the above model, and Pecos River did a brass model of one a number of years ago. There is an off-shoot of the ATSF modeling group that is working with a resin kit manufacturer currently to produce a good model of these cars. They were painted grey or aluminum through their service lives. As of last month, there still is not a date when the new kit will be available.
Jim Bernier
[:-^]
Good morning Jeff,
We had them up here many years ago as well. There used to be a helium plant
north of Swift Current Saskatchewan on Highway #4. It has been closed for many years
and is in a derilict condition now. Don’t know why it closed ??? Did they run out of Helium
or did the market for it just dry up ?. Your guess is as good as mine although I guess it does not really matter now.[%-)]
Johnboy out…
Click on this link to download a PDF (you’ll need to have Adobe Acrobat installed on your confuser) of a newsletter from the Santa Susana Railroad Historical Society . There is an article on page 3 that tells how helium was used by Rocketdyne to purge rocket engines during NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shutlle development. The Santa Susana club has a pumping station on its layout.
Here’s a link I found by Googling helium rail cars. It includes info on reporting marks (which underwent a major change in 1955) as well as first and last in service dates, along with a few photos.
http://www.atsfrr.com/Reviews/HO/Freight/Helium/Index.htm
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Hi,
Trust me, its a helium car. And FYI, virtually all US helium comes from around the Texas panhandle.
Mobilman44
You’ll get no argument from me.
This is probably somebody’s idea of a kitbash. Anybody know what it is? any ideas?
Relying on imperfect memory, it was once marketed as a track cleaning car. If the dome unscrews and there appear to be some kind of plumbing connections to the bottom of the tank, that’s it. As for possible prototype…???
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Looks like a LL track cleaner.
Being that the top does unscrew I’d say you’re right. However any sign of plumbing is long gone.
I have one of those cars. It is a track cleaning car and it should have a round pad under it. I have one that is in mint shape that was given to me a few years ago. You fill up the tank and it leaks your prefered cleaning fluid onto the pad to clean your track. It was the first prototype for the CMX Clean Machine. J/K.
Helium car!! Why doesn’t it float away?[swg]