A real Baker’s Chocolate car:
Where is Sunshine Models when we need them???
Ed
Book about Baker’s Chocolate Compay
https://www.amazon.com/Baker-Chocolate-Company-Regional-Histories/dp/1596293535
From Amazon
Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731349993660555/about
Factory converted to apartments
https://livewellbakerschocolate.com/
https://www.architecturalteam.com/projects/baker-chocolate-factory-complex/
What I’m curious about is why no two instances of the prototype and no two models offered in HO scale have the same dome type. Here’s the cover of Henderson’s book showing 31057, the same one as on the cover of Kelly’s book.
There’s hardly any dome at all. And yet the one in the photo Ed posted above has a dome like the turret of the USS Monitor. I think it’s the MTH version that comes closest to this photo. The Walther’s Trainline version looks more like Ed’s photo, but its dome is more rounded, doesn’t look so much like the neighborhood kids got ahold of some sheet metal and a welding torch.
@Chris, thanks for addressing my questions directly. Good historical info that helps me determine how I’ll use this car.
-Matt
Tangent’s 1917 design, radial course, 8000 gallon, insulated tank car closely resembles UTLX 61895. What we really need is Champ, or Walthers, back when they made decals, for the lettering.
You wouldn’t need a dome for expansion of a chocolate-syrup load, just a vent in case the car got too hot. It might be possible to ‘operate’ to surgically remove the dome and patch in the correct turret without ruining most of the special paint…
But someone could scratchbuild that car and make resin castings, or set up to 3D-print it or critical details of it, or provide proper decaling for it…
They could be getting various components that go into the chocolate such as an oil or even milk (as in milk chocolate). They would be making hundreds of gallons/pounds and hour so slot would be needed.
from an earlier post:
"…both cars are clearly stenciled “chocolate only” "
Ed
Plus tank cars of liquid sugar, corn syrup and vegetable oil.
Chocolate. That is all that would be hauled. Ingredients would come via specificaly marked tankers or hoppers. I feel like this has been said multiple times at this point.
JJF,
I think they are expanding the subject to include assorted other ingredients hauled in assorted other cars to businesses that do not make chocolate, but use it.
Myself, I am getting perilously close to ordering one of the upcoming Athearn cars, and maybe modifying the dome, if I can get a decent picture.
Ed
OK. So the car says “chocolate only”. Then obvioulsly, only chocolate is shipped in the car.
If its something else:
Bakers Chocolate company could be hauling ingredients to make chocolate, or ingredients to make any other chocolate product they sold.
Like Hershey’s Chocolate company makes candy bars, not just chocolate.
I guess we’d want to know what Bakers Chocolate company actually made.
Oooh, Ooooh! I know this one! A- Chocolate. Final answer.
Don’t yell at me too much guys. I just can’t resist this tread. It has two of my favoirte things. Chocolate, and an opportunity for sarcasm.
I ain’t yellin’ at you Dawg.
I did find still another Baker’s Chocolate car:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/79009322@N04/8679337990/
note “CHOCOLATE ONLY”
Ed
The most recent example Ed posted looks to be a two-compartment car.
Dark chocolate in one tank, milk chocolate in the other [:-^] ?
A Jif peanut butter car might be handy about now… might make a clever commercial.
Here’s another:
A Sweet Car by Chris Tokarcik, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
I notice that the car in the picture that Ed-7j43k posted has a sign specifying chocolate only, but the car in Ohio-Ed’s photo does not, which makes me think maybe Baker’s used the “chocolate only” cars for chocolate only and some of their other cars for corn syrup, vegetable oil and whatever else they needed to haul. Just an idea. Perhaps JDawg has an opinion about this?
-Matt
Look closely, in the shadow of the hand rail on the near end of 31057 that Ed posted. Doesn’t that look like “chocolate only” hiding in that shadow? Wouldn’t it be nice if some decal manufacturer offered decals for these cars?
So, again, I strongly believe it is a chocolate only car. Corn syrup would be hauled in a specially marked car. “Corn Syrup Only”. These cars are often labeled by a company like ADM or Cargill. Sugar would be hauled in a specially marked covered hopper. “Sugar Only”. It could me marked by a railroad, or by a leasing firm. Milk would be by truck. Vegetable oils would be hauled in a specifically marked car. Perhaps with a Cargill logo, or just a leasing firm. I think that for almost every tank car which hauls commodities that you and I will end up ingesting, the car is going to be labeled. This only or that only. Those 10,000 gal cars hauled everything, but each car only ever carried one or two things. I highly doubt that Bakers chocolate would send their specific car to a corn syrup manufacture to be filled. More likely, they would buy x amount of car loads, and they would receive those loads in leased cars.
I suspect that the entity shipping the product is the one to arrange for the tank car, as opposed to the receiver. Thus cars leased to Baker’s Chocolate would never be sent out to pick up a product.
You could argue that their cars could be used for a backhaul, and that’s probably true, with their permission. But it is extremely unlikely that the company that received the chocolate now just happens to need to ship a car of not-chocolate to Baker’s Chocolate. And some other company that might use the car wouldn’t know to ask.
I suppose that Baker’s Chocolate could have set up some sort of special repeat routing, with everyone on board. But that CHOCOLATE ONLY lettering kind of goes against that. Plus the backhaul would have to be compatible with chocolate, or they’d have to clean the tank at each end, every time. That runs the shipping price up. And then they would have written CHOCOLATE AND XXXXXX ONLY.
Ed
Yeah, no backhaul for tank cars since you’d have to ship the SAME product back…
Agreed.