Rich,
I just got a buzz…looking at the bottle’s. Quit drinking two years’ ago. LOL.
Frank
Whoa, there’s a GERN product that’s NOT 3% better, it’s a full TWENTY percent better? Wow. Who knew…
–Randy
Frank, say it ain’t so !
Rich
This is better for you [8D]
I think that’s in a song, somewhere…but if you were a ‘blue tank car’, you’d be, like, really down, y’know? (Probably over some previous hook-up…)
Jim,
I will have to agree with You 100% on Your comment. I used to think that it was not much difference…Wrong. The thing is…I don’t miss it one bit, either. Believe me I did my share of it and more.
Take Care! Oh and my left hand stop shaking too, took about a year.
Frank
Ahhh, tankcars - something near and dear to me…
In the “olden days”, crude (and other “not so volitle petroleum products”) were typically transported in black tank cars. Reasons were black paint was easy and cheap, it absorbed heat to help maintain fluidity, and the load/unload process got the cars dirty - fast. Gasolines and the like tended to go into silver colored cars to reflect heat, as the product was pretty volitle.
However, as time passed companies tended to use their own colors - a trend that has continued to this day. There are two ways to help guess the contents. One is the reporting marks, and of course the placard on the side/end of the car, and both can be looked up on the web.
Keep in mind that these days, petroleum products are likely the minority of “stuff” moved in tank cars. Vegetable oils, syrups, chemicals, and even water are moved via tank car as well.
Dan, I was down in Ohio last week, railfanning with a good friend, and thought of your query when I saw this car. It’s not the best of photos, but enough to allow me to look it up for some more info.
Here’s my crummy photo of SHPX 205105…
…and a link to a better one of the same car, along with some UTLX cars:
Ummm, that tank car has a HAZMAT placard, it’s not carrying clay slurry.
Also, clay slurry is usually shipped in the 16,000 gal tanks not the 22,000.
Well, I did wonder about that, but got the info about clay slurry here:
EDIT: I just checked the above link and it shows, as anyone can see, the car numbers all starting with the digits 206. I am almost positive that they were 205 earlier today - there was another link which I had intended to use, but it was non-functioning, perhaps because the original poster made the same error regarding the clay slurry and had removed the photo.
But upon further investigation, I discovered this mis-numbered photo of 206105, which actually is a clay slurry car.
If it is a Walthers car, the phone number should ring up at Walthers.
At one time, they had the proper Chemtrec number on the cars, but it seems some kids called it, and they admitted they got the number from a Walthers model…[:O] The models got changed since then.
Oops! A little TOO detailed.
Does manke sense that Gern Industries would use BLUE cars, considering the origin. There ARE other model railroad forums besides this one, and the whole Gern thing crosses multiple layouts. The good doctor is just one of the few from there who posts here as well.
Hmm, I will need some industriesd for my upper level, if flux deposits are found within close proximity to anthracite coal, I may have to include some sort of Gern complex, despite my layout being (mostly) a protypical layout instead of freelance.
–Randy
Randy, GERN, conceptually, dates from the mid-'50s, and was created by my brother. It simmered in the background for some time, but when I built the Gibson Works in Port Maitland on my layout (more-or-less as a tribute to him) it re-ignited his interest in it. There’s now a history of sorts dating back several centuries, and of course all the advertising stuff with which he periodically favours us.
I designed mine as a traffic generator, but there really isn’t a set requirement for the size or appearance of a GERN facility. I operate mine as I would any industry representing an actual prototype, but there are currently over 40 GERN modellers enjoying the flux industry in their own manner. The only requirement is that they contact me for car numbers, and that’s only to avoid duplication. If they don’t want to make GERN cars, simply use appropriate ones lettered for real companies.
GERN advertising is available on request via PM - I’ll need an e-mail address, as it’s sent as attachments, and new stuff is also sent as it becomes available.
Wayne
I have a blue Union 76 tank car but that’s not a modern car. After all its triple domed. I keep it because of the 76 antenna ball I have on one end of my layout.
I know there were never any 76 stations near Staten Island but I like the orange and blue sign.
Wow, even more than I thought - from reading the threads over there on the other site I figured there were a dozen or so people in the flux business - over 40! wow! If I do implement something Gern, I’ll have to think of something small - I’ll already have unit coal trains running from the breakers to staging for off-layout destinations, adding more unit trains of raw mined flux heading to one of the refineries on someone else’s layout would probably be a bit much. I’ll bring it up over there instead of hijacking the blue tank car thread any more.
–Randy
I had a gallon of the Anhydrous Flux settin around in my shop, but it dried out all the paints I had stored there. I did manage to restore them all with just a quart of the Liquiflux. Turns out its 75% wetter than the regular thinner. 
Bill in Idaho
My three Athearn Dow chem tankers say Chemical. So being a cynic and working in the natural and man-made natural disaster mitigation and tracking fields…I’m going with, really hazerdous, toxic as heck, and generally not suitable for being anywhere around humans. (on my layout they get parked next to hobo park, for that “impending disaster” feel). My Michigan Alkali is the same way, althought those are white, with a black stripe, Lion Oil, chemical division it’s only a singleton, so it gets parked next to the pump house for the Coal gas plant and my Cleanse is Pea Green and doesn’t really have any markings one way or the other, save that it is an Athearn Chemical Car, so for now it goes with the Lion Oil car.
As I mentioned in my last post on Page One of this thread, the blue cars which I originally thought to carry clay slurry are actually in benzene service, definitely a hazardous material. Apparently, not all respondents read all of the responses preceding theirs. [:-^] [sigh]
Amazing stuff, both of 'em, eh? [:P]
If you want more info on GERN, Bill, send me a PM with your e-mail address. [:D]
Wayne