Model Railroading > So, I've got this old freightcar...

So, I've got this old freightcar (HO scale), Athearn I think, and I've had it for many many years. I was wondering if anybody could help with any particulars about it. I've seen a couple of them at swap meets, but I was wondering if CNW or anyone else actually had anything like this or close to it and what would it have been used for. The "new" date on it indicates 11-37, so it's way out of my era, but I like it and was thinking of fixing it up a bit and putting it on my layout occasionally anyway.

Jim

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That is an HO 50 ft "gas cylinder" car, I have also heard it called a "tie car", but I think that is actually the taller version that was similarly produced. It was first made by Roco, one of the AHM Associated Hobby Manufacturer companies, but there is a possibility the mold was used more recently by either Life-Like or Bachmann. More can be seen on Ebay under "Roco flat car". They can be upgraded by filing off stake pockets on the side of the Athearn 50-ft. flat, sanding off a bit more thickness with a sanding board, and fitting it behind the fishbelly sides of this car, which are seperate from the deck. Saw a bit on both sides of the Athearn coupler box (leaving the steel lip on top), saw on the corners, remove the four corners as well as the stirrups, then break off the tab in the middle of the retaining slot for the coupler pocket in the end of the Roco car, and with a small amount of filing and truing, the Athearn coupler pocket is the perfect size to fit in the ends of the Roco car. When you are done, glue the double fishbellies together, and the Athearn deck works fine and is a better quality plastic. This eliminates the truck-mounted coupler junk, and puts the weight right where it should be. I have done two of those that way, two of the taller tie cars, and used Athearn 40-ft. flats to fit under the Roco wood pickle tank cars and helium cars to upgrade them, sawing off the fishbellies from the Athearn flats. This eliminates the truck-mounted coupler junk, and puts the weight right where it should be. Similarly, Athearn 40-ft. tank-car bottoms and frames will fit underneath some Bachmann and Walthers 40-ft. tank cars with no or very little modification. I also cut the top of this same kind of car after modifying it with the Athearn flat car, put an angle-bar rail low across and on top of the stakes that were left, put some Athearn piggyback end ramps and Walthers piggyback hitch parts on the Athearn deck and underframe, for a convincing early 50-ft piggyback car. It's a great way for serious modelers to get more car varieties and shapes from "train set" quality cars, with good old Athearn reliability underneath supporting them. === === = === JLH



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/15 18:18 by highgreengraphics.

Can't speak for the accuracy of the model, but after 35+ years in industrial gases, yeah, from time to time someone gets the idea that cylinders can be shipped by rail.Then typically the additional safety requirements and less than rapid movement make the economics less favorable. Other than the helium tube cars the BOM operated, probably many one-off experiments that brought very little commercial benefit.

So I'd guess the prototype existed but wasn't in use very long, nor was a large fleet built.​

Thanks for the help. Very much appreciated. I might have to try to do that upgrade with the Athearn part. It would be a nice, different car to have out once in a while.

Jim

I'm pretty sure that this car is designed to carry metal cylindrical canisters of fertilizer or powdered/granular chemicals.  I have one in HO, and had one in N scale that included the canisters as the load (believe that the N scale car was an early one by Atlas).