Photo: B&O Flatcar & Gondola (1913)

A photo from the Historic Pittsburgh website:

https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A715.133845.CP/viewer

Scroll on the photo to enlarge it.

Some good detail of the flatcar.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

Photo: PRR Boxcar 531112 (1930)

A photo from the Historic Pittsburgh website:

https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A200907.1930.05045/viewer

Scroll on the photo to enlarge it.

Photo editing software will improve the image of the boxcar.

What may be a PRR gondola with a scrap load appears to the left.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

David, Dave, Folks,

All this discussion of GATC tank cars has me looking at my fleet to see how I might both take advantage of Tangents most recent announcement and adjust my fleet. Are there any indications of a breakdown between car gallonages within a type? For example, is there a feeling on the ration of 8K to 10K tanks in the 1917 cars? I note that David says "most" were one or the other. What about the numbers of different styles within the 1928 design?

Regards,
Bruce Smith
Auburn, AL

If anyone is interested I made an online map of the W&W:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1ibeSfl3NNyIdCJ2IfquIhmqESVhe7COt&ll=40.05543117013464%2C-80.28680978050065&z=11

Chris

Photo: Steel Beams On PRR Flatcars (Circa 1927-1936)

A photo from the Historic Pittsburgh website:

https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A943.000016.GN/viewer

Scroll on the photo to enlarge it.

The beams straddle two flatcars apiece.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

Waynesburg & Washington Railroad

Does anyone have photos/photo links to the rolling stock of this railroad? Thanks.

From Wikipedia:

The Waynesburg and Washington Railroad was a 28-mile 3 foot gauge subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad. From the 1870s through the 1920s the line served its namesake towns in Southwestern Pennsylvania (often referred to as the Wayynie). After the 1930s, the line did struggle on, but mostly on paper.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

On Sun, Oct 4, 2020 at 06:58 PM, Ray Carson wrote:

So in the end, would a Tangent 1936+ scheme tank car fit my 1939 year without making any decal changes? How about older tank cars that are 5+ years older?

Strictly speaking no.  Despite the absence of periodic reweighing, tank cars would still have had stencils redone periodically,  Specifically:

1.  Regular brake service.  Every 12 months starting back in 1901, increased to 15 months in 1933 (I believe).  This was for K brakes.  The interval was longer for ABs.  Tony has a blog piece on this.

2.  Regular journal box repacking.  Every 12 months starting in 1920; I think this also increased in the mid-1930s as there was some movement towards standardizing intervals.  I should know how/when it changed, but can't put my hands on it right now.

3.  Tank cars required periodic testing of both valves and tanks.  The block of lettering at the right end of the car-sides had to be redone or touched up to reflect the new testing dates.  From 1930 forward, the interval was after 10 years since construction, and every five thereafter.  In the 1920s, the intervals were different for valves and tank, and varied some with car class.

All of these stencils are small and generally difficult to read without magnification (in HO).   But many of us have cameras capable of capturing these <2" stencils, and pad-printing makes them quite sharp on many RTRs.

If one is really fastidious about having every stenciled date correct for the chosen model year, this is unlikely to be easily achieved with many/most tank-car models.  I suspect most folks compromise. 

PS:  Brake stencils are often more obvious on tank cars because the reservoir is often easier to see.  Conversely, the repack stencils can be harder to see on cars without stub-sills, as they were generally applied to the center sill.

Hope this helps.
--
Dave Parker
Swall Meadows, CA

I’ll jump into this and hopefully not add to any confusion but there is another reason for not listing the car weight on tank cars back then.  Only the largest manufacturers or customers had a scale to weigh a tank car. 

I was mainly confused due to seeing prototype photos with a "reweigh" date taken before photos (don't have any example photos, sorry) and I kept assuming tankers were treated the same as other freight cars. However I guess I was overthinking a bit on Tony's post due to me being used to the concept of freight cars reweighs as I continue to learn more about freight car assignments.

-Ray

Hello everyone,

With the release of Tangent's new run of 8000 gallon 1917-design tankers, I was interested in something that got me confused months before.

So I was reading on Tony Thompson's blog regarding an SP tank car he was building in 2014 (https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2014/04/modeling-sp-gasoline-tank-car.html) and in one part he says:

On the tank at this point, there is no reweigh date. Tank car cargoes were billed by gallonage, not by weight, so the car’s light weight was of no importance (unlike all other types of freight cars). Prototype photos commonly show tank cars having weigh dates a decade, or even multiple decades, prior to the photo date. But when cars were repaired, they were ordinarily reweighed, and SP tank cars often do show that change.

Okay, that makes sense. However I've seen photos of tank cars with their dates reflecting when the photo was taken in service. I even recall seeing photos of tank car models with reweigh dates for some modelers modeling a year. Was this something overlooked or am I getting myself confused with tank cars?

So in the end, would a Tangent 1936+ scheme tank car fit my 1939 year without making any decal changes? How about older tank cars that are 5+ years older? I'm overall used to the concept of freight cars being reweighed every 1-2 years depending on whether wood or steel bodied and tank cars being an exception confuses me a bit.

Thanks, Ray