I think the current Bachmann tank car is old tooling, and for quite a while I think they only used it for their track cleaning tank car. However, lately they've brought out some new road names in an ordinary tank car version, which are pretty inexpensive at discount. Here's the one that caught my eye, a Tidewater Oil car:

[attachment=16278]

I'm pretty sure I have a DVD with archival film from the 1930s showing a train on the New Haven with one of these. I went poking around to see what other information I could gather, and I discovered that the Strasburg Rail Road has a car painted for Tidewater in its charter freight train set, and beyond that, I'd taken a photo that showed the car on a visit in 2006:

[attachment=16277]

The Strasburg car is numbered TWOX 1367, while the Bachmann is 1368, but the lettering is otherwise identical, down to weigh dates. I assume Bachmann followed the Strasburg car. I don't know where the orange dome came from, and now I'm going to have to watch my DVD to see if my memory is correct. If there's no orange dome on the prototype, it's no biggie to paint it black. The Strasburg equipment roster says its car was built by General American, and they got it from NJT, where it had been a CNJ fuel car. I think the Bachmann car is a generic sorta-kinda.

I keep wishing the manufacturers would put out models credibly lettered for Strasburg, or some of the cars they have in their collection. At least this is a good start, and I'm delighted to have it.

That's a nice find...!! It would be neat if some of their models were based on a prototype, down to the color, car # and all other lettering.

The only thing that detracts from its appearance are the "overweight" steps...

What would the era range be on a car like that?

Nice random find jwb.

That's the problem with Bachmann, they always mess up the paint scheme at some point and it's hard to tell why because just following the prototype would be simpler (I have in mind the CN GP7-9 thing, so close, yet so far). I that tank car case, it's good the only thing it touching up the dome. Shortening the ladder, replacing the grabirons and stirrups with metal ones would make it a nice evening project and would greatly improve its appearance just like you did with your Virginian Trainmaster! Our good old Doc did terrific jobs on those toy tank cars in the past.

@Ralph: I don't know about this specific prototype, but I recently checked up ORER listed on Nakina.net (Ian Cranstone canadian freight car website). I was surprised how many very old tank cars from the 30s were still in service as far as 1981. Often, the old paint scheme survived, they only changed the reporting marks. With the DOT-111 actual controversy, it put things in perspective!

Matt

Thanks Matt!

Steamtrains Wrote:That's a nice find...!! It would be neat if some of their models were based on a prototype, down to the color, car # and all other lettering.

The only thing that detracts from its appearance are the "overweight" steps...

Be that as it may it would make a excellent club car once that dome is painted black and a coat of dullcote or weathering to kill the shine.

Ralph Wrote:What would the era range be on a car like that?

The build date is 1923, and the reweigh date is 1937. My DVD shows a car like this on the New Haven in the late 1930s. How much longer it would have lasted in that paint is anyone's guess, but of course, it survived into NJT/early 1980s in company material service.

One other thing to consider about this tank car is that during WW11 it [and many others like it] would have been commandeered for use in "War Emergency" Oil Trains, the precursor to todays Unit Trains. These Priority One trains were instituted to replace Oil Tankers lost to German U-Boats off the US East Coast and Gulf Coasts during the "Second Happy Time" for the U-Boats following the US entry into WW11 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7 1941.
Something to consider if you are modelling the period of WW11 or shortly thereafter as many items on the US rail network were worn out from hard use during the period and needed overhaul or replacement.

Mark