Lower panel color on Intermountain tankers

[OldEastRR]

Just saw the new schemes for the Intermountain 8K gal tanker, and they all have the underbelly of the car (but not the bottom of the ends) black, even if the tank itself is another color. Is this the way real tankers are?

[bbussey]

InterMountain is good at staying close to the prototype, so most likely the schemes are accurate.

[Kisatchie]

Here is a prototype car with the black underbody:

http://www.protocraft.com/images/258.jpg


Hmm... interesting...

[Chris333]

Texaco:
http://www.steamerafreightcars.com/gallery/tank/tcx3883main.html
http://www.steamerafreightcars.com/gallery/tank/tcx7197main.html

another silver car:
http://www.steamerafreightcars.com/gallery/tank/venx544524main.html

Ohio cities:
http://www.steamerafreightcars.com/gallery/tank/crx9092main.html

Dupont:
http://www.steamerafreightcars.com/gallery/tank/acf/dupx1599main.html

Aww heck you can look through them:
http://www.steamerafreightcars.com/gallery/tanksmain.html

[ljudice]

back in the day, wasn't this a tar undercoating or something?

I've noticed on some of the old equipment sitting at the BRW yard in Ringoes, NJ that many seem to be
slathered with this thick goop in various places.

[OldEastRR]

To be clear: I wasn't nitpicking or flaming Intermountain. I think all  the tank cars in N I've ever seen came stock with that black bottom. I figured in the early days that it just was cheaper and easier for the mfr to leave the plastic black and use the exact same frame for every paint scheme. Back then I painted over that plate to match the tank body. Guess I have to remove it now that I'm "prototypical"!!

[Kisatchie]

...I think all  the tank cars in N I've ever seen came stock with that black bottom. I figured in the early days that it just was cheaper and easier for the mfr to leave the plastic black and use the exact same frame for every paint scheme....

There are a number of Micro-Trains tank cars with non-black bottoms. Just do a search on ebay for Micro-Trains tank cars.


Hmm... I learn something
new every day, not that I
want to learn it...

[bbussey]

There are a number of Micro-Trains tank cars with non-black bottoms. Just do a search on ebay for Micro-Trains tank cars.

Could have sworn there were a number of InterMountain releases with non-black bottoms as well.

[CVSNE]

Could have sworn there were a number of InterMountain releases with non-black bottoms as well.

There are.

Has more to do with the relative cost and popularity of Aluminum paint in the 1920s and 1930s. They didn't paint the parts of the car that would have (1) gotten extremely dirty quickly or (2) didn't have billboard lettering with the relatively expensive Aluminum Paint.

What is true is MOST of the silver/white/orange etc.. paint schemes were "as built" on the Type 23 and Type 27 tank cars. When these cars were repainted they often were repainted solid black and didn't have any large fancy lettering. You SHOULD have (based on prototype fleet proportions) about 400 plain Jane black tank cars for every one "Cities Service" or "Texaco" silver car..... But guess which paint schemes sell better to model railroaders? 

While I'm thinking about it, "Type-XX" for tank cars is a reference to the year the design was introduced by AC&F. Type 23 in 1923, Type 27 in 1927. In HO, Proto-2000 makes the Type 23 -  I believe Micro-Trains makes a 10K gallon Type 23 in N scale which is why Intermountain chose to do the Type 27. The 8,000-gal version was chosen by Intermountain (as opposed to the 10,000-gal car) because it had far more of those colorful, but relatively rare, paint schemes.

[nkalanaga]

CVSNE:  I'll second the "mostly black" sentiment, especially for those modelling the 50s or later.  In my case, I found a loophole.  Most of my tank cars go to a local fuel dealer, and it just happens to be a Texaco distributor.  So, all of those readily available (years ago) KD/MT silver tankers work perfectly.

[bbussey]

Except that the MTL silver tanks are foobs.  The InterMountain 8k gallon car is a better prototypical fit for the silver Texaco billboard scheme.  Hunt down the four InterMountain releases for the silver car and use the more recently-released MTL black Texaco two-pack for a prototypically-correct 10k gallon car.

[nkalanaga]

That's not much of a problem for me, as I doubt either of them were in service in 1974...  At the time (late 70s?  early 80s?) they were the only good tank cars available, so I bought a bunch of them.  Most ended up repainted black with MS decals, but the Texaco stayed as-is.  They're paid for, and with my budget, there's no point replacing one incorrect model (body) with another one (era).

Actually, I doubt that most small town fuel dealers received gasoline and fuel oil by rail by my era.  It would probably have come to the nearest big town, by rail or pipeline, then by truck to my dealer.  Also, my route is freelanced, which makes it a foob, so why not foobs on wheels?