ESM well holes that are NOT cancelled ?

[up1950s]

Any hope for them , or 19K 1955 era tank cars ?

[bbussey]

Who said they were canceled?  Just pushed back to 2012, maybe a little sooner depending upon how well the XIH and the following car sell.

No tanks from ESM are planned.  Atlas and Athearn are cornering that market.

[up1950s]

Good news , thanks .

[atsf]

No tanks from ESM are planned.  Atlas and Athearn are cornering that market.

The lack of tank car models is one of the bigger holes in the freight car fleet for transition era modelers.  Between Atlas and Athearn there is currently only one transition era tank car available: the AC&F 11,000 gal. pressure car from Atlas.  Not exactly a cornered market.

[lock4244]

Who said they were canceled?  Just pushed back to 2012, maybe a little sooner depending upon how well the XIH and the following car sell.

Isn't the world is going to end in 2012? You might consider pushing that release date up a bit  ;D

On a serious note, do you have any images of the prototype for the well hole flat you're doing? CN had some and it'd be a neat addition if it's close to one of CN's.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

No tanks from ESM are planned.  Atlas and Athearn are cornering that market.

Well, there was the IM 8000gal car, but the tooling is broken for it, but they're around.
Also, don't forget the MTL car either, which was, for years, the gold standard. They've also got their three dome car.

Going back even further, didn't bachmann have something similar from back in the day? I think I might need some of those in flat black because I saw a surprising number of older tank cars still kicking around in the 80s.


The lack of tank car models is one of the bigger holes in the freight car fleet for transition era modelers.  Between Atlas and Athearn there is currently only one transition era tank car available: the AC&F 11,000 gal. pressure car from Atlas.  Not exactly a cornered market.

[Mark5]

Ed,

I think he was confining the universe to Atlas and Athearn. 

Forget the bachmann tanker. And all the other tank cars tooled up pre-1985  (Atlas/Rivarossi/Roco etc)

IIRC the MT car is a 10,000 gallon car.

The 3 domers were still around in the 60s/70s, maybe even to the 80s - usually like this:



Mark

[lock4244]

CN used those old tankers into at least the late 1980's in diesel fuel service for MofW purposes (not revenue).

[bbussey]

No tanks from ESM are planned.  Atlas and Athearn are cornering that market.

Well, there was the IM 8000gal car, but the tooling is broken for it, but they're around.
Also, don't forget the MTL car either, which was, for years, the gold standard. They've also got their three dome car.

Going back even further, didn't bachmann have something similar from back in the day? I think I might need some of those in flat black because I saw a surprising number of older tank cars still kicking around in the 80s.

The lack of tank car models is one of the bigger holes in the freight car fleet for transition era modelers.  Between Atlas and Athearn there is currently only one transition era tank car available: the AC&F 11,000 gal. pressure car from Atlas.  Not exactly a cornered market.

Ed,
I think he was confining the universe to Atlas and Athearn. 
Forget the bachmann tanker. And all the other tank cars tooled up pre-1985  (Atlas/Rivarossi/Roco etc)
IIRC the MT car is a 10,000 gallon car...

I didn't forget about the MTL and IMRC cars - but there has been one new tank from the two of them combined in the last decade while Atlas and Athearn each have been pumping out one or two annually, hense my "cornering the market" comment.

There are enough models in existence to kitbash a number of different transitional-era prototypes.  Scott Seekins wrote an excellent article for (I think) N Scale Magazine a few years back on bashing different tanks, and he was working with only the MTL, ESM/RR and Austria models that existed at the time.

[bbussey]

Who said they were canceled?  Just pushed back to 2012, maybe a little sooner depending upon how well the XIH and the following car sell.

Isn't the world is going to end in 2012? You might consider pushing that release date up a bit  ;D

On a serious note, do you have any images of the prototype for the well hole flat you're doing? CN had some and it'd be a neat addition if it's close to one of CN's.

Naw - got something better coming first in 2011.  Besides, I don't know if people are ready yet for a $32 MSRP on a well car.  Maybe they will be in 2012.

Off the top of my head I don't know of any F-9 prototypical pics online, as there were only six of them built even though they were long-lived.  There have been published pics in various magazines over the years, including a three-issue feature in Mainline Modeler a couple of decades ago.  I have seen online pics of the sister class F-10, which looked similar other than being another ten feet longer, but I don't remember where.  I had only planned on releasing the six schemes known to exist (and I will be releasing every car number in the series in every scheme it wore), and it will be a relatively-short production run because of that.  But even though the car is a signature C&O prototype, I would consider releasing fantasy schemes if the demand is there.  As far as the CN cars being close in appearance, others would be a better judge than I.  I don't think the WM car is close, but I know there are folks who wouldn't mind seeing the scheme on the F-9 model anyway.

[bbussey]

The lack of tank car models is one of the bigger holes in the freight car fleet for transition era modelers.  Between Atlas and Athearn there is currently only one transition era tank car available: the AC&F 11,000 gal. pressure car from Atlas.  Not exactly a cornered market.

One other point - even in the transition era, the ratio of tank cars to the rest of the freight fleet is small.  It varies based on the geographical area being modeled, but the percentage is still in the low single digits regardless.

[wcfn100]

The lack of tank car models is one of the bigger holes in the freight car fleet for transition era modelers.  Between Atlas and Athearn there is currently only one transition era tank car available: the AC&F 11,000 gal. pressure car from Atlas.  Not exactly a cornered market.

One other point - even in the transition era, the ratio of tank cars to the rest of the freight fleet is small.  It varies based on the geographical area being modeled, but the percentage is still in the low single digits regardless.

That may be true for company cars but not even close for the leased cars that were hauled.  Without holding the actual train lists, you're only guessing as to the quantity of certain car types for a given road.

I model the CGW in Iowa, and in 1965, tank cars made up 17% of the cars.

Here's just a partial list:

CONX, CSOX, EBAX, EORX, GACX, GATX, GRYX, HHCX, LSPX, MCPX, MOBX, NATX, ORMX, OSKX, PSPX, RCSX, RJRX, RTCX,
SACX, SASX, SCCX, SHPX, SRDX, SWTX, TCX,TVAX, ULTX, WITX.

Also, many of these cars would be seen in multiples for a givin train.

I would agree that tank cars are by far the most under represented class of cars.


This reminds me of the "Home Road" arguement where people think you need somewhere around 50% of home cars to properly represent any given RR.  Again, without the actual list, it's just a guess.  For the same time period as above, the CGW had about 10% home cars and I can show you M&StL train lists form the 50's that have maybe one or two home cars in the whole train.  In the 50s-60s, leased cars (reporting marks with an X at the end) as a group probably out numbered anything else.


Jason

[bbussey]

Unfortunately, such a large percentage may not be representative of the country at large.  I can say that in New England in the mid-20th century, the ratio was nowhere near that - and all of the tanks were leased or private.  None of the New England roads owned revenue-generating tanks.  Neither did Pennsylvania.  Or New York Central.  Or Erie, or Lackawanna, or Reading, or CNJ.  So the northeast was totally shut out in that class.

From a manufacturer's standpoint, all of that has to be taken into consideration when deciding what to tool or not tool.  We are able to do more esoteric models now that the technology has advanced to allow for lower costs and smaller runs.  But even the esoteric road-specific signature models that have been released or announced of late - the Milwaukee ribbed boxcar; the Top Gon coal gondola; the Vert-a-Pak; the Trinity hi-cube; the G26 mill gondola; the XIH boxcar - have enough national appeal that could justify tooling the models.

The IMRC 8k gallon tank, MTL 10k gallon tank and Atlas 11k gallon tank cover much of the middle 20th century, and a plethora of tank models cover the latter part of the 20th century to the present.  Given that most of the colorful billboard decorations were from the early part of the 20th century and that most of the mid 20th century tanks are basic black - what generic prototype is out there to tool that would have wide appeal, could legitimately wear a number of roads and schemes and would be noticeably different from the three above?  How many black tankcars with non-descriptive white or yellow markings that all look alike is the average modeler going to buy?

[Ryan87]

Trinity hi-cube

The trinity hi-cubes are seen in large numbers on most if not all of the class one's today... How would that be road specific? Railbox owns some! 

How many black tankcars with non-descriptive white or yellow markings that all look alike is the average modeler going to buy?

If you model anytime in the last 30 years LOTS!!! 

[lock4244]

CN well-hole... not even close. Just curious, a well-hole flat is a very unique prototype, no matter the design!

http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn670101&o=cn

And the four trucked version... http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn670002&o=cn