Shorty Tank Cars?

[ednadolski]

Gold Medal Models used to make, and probably still does, a very nice detailing kit for the MDC cars.

Looks like Scott has 'em:

https://www.nscalesupply.com/gmm/gmm-details.html

[GaryHinshaw]

Yep.  Thanks to Loren for keeping those in production.  Do you have a source for decals, Ed?

[cv_acr]

These tanks are for sulphuric acid, and about 13.6K gallons. The MDC tank is a ~20K gallon tank. The proportions are a bit similar since the acid tank bodies are pretty narrow, but it's scaled up by a percentage factor, being both longer and fatter than the smaller acid cars. These 20K cars were often used for corrosives like hydrochloric acid, but sulphuric acid is heavier and shipped in smaller cars.

mu26aeh mentioned Athearn in HO and is correct - they did do the Union Tank Car version in HO scale. The prototype photos at the head of this thread showed cars from three different apparent builders, including one UTC version.

[GaryHinshaw]

Indeed.  It would be great to have an N scale version.

[Jbub]

I would love a sulphuric acid tank car. With the Kennecott (Rio Tinto) copper mine and smelter nearby I see a lot of sulphuric acid unit trains. The smelters emissions control system produces sulfuric acid as a by-product and they sell it off by the train load. It would be cool to me to recreate one of these trains.