Jon,
Your deck on the flat car looks real. Good looking train.
Ok…dusting off this thread…tank is done…needs a few minor touch ups…but should be on its way North next week…
(http://www.lscdata.com/users/bart_salmons/tankcarlengthening/tanklength05.jpg)
and up close…
(http://www.lscdata.com/users/bart_salmons/tankcarlengthening/tanklength06.jpg)
OK - That was definitely worth the wait. I love the rivets !!!
Composite boxcar idea just got shoved to the back burner. Time to start thinking on how to make the straps and railings.
Super job Bart - Thank you 
…winking…
Man, I forgot about this project I’ve got to co back and refresh my grey matter on this whole project. Like those rivets.
It took less than 1 year for the original Bachmann tank to travel to Ft. Gay, spend some time collecting spider webs in the WK&V Shops, get lengthened and detailed and finally travel back to the CVSRy. The converted tank arrived today and I couldn’t wait to do a test fit onto the flat car. Here’s how it looks - the small wood pieces at the joint with the flat are temporary just to keep the tank from rolling off. [url=lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/TankOnFlat_001-1200.JPG]
(http://lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/TankOnFlat_001-720.JPG)
[/url][color=blue]FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/TankOnFlat_002-1200.JPG]
(http://lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/TankOnFlat_002-720.JPG)
[/url][color=blue]FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] Lots to do now… On the tank, prep & paint. On the flat: Build the frame. Come up with a way to model the straps. And build the handrail. Then mate the two and buy a dry transfer set from the FEBT.
It took that long because Bart was waiting for me to buy the riveting machine so he could see how it worked. 
That sounds good, but somehow I don’t think he bought it for this project. It was a nice that he needed something to practice on. I expected back PVC pipe with no detail. It was quite a nice surprise to see the added detail.
This thing looks HUGE. I need to do a height check
Bart bought it because he couldn’t stand me having a tool he didn’t have.
It does look very nice.
Bob McCown said:Somewhere, I think I've read that at some point, for a least some companies, roofwalks were painted with sand mixed in paint to gain a reasonably non-skid surface.
Yep, decks and roof walks weren't painted, because they get slick when wet if they are. The brake wheel platform should be raw wood, too!
And in that text the formulation for how much sand to use depending on what grit it was was given.
Will see if that reference can be found. Maybe it was posted in the Early Rail Yahoo Group???
Dragging up this thread again… I’ve had some back-channel interest in this project which resulted in a discussion and the discovery of a published photo of Tank Car #102.
(http://lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/Tank102.jpg)
This photo, and a review of other published material brings to light several things. First is that #102 was purchased in it’s entirety from Atlantic Refining as a tank car, not just a tank that they added to an EBT flat car. There was an EBT built flat car #102, but it was retired in the same year that Tank #102 came on the line. Also, it appears as if the car may be running on Vulcan trucks, not Archbar trucks as an early flat would be. So where does this leave my project??? Pretty much back at step 1. I don’t want to strip details and decking off the flat I completed, so it will stay on the roster as a flat. I’ll use the extra set of frame parts I milled at the same time as the original build to build a second frame. This time I’ll use the photo to check details and not put any decking on until after the tank mount has been completed. The decking, with the exception of two bards, all runs lengthwise. I still have a lot of work to do on the tank too. Bart did a great job, then I screwed it up tying to ready it for paint. I need to do some repair work to put some of the major pieces back together. Joining the parts will be easy, but I need to make a clamping jig. When I finally get back to this I will start a new thread, correct the inaccuracies in the opening post., and post a build log of the new frame and tank repair & finishing. In the mean time, I have my Shay apart for detail painting, so this project will stay on the back burner for a few more weeks.,
OH quit whinning and send the car along with the Cigar store floor and I’ll fix them both, ship them back and send Chandler the bill.
Jon, the flat car was definitely built by the EBT. It’s identical to pretty much every EBT wood flat in terms of details, etc. (The inverted “U” brace on the brake staff is a dead giveaway.) That photo was taken between 1933 and 1936, evidenced by the date next to the weight, and the date steel flat #116 received that tank. I’d be willing to bet that when the railroad “officially purchased” the tank car from Atlantic Refining, they simply repainted the tank to their liking. The condition of the wood on the deck suggests the tank had been on that flat for quite some time. In 1933, the railroad would not have built a new wood car, they would have used steel. The decking does suggest the car was at least decked specifically for the tank, not merely a tank car sitting on an old flat car. (Now I gotta redo mine, too!)
What we don’t have is a build date for flat 102. The absence of any indication of there being side pockets at any time would tell me they might have built this car specifically for Atlantic. They didn’t start building the steel flats until 1923, so it’s possible. On the other hand, they had been building steel box cars and hoppers for a few years by then, so why not use steel? Given that, it’s just as likely that they took an existing flat and modified it, probably removing the side pockets at that time. They could have plugged the holes where the side pockets were, or they could have just been filled with enough paint and stuff that by the time the car was painted for the photograph, they simply “vanished into the woodwork.” The hardware holding the side pockets onto the frame didn’t require really large holes–probably 3/8" at the largest.
As for the trucks, it’s probable that they were replaced at some point in time. The Vulcan trucks began to appear on the railroad around 1913. If 102 was adapted from an existing flat car, it’s likely that they replaced the trucks with something a bit stronger than archbar trucks so to better support the weight of the tank car. That, or they could likely have done it a few years prior when they were converting the old equipment to automatic brakes and couplers. Or, they could have done it down the road a bit, after shopping the car and finding a crack or some other defect. Easier to just swap out the trucks and get the car back on the road.
Just more food for thought…
Later,
K
Hi Jon,
I’m missing what you are saying. Does the tank stick down through the deck a little? So is the deck only planked clean across at the ends? Most interesting picture.
Ric Golding said:
Hi Jon,I’m missing what you are saying. Does the tank stick down through the deck a little? So is the deck only planked clean across at the ends? Most interesting picture.
Yes, from studying a crisper version of the picture, it appears that the tank sits on the frame (like the tank on steel flat #116). The decking runs lengthwise for the walkways (except for the end planks).
Jon, looking forward to your build….
Geoff
Thanks Geoff.
Thanks Kevin. There is build data for a Flat #102 in R&K, but it says retired 1932, the same year Tank #102 showed up on the roster as purchased from Atlantic Refining (per R&K). I wonder if that might just be an oversight when the book was compiled and this is the same flat, just modified to hold a tank. That would not explain where the tank was in earlier years when it was owned by Atlantic.
So you are thinking that Atlantic either bought or leased an EBT flat to put their tank on? Very plausible.
Does anyone know when the Atlantic tank first roamed the railroad ?
Geoff - I’ll get back to it. Actually a simpler build for the flat with no deck to speak of and less detail (pockets). And I’ll need to fabricate one of the ‘inverted U’ brake staff mounts. Can’t be using any of these Colorado style castings
Quote:That would be the most likely situation. That was the case early on in Colorado, too, where Conoco owned the cars, but contracted the D&RGW's shops to actually build them. Whether the EBT built the tank itself, I don't know. They certainly had the capability. Number 102 was the highest-number flat car prior to the construction of the steel cars, which started at 103. If it wasn't built specifically for the tank car, it was the most recently built car that got the nod.
... So you are thinking that Atlantic either bought or leased an EBT flat to put their tank on? Very plausible.
Quote:The earliest I've seen published is c. 1919 (from R&K), but I keep having this nagging feeling it might have been earlier. Atlantic began selling gasoline and oil on a commercial basis in 1911, so certainly sometime in the teens would have been very likely.
... Does anyone know when the Atlantic tank first roamed the railroad ?
Later,
K