I was able to find one of these on ebay for under $100. Now my Grand Daughter can know what car belongs to her Gramps.
Good find. Been keeping my eye out for these at shows but never seen one. I’m due to be eligible for that name in a few months too!
Interesting story how they got their name…
Me… 4 times grandf and two- soon to be three greagrandf… AND 2 more to go yet!! (when they get cracking)…told them…its not just done on St Valentines Day you know there are 364 other days in the year
Ho Ho Ho…
I just went out to the train barn and I do have a GRAMPS oil car. I got it to kitbash into an Arrowhead Water car but haven’t found a good picture and measurements to work from.
There are, as far as I know, two versions of this car. One is part of the Spectrum 1:20.3 range, the cheaper one a Big Hauler 1:22.5 model.
Initially I had five of the Big Hauler ones. I sold the white Quaker State one some years ago but last year I withdrew the other four UTLX (2) Gramps (2) from service.
I used the the flat beds from three of them as part of my MOW kitbashes, two having a caboose mounted upon them and the third was fitted with an Aristo 20ft, boxcar. The fourth became a water tank car and repainted in a red livery to be part of the MOW train.
The reason I did this to them was they did not look quite right with my 1:29 stock a
nd they seemed to fall outside my chosen era.
My guess would be mine is a 1:22.5 because it fits in fine with my LGB cars.
All the B’mann “Big Hauler” cars were supposed to be 1:22.5 scale, and would work well with the LGB line of NA rolling stock…
Alan;…they wouldn’t look “right” with your 1:29 Aristo rolling stock, because the Big Hauler line were modeled after narrow gauge cars, while the Aristo is modeled after standard gauge, 50’s era cars…
The picture in the initial post is not a 1:22.5 model as far as I can be sure but a Spectrum 1:20.3 frameless tank car.
I am happy to accept that some of the Big Hauler 1:22.5 stock does fit in with standard gauge 1:29, providing one overlooks the fact that in the 1:1 world the difference would be quite noticeable.
I operate a short line and my railroad workshops buy and convert redundant rolling stock from fallen flags or a ‘surplus to requirement’ basis. Not unknown of course.
Once the trussing rods and truss rod frames are removed from gondolas they make ideal stock for a MOW train or kitbashing. Likewise with boxcars. Perusal of old photos often show stock of differing heights and construction running in the 1950 - 1960 period. The three bay hoppers, providing they run in their own consist and are not mixed with 1:29 stock do look fine to my UK eyes. Maybe not behind a DASH 9 but an RS3 or ten wheeler is fine I believe. I have used surplus coal loads from the Big Hauler range as ballast loads, suitably painted to appear as old ballast, in 1:29 gonds: they just fir nicely. As for 1:24 scale I possess none from any manufacturer.
All in a days railroading fun I guess.
The pic is a 1:20.3 Spectrum.
LGB produced a Gramps version as well. I have one of those around here somewhere.
Alan, the Bachmann Spectrum flat cars make for good bashing as well. Once they were fairly cheap:
$50.00 or less. That’s the price for a set of Accucraft trucks alone. And they weren’t bowed (or humped) like the Accu’s.
How do you tell which is the LGB and which is the Bachmann? I didn’t find any name on my tank car.
Doug,
It has LGB embossed underneath near the brake cylinder. Plus Lehman is there as well.
It also misspelled “Alamosa” on the printing on the side. LGB’s read “Almosa”.
I don’t know if LGB corrected this on their re issues, but the first ones were Almosa.
Nice find.
Too bad they are a little too big for my 1:22.5 scale layout.
I’ve got two 1:24 scale Precision Scale tanks. Nice models, and they look pretty good with LGB sized rolling stock. And they are frameless just like the prototypes. The Bachmann Big Hauler and LGB tanks are unfortunately not.
I figured the price would go up as bids came in but it stalled just under $100. It will most likely be the only one in the collection, most seem to be in the $160 to $200 range.
Well John, by UK standards, as any living over here will attest, prices are still cheap Stateside.
Whatever, the frameless ones are very looking cars.
Finally got my hands on my Bachmann 1:20.3 Gramps tank car today. Overall its an excellent car but when Bachmann says 8’ curves that’s what they mean, not 8’ with a little room to spare but 8’. My min curve is 8’ so I did a small mod to the trucks so it would move through the curve a little easier. Paint is excellent and the chain details are well done. The Journal box covers fall off very easy so I glued them down, they are a nice detail but they fall off way too easy.
I love the car but I won’t be getting any more of them, just too much work to get the bugs out so it rolls without any problems. Still happy I have one though.
They look pretty good especially with a bit of weathering and a few oil drips.
Bob Hyman
Bachmann has released two additional road numbers. Here’s a short video clip of one of my RGS trains with all three GRAMPS cars near the end. This video clip was shot on Marty Cozad’s layout in September 2012.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOoy_S7EDEk[/youtube]
Bob Hyman
The kit looks nice. They are still out of my price range. Later RJD