Who makes scale size single dome and 3 dome tankcars for 1940's to late 1950's steam era ?

Atlas makes great 8000 and 11000 gallon tank cars. They just announced some real nice versions of the 8000 gallon car yesterday. Check out there site. I am a real sucker for Oklahoma petroleum company's. I have about 60 tank cars from them. Love them!

Joe

Tiffany

Atlas O makes some Steam Era tank cars that are perfect for the era you are referring to. Albeit a bit pricey.You might want to check the For sale Board to see if there are any for sale, or Post on the Wanted to buy Forum.

Matt

Atlas O, LLC - The Future of Model Railroading Is Here!

Hi Tiffany. 

Lionel make some nice scale single dome tank cars too. 

As said above, Lionel and Atlas make some nice very ones. Atlas O Masterline and Trainman are full-scale cars. The Lionel Standard O cars are scale sized, but may be in a non-prototypical decoration.

Tank cars are an oddity, though, because there have been several types with various capacities over the past several decades, so even some "semi-scale" tank cars are indeed scale sized versions of smaller prototypes. You pretty much need specific tank car data (capacity, dimensions, etc.) to verify one of the semi-scale ones -- then you probably need to re-paint it.

Weaver also makes some nice tank cars, but they're the modern "frameless" style.

Current Weaver offerings.

Hello , where can you find pictures of 3 dome tank cars  ?

Without spending hours guessing at road numbers on the usual prototype railsites

I am seeking private name chemical companies , for repainting MTH 3 dome cars.

I bought quite a few for repainting , how about post some pictures of the real thang.

Thanks

The 3-dome cars were quite small. There is one in the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum in Strasburg, PA and it is dwarfed by the other cars around it. I believe the Rail King 3-dome car is in the correct range for scale size, if not exactly to scale. I agree with others about the Atlas and Lionel 8000 gallon cars. The two are made from slightly different prototypes, so the dimensions aren't exactly the same, but the Lionel is just about scale size. The Weaver tank cars are really too modern for steam era operation.

Another period tank car you might want to look for is the 6-dome car that was used by some wineries (and perhaps others). 3rd Rail made these cars in brass several years ago - they can generally be had for $100-150 on eBay or at a train show. Usually the original trucks either have been replaced or need replacement; the originals are subject to zinc deterioration. 

I collected eight 40s-50s era tank car pictures from the web earlier this year.  Look at them here:

http://pinterest.com/rrdoc/real-trains/

I love the look of those old tankers.  I agree that Atlas and the newer Lionel cars are the best models.

Here is an Atlas (warning:  Hoopla distorts the pics):

and here is a Lionel:

MTH are also pretty good but the 40s-50s styles are hard to find:

Post-war Lionel and most K-line are not detailed as nicely (esp. ladders)

Bob

I am interested in tank cars for defunct oil companies that operated in Colorado, and certain ones in general.  Lionel made two different Skelly early framed tank cars, single dome, so I lucked out with Skelly.  But I have not found a steam era Frontier Oil Co. tank car.  MTH did one, ultra-modern and frameless, for both Skelly and Frontier (which I should get rid of).  I am looking for a photo of a steam era Frontier tank car..just a plain black one with white lettering or whatever, and I will kitbash one.

Conoco was active in Colorado, and there are a lot of narrow guage Conoco

cars and kits, but the only standard gauge one I am aware of is some kind of a

bank, and, I'm told, has a coin slot on top!

From photographs that I have seen, the MAGNOLIA 3-dome tank car made by Lionel/PC is an accurate paint scheme, you just have to pop off the too-modern roller-bearing ASF trucks to put on the correct Bettendorf Journal Bearing Lionel die-cast trucks.

Andrew

Here is a two dome tank car I saw in Tulsa back in the spring.

Thanks,

Richard

I sure looked hard at the photos of that two dome tank car...and I have complained

about model "fantasy" cars!  There is a prototypical one...as clued by a side door

caboose (yay!) parked next to it.  Somebody had a field day putting all those logos

on one car.  I am not sure they were all merged into the same company, either,...Sunoco, too?  If that car rolled one inch in revenue service, I would have

to see photos of that!  That is in some kind of museum/display?

Unlike most (all?) of their other offerings, pre-Atlas Industrial Rail single-dome tank cars - which were even available in gray primer and un-lettered (I bought them) - were proper 1:48 scale. I think of these as "chemical"  - as contrasted with "oil" - tankers, as they had platforms around the dome. Maybe I'm even correct.

I don't follow or buy Atlas much, so I don't know the status of this tooling.

I'm sure online auctions can provide.

Hello guys and gals..........

Are the railking single dome tankcars with the platform semi-scale or scale ?  They sit bit tall though.

the woman who loves the S.F.#5011

Tiffany

There are so many variations in tank car sizes, it's hard to categorize tank cars as scale or semi-scale, size-wise. The 8000 gal. tank cars are small, prototypically. I've seen some pretty small tank cars riding the real rails.

The Railkings are big enough to be "scale" in size, but are lacking in detail compared to Atlas O and Lionel scale offerings, so would definitely be semi-scale from that perspective. They also do ride a bit high. The few MTH Premier tankcars I have ride even higher, almost to the point of looking odd. I've tried to figure out how to perform some surgery to lower them, but no luck so far.

FWIW the Lionel Post War metal single dome tank cars are the same size as the Atlas and older Intermountain 8000 gallon cars. They obviously lack the detail but if you are building a tank train they would fit right in.

Pete

hello breezinup and Norton.........

I think you both are right.   I took my Sunset 3rd S.F. 5011 class 2-10-4's huge 16 wheel tender out of the box and sat it on piece of straight track along with the railking single dome tanker with the platform and coupler them both together.  I just now found out that the railking tankcar is not small or undersize at all which is surprising to me.  I guess they fit right in size wise !!!!!!

the woman who loves the S.F.#5011

Tiffany

This tank car is on display at the Route 66 display in Tulsa, Ok. it is dilplayed along with the Murray Hill passanger car and the Frisco 4500 4-8-4.

Thanks,

Richard