Kitbashed Tank Car. This small tank car is the result of combining an old-time truss-rod flatcar with an old time tank car. I used to be able to buy large quantities of these old-timer cars at Kaybees at very low prices, so I often had a supply of very inexpensive parts with which to experiment. After scoring the floorboards, I painted the car Glanville tuscan brown, added the decals, and weathered it with chalks and an airbrush. Click on image to enlarge it.
Looking through my files, I came upon the March 1978 Railroad Model Craftman article that must have inspired this model — Karl Naffin's "Union Tank Car Line of the 1870's," which includes photographs and scale plans by Bill Schaumburg for tank cars of the 1880s and c. 1900. Their plans and photographs have handrailings the length of both sides of the flatcar base, which I omitted. Other articles in model railroad magazines show cars without the handrails, so I guess my version follows a protoype, too. [GPL]
