I was going through my collection of rolling stock this morning; I can across 10-12 Atlas beer can tank cars. I didn’t even remember having bought these much less run them on track. So I put them on and man I really like the look of them. So let’s see yours...
I am thinking about a Gold Medal Models (GMM) kit to improve mine. Up to now I used a GMM kit on one of my two short Roundhouse tank cars and it is a great improvement. Did you convert your cars to MTL trucks? The short coupling distance looks like this.
I had a couple of old ones that I redecorated. The ladders and platforms are a bit clunky, but with my eyes I don't notice them as much in real life as in the photos. Regards Ed .
Zebra Train I probably have another 5 to 10 of these black and / or white cars along with 20+ other colors of beer can tank cars.
christoph:The Gold Medal Models kit looks great! I have picked up several of Roundhouse's (Atlas's?) Corn Products beer can cars over the last 20 years or so and have always been disappointed by the oversized ladders and platforms, but never had the nerve to attempt a correction. The GMM kits will certainly provide a nice upgrade. Compare the Roundhouse/Atlas? ladders and platforms to these on some Atlas Trainman tanks I bought last year. And to these Kato (?) tanks purchased ages ago. To get greater reliability in the yellow and green tanks, I put on MT trucks and added a lot of weight inside...more weight than recommended by NMRA N-scale standards...because the prescribed weight just didn't seem to be effective enough.
I got a few of these that I run every now and then. They are way out of my era tho I think. Aren't they "1970s"? My era is mid 50's, but I upgraded a few of these with MTL trucks and couplers, and just love the way they look. I typically run a bunch of Atlas 11k gallon tankers. I love those too, and the detail is really good on these.
I've got a bunch of them, all in one train, even though they are a bit out of my era. I'm looking for photos. If I can't find any, I'll take some new ones next weekend.
Brass Kits? I was just wondering as I looked at mine. There must be 1000s of these out there and there must 100s of guys who wish they had finer detail. What is the interests level and what would the cost be in making a conversion / upgrade detail kit for them that could be assembled in less than 10 minutes, per car. Just a thought.
I for anything that will improve a car that is quick and easy. It's hard to find time for the hard projects these days.
They made 120 different road numbers of those things? My collection is not worthy....only have 13 of them.
I agree -- great l'il cars and perfect for smaller pikes too. Years ago before the more typical longer tank cars were offered in N, it was an easy kitbash to splice two beercans together. Add a brake line with a piece of wire and viola! Here's mine from '89. It doesn't compare to today's models, but I still enjoy running it.
Here is a link for truckless beercan tank cars for $6.95 each. Ed http://shop.atlasrr.com/d-203-n-shorty-tank-car-sale.aspx
Ed, I hate you! I didn't realized they sell them without the trucks! This could create some interesting scenarios (as my wallet hides!).
At one time (late 1980s) I had at least one each of the beer cans that Atlas offered, but then they started releasing more. My pocket book could not afford any more. Gary
