Single & Triple Dome Tank Cars 10k gallon

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Overview

This is a nicely scaled and detailed car.

photo courtesy Ted Doskaris

The biggest flaw is that combined with the plastic wheels, it's way too light.

Even with metal wheels, the 1 and 3 dome cars weigh 1.81 and 1.86 pounds.

The lettering indicates a prototype light weight of 45,000 to 56,000 pounds, which should put it closer to 3 pounds.

I put a couple of pounds of #9 lead shot (a few bucks from the gun store) inside and that makes all the difference on keeping this light car on the rails.

I would recommend metal wheels of course.

Be sure to read Ted's detailed vignette on these cars: Ted's Tank Car Vignette

Couplers

I had truck mounted Kadees when I started, but have since converted to all body mount. since this car is short, body mounts will work on pretty much any curve.

I usee Kadee #835 originally. When converting, remove the trucks, pull out the wheels, check the gauge, lubricate the journals. Cut the coupler tang off to match the length on the other side.

Now Kadee has the new style "E" couplers and you cannot buy the centerset coupler and gear box combination like the 835.

So you have to buy the 901 centerset couper, and the 912 gear box.

Whichever you get, take the "lid" of the coupler box. The end of the car has a little bit of draft gear detail in the notch where the truck mounted coupler swings. You want to file out the right and left edges of this notch. I used a cutoff wheel going slow to take the edges mostly off, and then a flat file to make the width so the coupler lit just fits. Using the 835 gets the height just right with no shim.

Now drill a 3/32" hole and mount with the machine screw and nut. Even though this places the hole closer to the end of the car, I drilled the hole corresponding to the pivot point of the coupler, which should reduce flex on long trains. You could put 2 screws, but then you have more to hide on top. To make it really pretty, you could use a flathead screw and countersink the surface.

Adding Weight

As noted before, the cars are too light.

Before adding weight, I advise to glue the ends in to the cars, they are just a press fit, and I had several pop open and spill lead shot all over the ground.

I have not determined the best way to glue these, since there is paint involved, so I will experiment.

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