A 60,000 Gallon Whale Belly Tank Car

[D&J RailRoad]

Here's another resin kit. Gonna need a lot of body putty on this one. Body is just an 11" PVC pipe. All the other parts are rough castings that will need a lot of sanding and fitting.
The second picture is the ends of the belly part CA glued and clamped to the PVC pipe.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

KEN - Happy to see you building an occasional non-powered car for your RR.
You are what I refer too as a full round modeler - not just someone who runs trains?
Back in my modeling days - I enjoyed building rolling stock more than actually running trains

Looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

 

[Rico]

Wow
Talk about a basic kit, I’ll be following this one!
(no pressure Ken!) lol

 

[beiland]

I acquired a partial built kit back in 2012, and have yet to get around to completing it

Quality Craft produced a kit for this 96', 60,000gal tank car.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/52205654/Quality-Craft-GATX-96-60000-Galon-Tank-Car

I acquired a partially completed one recently, and I would be interested to buy another incomplete kit for additional parts.

https://modelrailroadforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/whale-belly-jumbo-tank-car.20108/

 

[beiland]

 

[D&J RailRoad]

great picture. Thanks.

 

[beiland]

If I remember correctly that car was displayed at a museum in Texas, and subsequently got floated away in a hurricane flood they had down there,...then subsequently cut up and scraped.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Yeow!! I'll be sure to tie mine down.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Finished grinding down the components to make smooth contoures then added some body putty to fill in the gaps. I'll let that set up for a few hours then smooth it out with a file then sand paper.
The putty was pretty dry and didn't apply to the tank as easy as I thought it would.

 

[beiland]

Looks like a LOT of extra material that needs to be removed?

 

[D&J RailRoad]

The putty was very difficult to work. I thought it would be the consistency of wall plaster but it was more like wood putty. It doesn't spread on, it has to be pressed on.
Got some filing done on it today.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Did somemore sanding on the tank body. Very slow process. I'll have to buy some paintable body putty tomorrow. This putty just can't be smoothed very well.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Gonna ask a stupid question here!
Why does it look as if it has measles?

 

[D&J RailRoad]

That's lead beads imbedded in the body to give it weight.
I did some more sanding on it today. It needed some small dabs of filler but I didn't want to drive 35 miles to the hobby shop to buy it. I made my own with CA glue and baking soda. Just mixed a small amount that would fit in a bottle cap then dabbed it on the low points of the body.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

I made my own with CA glue and baking soda.

I used to use talcum powder and clear finger nail polish in the days prior to CA in order for a "smooth" metal like finish.

 

[beiland]

Doesn't that combo of super glue and baking soda make for a VERY tough filler to sand??

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Doesn't that combo of super glue and baking soda make for a VERY tough filler to sand??

Prolly, but that other stuff I put on it first was hard a glass to sand down.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Did some more sanding on the home made body putty. It's looking better.
Added the end caps to the tank this evening and letting that CA glue set up.

Started setting up the truck bolsters. Filed the casting flash off then gave them a flat black painting.

 

[CambriaArea51]

Looks good Ken. Good thing they didn't run them as unit trains.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

never considered that.