FishTank car

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im assuming you mean an automobile that plexiglass replaced the windows and was made in to a fishtank i have never seen one.
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A fish tank car? Never heard of fish being transported by train...

But the Shedd Aquarium used to transport salt water from Florida to Chicago via their own train car. There used to be a photo at their website, but I don't see it now.
 
Yes, indeed, there was such a car, an aquarium car. I know it was produced by Lionel in O27 because I had one as a kid and I think it was modeled after the one that the Shedd Aquarium used. There were about 10 fish in the car and three or four were connected to gears on the axles and "swam" around. The whole side of the car was clear with a steel panel in the middle and the ends were standard steel ends.

Yep, here's one on e-bay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Lionel-railroad...oryZ4148QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem. I sure wish my mother hadn't thown out all my old Lionel stuff. :(

MTH had an O Scale aquarium car but it was pretty tacky with some fake looking swimming seals. Lionel also apparently reissued the aquarium car in 2001 but I've never seen one. I've never seen any aquarium car in HO scale.
 
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That's cool. I never thought to combine my fish and train hobbies, but where would you find HO scale fish to put in it?!?!
 


An "aquarium car" filled with water would most likely weigh in at over 300,000 lbs (150 tons) (assuming a 50' box car). That would be one heavy car to be transporting around.

Even if you could find trucks to support it. Most modern boxcar trucks are rated for about 100 tons.

It would be some neat engineering to actually haul an aquarium of that size.

-G-
 
Lateral-G said:
An "aquarium car" filled with water would most likely weigh in at over 300,000 lbs (150 tons) (assuming a 50' box car). That would be one heavy car to be transporting around.

Even if you could find trucks to support it. Most modern boxcar trucks are rated for about 100 tons.

It would be some neat engineering to actually haul an aquarium of that size.

-G-
Click to expand...

Not to mention how thick the glass would have to be to keep from breaking from the hydraulic "hammering" of the water sloshing around in a moving train car.

Rotor
 
It would be an amazing amount of heaters or water chillers to keep the water at a livable temp. for the fish.
 
There is a good R&LHS issue on fish cars, FYI.

Most cars were owned by their states' DNR, and used to restock streams along the line with bass, northern, and trout. They would normally park ontop a bridge, and throw the fish off.

One such car, named the Badger II, survives in Wisconsin. The wherabouts of Badger I is unknown, after it left for Canada in the 20's.

http://www.midcontinent.org/collectn/woodpas/wfc2f.jpg

There's a pic of the car at a Fish Fry in Antigo, WI when it was still used as a fish car (yum!!)

They are going to restore it if they can match the funds needed for the restoration.

The J. G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago had it's own car, named the Nautilus, that they would send to the oceans, and bring back fish, sharks, small whales, etc. The car still survives at the Monticello Railway Museum...

Phil
 
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