ICC 103 and ICC 104 tank car paint schemes

[opus722]

I've been playing around with a tank car 3D model, the plans are specifically for AC&F Type 21 tank cars - one insulated version and the other not. I am, however, having trouble turning up prototype photographs of the cars during their service lives. Color photographs are pretty much non-existent with the exception of a few preserved museum pieces and displays. Most Google searches only turn up models which have no guarantee of being prototypical. I am asking if anyone out there has any of the following information. Post 1930s is preferred, but anything is desired:

1. Owners and road names
2. Paint and color schemes
3. Running number ranges

If the information exists in private archives, such as railroad historical societies, I am not against paying for scans or copies of the images.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[montanawestren]

Sounds cool. I strangely cant find one, Ive even tried RailcarPhotos.net and nothing came up.
This comes up on the Google search, but I'm not entirely sure if this is what you're looking for:

-Montanawestren

 

[opus722]

That's an insulated version, but it looks 'stockier' than the plans I have. The website that photo is from has several photographs of those cars, but they're all from a handful of Canadian leasing firms. Seeing as you're the only person to reply, and I thank you for that, in 10 days, photographs of these must be harder to come by than I previously thought. Worst case scenario - I just use the HO scale models as a paint guide. I did turn up some pretty neat pre-1980s hazardous material placards that will look much better than the modern UDDOT ones.

 

[mjolnir]

An obvious starting point would be Edward Kaminski's Tank Cars from American Car & Foundry, 1865-1955, a bit pricey, but still in print, published by Signature Press <http://www.signaturepress.com/kaminski/tank.html>. If it's too pricey for the purposes, you might try borrowing a copy by consulting the interlibrary loan librarian at your local public library, and making a request to borrow the book through that route. As far as owners, that's a bit more difficult. Again, consulting with your local reference librarian might provide information about the nearest library with a collection back issues of the Official Railroad Equipment Register. Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburg has (or had) a transportation department, and an email or phone call to the Tranportation Department Library would quickly determine whether they had back issues of this publication, or not. Otherwise, contacting the Library staff at the John W. Barriger III transportation library, in the St. Louis Mercantile Library of the Libraries of the University of Missouri, St. Louis, might be valuable; this is the location of the American Car and Foundry Archive, housing most of the corporate records of AC&F during the period of your interest.

ns

 

[opus722]

Thanks for that hint. I looked up the Kaminski book on our library's search and it only turned up 7 library copies in the whole country. Worth a try to see if they can get it through interlibrary loan as it looks like it has a load of invaluable information in one easy location. Official Railroad Equipment Registers are all over the place,including some locally, so that's a good thing. I'll try contacting those other places once all the Easter holiday stuff settles down. Thanks again for all that information.

 

[mjolnir]

You're welcome.

But noting your location as "Southwestern Virginia, USA", maybe you can help out with another thread, <http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?100059-Looking-for-a-a-route>, which is about your general part of the world. Do you happen to know the name of the NS station in WV where the NS (ex N&W?) branch through Grundy, VA has its Northern terminus by means of a wye built over the channel of the Tug Fork River? It looks to be a particularly picturesque location, and yet, there is nary a photo or video of the place. If you don't know, not a problem, as I if I don't find out beforehand, I expect to phone the Grundy VA NS Agency on Monday.

ns

ns

 

[opus722]

I'm not completely familiar with that area, but I posted what I knew/could find out about it.

 

[mjolnir]

Maybe this might be of some use:

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ns

 

[Isegrinns]

http://steamerafreightcars.com/gallery/tanksmain.html

Might help as well. ^^

 

[opus722]

Thanks for the new info guys. Can't believe I never saw that steam era freight cars page... The yard picture makes me want to finish this so I can run something like that. I should have some renders up in the next few days.

 

[Barklay]

It's always fun to see old photos of the technique.