Monthly Archives: December 2022

General American 1928-Design 6000 Gallon 3-Compartment Tank Car from Tangent Scale Models

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My General American 1928-Design 6000 Gallon 3-Compartment Tank Car from Tangent Scale Models arrived yesterday. This morning I’m enjoying my morning coffee in my dachshund Christmas cup looking it over this fine new model release.

This is Tangent Scale Models first model released in O Scale. The model is offered with either O Scale or Proto48 trucks. They are not the first to do that in O Scale, both RY Models and Protocraft have sold their models that way.

First Impressions:
It really is a nice car!
It is well engineered, well decorated and a solid model. Handling it on the workbench, I can say it is not as fragile as some highly detailed O Scale models in the past.

Some things are different from most brass imports. Starting with the box. Much thinner construction than often seen in brass models. Yet strong enough to make the trip to the US and keep the model safe from damage.

The Proto48 Trucks are nicely done and very free rolling. They have roller bearings in the journals. The spring cluster is nicely modeled compared to the usual ball point pen type springs used on some trucks. You can’t see through the spring cluster on the prototype and you can’t see through it on the model either.

Here you can see the fine decoration on the model.

Now to point out some of the engineering standouts. The draft gear is nice. Rather than just leaving a place to mount the oversize Kadee coupler box the box and draft gear are one unit to the bolster.

Here it is from the top.

I think it looks even better without the coupler pin.

And now just for a comparison, here is the Intermountain ACF 8000 Gal tank car along side the new Tangent Scale model. You can see the Tangent model is shorter ad the tank diameter is smaller.

I normally go for more of the Plain-Jane types of freight cars. I almost ordered the 1958 version of the GATX black car. I could have easily backdated the dates to work for my modeling period of 1952. I chose instead to buy a car that I didn’t have to modify at all. Looking at how nice the lettering is applied to the car, I’m glad I did.

Some people might think the the asking price is high. If you consider the added price of a custom paint job and a pair of Proto48 replacement trucks, the price comes in under what some undecorated 30 year old brass cars from Pacific Limited currently sells for. I think this new release from Tangent Scale Models is a bargain.

Since the Tangent Scale Models announcement the other day, a few people have been very vocal that they wanted a different model produced. Well if that is truly the case, they can drop the cash and invest in a new company and produce whatever they want. They don’t seem to do more than just complain anyway. I’m waiting for their announcement of a new company and a new model release.

New Model Released

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O Scale / Proto48 has a new manufacturer, Tangent Scale Models announced the release of a new model of a GATC 6,000 Gallon 3-Compartment tank car. They are now available from the Tangent Scale Models website.

The models are hand-crafted in brass in Republic of Korea by SamModel and are offered in both O scale 2-Rail and Proto-48 configurations.

Tangent Scale Models has offered the modeler a choice of O Scale or Proto48 models with the release of their new 50 ton truck.

Tangent Scale Models has a fine reputation in HO and N scale. I am glad they have taken the chance on the O Scale/Proto48 market with this fine new offering. One of these is in transit here now. I’ll have more thoughts and photos of it after it arrives.

All Photos from the Tangent Scale Models Website.

New Project: Reading LOb

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Reading Company photo – G Losse collection

Well over the last year or two I have mostly worked on simple projects, changing out trucks on a cars, converting 3-rail bolsters or painting/lettering projects. I think that has been because it is hard to focus on a longer term project with all that has been going on with work, life and the world.

This past weekend, I was looking through different scans for a photo and I found this scan of a diagram the Reading Company had prepared comparing the Class LOb the an ACF car built for the LNE. It should be noted that the drawing is dated November 25, 1939 and the RDG Lob builder’s photo shows a date of April 23, 1940.

The drawing clearly shows the two cars are very close in major dimensions and locations of major components. They ocupy mostly the same space.

Reading Company Drawing – Dated November 25, 1939
LNE Covered Hopper similar to the car in the drawing
Photo Bob Losse collection

Long ago I had thought that the weaver car had a lot of similarities to the Reading car but beyond having to remove ribs it also required a number of other adjustments to the car body. I dismissed that as an option but thought the concept a good approach, I just wanted a better starting point.

This got me thinking, Atlas O made an ACF 70 ton covered hopper that is a later design, more of a late ’40’s early ’50’s car. The idea is to remove the ribs and add a wrapper around the shell.

My drawings for this car appeared in RMC back in the 1980’s. I also had an updated set of drawings that my brother Bob had drawn and plotted in O scale for me. I compared the Atlas car to the drawings. The Atlas car is a more modern car and the car body is about scale 18 inches longer but the height and shape of the car is about right.

I started prepping the shell by removing the details. The grab irons on the side and the hatches on the roof. I did disassemble the car but ended up putting it back together because I felt the weight being inside would help stiffen the plastic car body while sanding the ribs down.

I took my time and slowly removed the ribs. I tried to be careful with the sanding to remove the details at the same rate overall to try to keep from sanding the body out of square.

You can see that different details begin to get sanded as you get down further on the the side.

Some people might ask why I didn’t remove the paint first before working on the shell. I found it was useful to keep me sanding evenly. If you are applying to much pressure in one direction you can see if the detail which are at the same height on the car side come off at the same time. If you are uneven they show.

Car sides here show all the detail removed. It doesn’t take that long to sand down the car sides. You just need go slow and keep the car level as you sand. But it does create a mess of the plastic you sand off.

Next time, I need to mark the shell for where I plan to cut it to remove the 18 inches out of the center of the car. Then I’ll add a wrapper and begin to built up the car sides. Stay tuned that will be the next post.