Atlas Model Railroad Co. Product Review

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This review was taken from the June, 2000 issue of Model Railroader Magazine and is reproduced with permission of Kalmbach Publishing Company, Waukesha, WI.

HO Scale Contemporary Tank Car

Review by Jim Hediger, Senior Editor

Here’s a nice model of a contemporary, medium-size, general service tank car from Atlas. The ready-to-run car closely matches prototype drawings of an ACF 23,500-gallon car published in the book, American Car & Foundry Co. 1899-1999, by Edward Kaminski (Signature Press).

The model represents an insulted class 111A100W-1 car built by ACF from the late 1960s into the 1990s. The class number indicates it’s a domeless, non-pressure car with a welded tank made of shell or aluminum alloy with safety valves rated at 35 to 75 psi. It has exterior heating coils and rides on 100-ton trucks. These cars can be found hauling chemicals, food products, and some petroleum products.

The Atlas model is made up of a tank shell detailed with separate ends, ladders, and platforms which are cemented in place. A bottom pan casting includes the stub sills and end platforms, with added brake system, bottom outlet, and placard boards. Two flat steel weights are secured inside the pan with screws and the bottom is attached to the tank with another pair of screws. The end railings and side safety bars are wire.

I’m impressed with the well-done plastic details like the manway and fittings on the top platform. Items like the bottom outlet and brake rodding beneath the tank-which are very prominent on the prototype frameless cars-add authenticity. These parts are durable, but the model still must be unpacked and handled with care to avoid damage.

Accumate knuckle couplers come installed in the coupler boxes and their lids are mounted with screws. The coupler height matched a Kadee height gauge. Horn-hook couplers are provided in the box and can be easily substituted if desired.

Appropriate 100-ton roller-bearing trucks are provided and they’re extremely free-rolling. The rigid acetal plastic trucks have excellent sideframe detailing. The scale 36”-diamter wheels are turned nickel-silver with needlepoint stub axles that are pressed into an acetal axle tube. These wheelsets match the National Model Railroad Association’s standards gauge perfectly. Most modelers will want to paint or blacken the shiny wheel faces for greater realism.

The sample car weighs 4.5 ounces, matching the NMRA’s Recommended Practice of one ounce plus .5 ounce per inch of length.

Model Railroader’s samples came neatly decorated in the typical plain paint schemes of the most modern tank cars. Even so, the appropriate data is there is clear, opaque lettering.

Modeler’s of contemporary railroading will no doubt be able to use many of these excellent cars.