Wordless Wednesday #51
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Freight Car Friday #62 – Hydrochloric Acid Tank Cars
RCRX 1074 tank car for hydrochloric acid service near Watford, ON February 20, 2011
Hydrochloric acid is a commonly produced industrial chemical that has applications in many chemical and industrial processes including steel making. In steel mills it is used to remove rust, scale and other surface impurities from finished steel.
While the car above was not photographed on the Algoma Central, it is representative of a common type of car in hydrochloric acid service. (Note that the Athearn 20,900 gal. RTC acid tank car is pretty much bang on for this prototype.) I did see a couple of similar SHPX cars at Hawk Junction, but didn’t get a good photo; I could also see some similar tank cars from a distance in Steelton yard from the Canyon Tour Train.
A related byproduct of using hydrochloric acid in the steelmaking process is the production of ferrous chloride as a waste product. This corrosive chemical has uses in water treatment systems, and a CN conductor friend of mine recently mentioned that he occasionally delivers a tank car of ferrous chloride from Sault Ste. Marie to the water treatment plant in downtown Toronto. Ferrous chloride (and related compounds like ferric chloride) is also shipped in tank cars of a similar size and design to hydrochloric acid.
ACFX 72346 tank car placarded for ferrous chloride at Sarnia, ON October 10, 2011
Wordless Wednesday #50
Slope Sheets and Hopper Body Assembly
Continuing to make progress on my hopper scratchbuilds this week, assembling the body sides and end sheets.
The above photo shows the layout of the end sheets on the styrene sheet, these were laid out and cut out at the same time as the body side sheets. The angles in this project make things interesting, but essentially it’s a fairly straightforward exercise in geometry.
The tops of the ends are completely straightforward being a simple flat panel, and with the .060″ square top chord extended around. The square stock was filed to fit and the ends assembled to the bodies.
Next step is installing the end slope sheets into the body. The main trick here is to be very carefully to install everything square.
I have a few more of the cars to work through this week yet, and then the next step after that will be to cut out and install the intermediate slope sheets for the central bay.
Freight Car Friday #61 – CN 136559
CN 136559 is a 52’6″ inside length gondola that was built in 1972 by Canadian National’s Point St. Charles shops in Montreal. An overall pretty standard mill gondola, it features drop ends and a wood floor. The design and rib spacing is quite similar to other cars built for CN, CP, British Columbia Railway and Ontario Northland by National Steel Car and Hawker-Siddeley in the late 1960s to early 1970s.
At Hawk Junction July 19, 2017, loaded with steel pipe from Essar Steel.