Tangent HO GA 8,000 Gal. Insulated Tank Car, 1917-Design National Tank Car Company “NTCX”

Description

By the end of World War I, U.S. production of oil and oil-related products was sharply increasing thanks to the combination of war-related demands as well as demands from home. In order to move oil and “new” consumer products, tank car producers introduced new car designs. In 1917 General American Tank Car introduced a new general service 8,000 gallon non-insulated tank car (a prototype for which we released a model in November 2016 with a few still in stock), and quickly followed that production with an insulated 8,000 gallon tank car, which utilized a “jacket” that surrounded the tank and dome. Built in East Chicago, IN, these insulated cars were easily identifiable by their circumferential rivets that surrounded the tank body, with notably different heights between the courses, and with their “recessed ends”. These “radial course” tank cars utilized steel bolster plates that rise up vertically to hold the tank in place, complete with a “web” section behind to minimize steel consumption. At a time of fairly monochromatic box cars plying the rails, these insulated tank cars carried consumable products, and they were typically stenciled for lessees advertising consumer products such as gasoline, wine, and corn products.

NTCX “1922+ Lease” is Tangent’s offering for “pre-depression” and “pre-diesel” modelers out there who have been requesting “plain” tank cars! NTCX are the reporting marks for National Tank Car Company, who operated a fleet of 8,000 and 10,000 gallon tank cars. Their insulated tank car fleet represented more than 30% of their total tank car fleet, which was large percentage-wise. This model is offered in the “plain leaser” NTCX scheme from 1922 and was stenciled from an actual photo (see our website). These NTCX cars were nationwide roamers and were likely used for viscous oil products. Our National Tank Car Company 1922+ cars come with era-correct K-brakes and are available in three road numbers. Because each real tank car was formed by hand and had individual gallon notations stenciled on each end of the car, all three of our models have the correct gallons stenciled on each end.