tanks

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From March 1962 S Gauge Herald (page 5) CONVERTING AN ATHERN TANK CAR FROM HO TO S GAUGE
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article shows that tank cars come in all shapes and sizes. No sooner had I decided "anything is prototype" and to go ahead and use an old Athearn HO metal body I had then I ran across just such a 3,000-gallon car, used by the duPont Co. to haul tetraethyl lead, in the neighborhood railroad yard!
I began by mounting standard S Gauge scale trucks on the HO bolsters with a screw of the same diameter but longer (2-56 x '/2") than Athearn's. The bolsters seem small but, of course, this was a narrow-gauge car. The wheels extend slightly beyond the ends of the car, too, but I think such a company as

Photo: But rare as 3,000-gal. cars are, they are not all alike. Here is a two-dome one .

Smelzika-Sovbich would accept anything so long as it worked. A 1/32" washer must be used on each truck to bring the car to proper coupler height.
Since the C & N uses a type of HO coupler once made by Roundhouse, I had no problem mounting couplers in the Athearn draft gear housings. Mounting other types including S dummies might require some alteration of the housings. T made air hoses by winding fine phosphor-bronze wire on a spindle springfashion. I attached each "hose" to the end of the train and on the loose end bent the last coil into a hook, so air hoses may be coupled between cars.

Photo: And here is a three-dome one. Which means all HO tank bodies are fair game for conversion.

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