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Some shots of Athearn’s new 8K ‘beer can’ tank car.

RELEASED A FEW months back, I’ve finally received my first Athearn ‘HO’ Scale 8,000gal tank car, which are nicknamed ‘beer cans’ for obvious reasons. These are a touch out of place for my New England 2002 location/time frame, but I bought one anyway. Here are a few pictures.

I chose the plain black GATX 5778, which displays lettering suitable for the last decade or so. Obviously, these are very attractive additions to any consist, their short length making for for a striking juxtaposition with 60ft or longer freight cars. Slip one or more of these inbetween 90ft autoracks and 33,000gal LPG tank cars for the full effect!

It worth pointing out that Athearn’s flyer was very quick to stress that this shares no heritage with the old MDC-Roundhouse ‘beer can’ tank car. The lettering is sharp as ever.

The vehicle represents a North American Car Corporation prototype used for corn syrup service and displays a similar specification to previously released Athearn tank cars, such as wire grabs & handrails, correct twin shelf AAR couplers (plastic McHenry) and photo-etched metal walkways.

It has has a nice solid feel and the only thing which really disappoints is the fit of the tank ends, which are slightly smaller than the diameter of the barrel.

The locating clips for the end handrails look a touch overscale, but the top manways and side ladders are excellent. It is in details such as these where Athearn really has the jump over its competition. Atlas, for example, continues to try and get away with slippery translucent and difficult to paint delrin for a number of these details, and all for the same price. The underframe detailing is also sublime on the Athearn product.

Strangely, despite the fine details elsewhere, the corner stirrups are also a little chunky, probably as these are amongst the most vulnerable parts of the model. The square plate on the right hand saddle also looks odd. At first I thought it was an incorrectly fitted hazchem diamond, but it is quite prototypical.

So, another great tank car from Athearn, and it seems a shame to only roster a single car! Not only that, but we have several more to look forward to in the future as well. The first of the Richmond Tank Car 20,900gal tanks is already out (review to follow), with a second (based on the hydrochloric acid variant) to follow later in the year.

The company has also been showing off its Union Tank Car 13,600gal sulphuric acid vehicle, which will be the perfect complement to the Rail Yard Models version.

In all the weeks I’ve spent photographing US freight cars since Spring 2002 I’ve never been lucky enough to come across any of the NACC 8K tanks, but I have caught examples of slightly larger General American Transportation and Union Tank Car vehicles, see below:

This example, GATX 5769, is numbered very close to the Athearn model I purchased, but as can be seen it is a very different car. Note that it sports “Do Not Load’ stencils and seems to have been renumbered at some point.

This UTC-constructed vehicle, UTLX 78520, was in use as a static tank at the Fort Worth & Western’s Hodge Yard in Texas in October 2005.