Tank car - WikiHQ

thumb|Modern tank cars carry all types of liquid and gaseous commodities|300x300px

[[File:Tank cars in railyard.jpg|thumb|Rows of tank cars at a railyard in the Midwestern United States

1869: Wrought iron tanks, with an approximate capacity of per car, replace wooden tanks.
1888: Tank-car manufacturers sell units directly to the oil companies, with capacities ranging from .
1903: Tank-car companies develop construction safety standards. More than 10,000 tank cars are in operation.
1915: A classification system is developed by the tank-car industry to ensure the correct match of car type to product being shipped. Some 50,000 tank cars are in use.
1930: 140,000 tank cars transport some 103 commodities.
1940s: Virtually every tank car is engaged in oil transport in support of the war effort.
1945–1950: Welding replaces riveting in car construction (both underframes and tanks) for the major manufacturers, including American Car & Foundry and General American.
1950: Pipelines and tank trucks begin to compete for liquid transport business.
1963: The Union Tank Car Company introduces the "Whale Belly" tank car.

Usage

North America

thumb|upright|AAR Plate-C loading gauge

thumb|Inside the valve housing on top of a tank car in the United States, with a [[magnetic level gauge pulled out

Insulated cars (which may also incorporate heating or refrigeration systems) are used when the contents must be kept at a certain temperature. For example, the Linde tank car depicted below carries liquefied argon. Cars designed for multiple commodities are constructed of two or more tanks (compartments). Each compartment must have separate fittings. The lower capacity and added complexity of multicompartment cars means that they make up a small percentage of the tank car inventory.

Specialized applications

thumb|Pressure tank car for compressed liquified gasses

DOT-111

The DOT-111 tank car, designed to carry liquids such as denatured fuel ethanol, is built to a US standard. The design has been criticized on safety grounds. The train in the Lac-Mégantic derailment of 2013 was made up of 72 of these cars.

DOT-112

DOT-112 tank cars are used in North America to carry pressurized gases. One of these tank cars exploded in Waverly, Tennessee, killing 16, when a Louisville & Nashville train derailed. While the clean up efforts were under way, the tank car, UTLX 83013, ended up exploding from a BLEVE.

DOT-114

DOT-114 tank cars are used in North America to carry pressurized gases.

Milk cars

right|thumb|A historical [[Milk car#Tank cars for bulk loading|milk tank car for bulk loading at the Illinois Railway Museum.]]A milk car is a specialized type of tank car designed to carry raw milk between farms, creameries, and processing plants.

Milk is now commonly chilled, before loading, and transported in a glass-lined tank car. Such tank cars are often placarded as "Food service use only".

Liquid hydrogen tank car

Tank cars of this type are designed to carry cryogenic liquid Hydrogen (LH<sub>2</sub>). North American cars are classified as DOT113, AAR204W, and AAR204XT

Pickle cars

A pickle car was a specialized type of tank car designed to carry pickles. This car consisted of several wooden or metal vats (typically three or four) and was often roofed. Pickles which are preserved in salt brine were loaded through hatches in the roof.

===Tank containers===

thumb|Type of shipping containers mounted on a [[spine car: Tank container (left), and an open-top shipping container with canvas cover (right)]]

A tank container, also known as ISO tank, is a specialized type of container designed to carry bulk liquids, such as chemicals, liquid hydrogen, gases and food grade products. Both hazardous and non hazardous products can be shipped in tank containers. A standard tank container is long, high and wide. The tank, which is made from stainless steel, is held within a box-shaped frame with the same shape as an intermodal container. This allows it to be carried on multiple modes of transport, such as truck, rail and ship.

Torpedo car

thumb|Torpedo car

A torpedo car or bottle car is a type of railroad car used in steel mills to haul molten pig iron from the blast furnace to begin the process of primary steelmaking.

The thermally-insulated vessel is mounted on trunnions, and designed to endure extremely high temperatures, as well as keeping the metal in a molten state over extended periods of time. The vessel can be pivoted along its longitudinal axis to empty the pig iron into a ladle. The name is derived from the vessel's resemblance to a torpedo.

Vinegar cars

thumbnail|right|Wooden vinegar car, at the Toronto Railway Museum in [[Roundhouse Park.]]

A vinegar car is a specialized type of tank car designed to transport vinegar. The largest such car built was built by Morrison Railway Supply Corporation <!-- Morrison Knudsen Corporation

--> in 1968. The car's underframe included all of the modern facets of freight car design including roller bearing trucks and cushioning devices built by FreightMaster, while the tank that rode on it, made of Douglas fir, had a capacity of . The car, in what has been called 'the largest wooden tank car ever built', took 18 months to build.

The Reinhart Vinegar Car can be seen at the Toronto Harbourfront Museum.

Vinegar is now moved in ordinary tank cars lined with glass, plastic, or alloy steel.

"Whale belly" cars

In the early 1960s, the Union Tank Car Company introduced a series of "whale belly" tank cars which offered increased capacity. These cars carried from in CSOX #31084 to as much as in GATX #96500, which had been conceived as a 'rolling experiment'. The largest tank car ever placed into regular service, UTLX #83699, was rated at . It entered service in 1963 and was used for over 20 years. GATX 96500 is now on display at the National Museum of Transportation in Saint Louis, Missouri. This car is long, weighs empty and rides on four two-axle trucks for weight distribution. It transported diverse substances, such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and anhydrous ammonia.

Safety

thumb|A tank car carrying [[chlorine, displaying hazardous materials information including a U.S. DOT placard showing a UN number]]

Where AAR couplers are fitted, the AAR type "F" coupler is preferred as these are less likely to become separated in a derailment and become a puncture hazard for other tank cars. A type "E" coupler that has shelves over and under the coupler that prevent the coupler sliding out of position after a derailment is used on some hazardous materials tank cars.

In addition, some types of tank cars have a second end plate visible from the exterior, to further avoid end punctures.

It is also preferable if each tap (valve) is recessed within the body of the tank so as to present a reduced knock-off hazard during a derailment.

Tank cars have been involved in many rail disasters, including the Lac-Mégantic derailment in Quebec in 2013, the Nishapur train disaster in Iran in 2004, and the Viareggio train derailment in Italy in 2009.

Outside North America

right|thumb|Narrow gauge [[Kambarka Engineering Works|tank wagon, gauge]]thumb|Tank wagon on a Russian [[fire train.]]

thumb|A tank wagon (for [[phosphoric acid) near the wagon repair shop of VR in the Viinikka district of the city of Tampere, Finland]]

Outside of North America, tank cars are also known as tank wagons or tanker wagons. In the United Kingdom tank wagons were traditionally four-wheel vehicles. Some long-wheelbase four-wheelers are still in use but bogie vehicles are now used as well.

File:Esso Tanker.JPG|An old Esso Tanker, at the Nene Valley Railway, England

File:BTM-tankerwagons-04.jpg|Long-wheelbase four-wheel tank wagon in England

File:Beeston railway station MMB 34.jpg|Modern British tank wagons, photographed in 2013

File:Consett-tankwagon41.jpg|Consett tank wagon #41 in the Beamish Museum

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Notes

References

External links

Rail Whales
Modern Tank Car Homepage
Liquid Hydrogen Transport by Rail
Tank car dimensions
Guide to Rail Cars
Bureau of Transportation