Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Here is a short review and tour of one of our tank cars, restored perhaps over 20 years ago.

Switch Move

Tank car?  I don't see any tank car.  Yet this often the first step in any work at IRM.  US Army 8537 is lugging a string of cars out of Yard 14 so that the subject car can be pulled to a better location.  A great example of how IRM works and how it preserves so many aspects of railroad history.  This could have been a period photo from decades ago, in countless locations.

Left Side

The left side of the tank shows the DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE lettering on the silver tank car body with black trim.  The car was used to haul heating oil and possibly other petroleum based cargoes to air bases and defense silos during the height of the cold war era.  I will guess this would have carried heavy oil products, since the car is equipped with interior piping and heating coils to thin and liquify a heavy product.

Warning

There is lettering on the right side of the tank defining an AAR warning.

Dome

Here is the dome with it long string of lettering.  You can see that decades of outdoor storage has resulted in the upper areas of the dome and tank suffering mightily from sun and weather.

Right Side

The right side of the tank has much lettering and info, most of it mandated by RULE for cars in interchange service.

Tank End

The end had the standard array of lettering containing the reporting marks, capacity, and other data.

COTS

For this era, of the restoration, a set of consolidated lube stencils were used.

As shown above the car has suffered from being stored outdoors, setting us up to doing another restoration of what was once COMPLETE.  The car is on our short list to repaint and I expect it may yet see some significant 'wear and tear' in the coming weeks.  If we are to repaint and letter it yet again, should not we work to store it indoors so the work will last?  Yes this is the commercial asking for donations to fund R12661.  Thanks in advance.