Review

In the past couple of years, ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, has become a hot commodity for railroads. What once was moonshine is now an important chemical and a significant prt of the president's strategy to reduce America's dependence on imported oil. In 2004, ethanol shipments increased dramatically when the US government required ethanol be used to replace methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MBTE, as a gasoline additive in all gasoline sold in California. Both ethanol and MBTE are used to oxygenate gasoline, reducing air pollution, but MBTE began showing up in water supplies in California and Maine. In 1999, the California state government required MBTE to be phase out, and replaced by ethanol. Since California isn't a corn-producing state, hundreds of millions of gallons of ethanol had to be shipped in from the Midwest, mostly by rail.

Today ethanol is becoming even more important as a replacement for gasoline. Almost any vehicle can run on a fuel mixture containing up to ten percent ethanol and ninety percent gasoline. Automakers like Ford and General Motors already make vehicles that can run on E85, wich is fuel containing up to eight-five percent ethanol and both have pledged to increase production. E85 pumps are appearing at filling stations in many areas. All this means even more traffic for American railroads as ethanol i shipped to refineries all across the country.

More cargo means more rolling stock is needed to transport it. As the largest producer of specialized rail cars, Union Tank Car Company is well suited to meet that demand. It's been the leader in tank car production for over a century. The company stepped up production of 30,000 gallon tank cars at its plants in Sheldon, Texas, and East Chicago, Illinois, and began construction of a new stat-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Alexandria, Louisiana in 2004. On June 21, 2006 Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco cut the ribbon on UTLX 205400, the first car to be produced at the new plant.

The prototype

The new UTLX Funnel-flow car has an American Association of Railroads type code 1222228-B shell and is built to US Department of Transportation specification 111A100W1. In other words, it's a non-pressurized, domeless tank car with welded construction and a tank made of carbon steel. It's also one of the most common types of tank cars in use today.

Union Tank Car engineers designed the car to allow the maximum number to be staged at the loading rack while still staying within the gross rail load limit of 263,000 poounds. Nominal capacity is 30,000 gallons, but actual payload would be about 29,7000 gallons. Measured over the strikers, the cars are fifty-six feet, eight and one half inches long and ten feet eight-inches wide.

The Model

After announcing them in January of this year, Athearn has released a new series of tank cars based on the latest Union Tank Car design. There are twelve roadnumbers in the series, including the inaugural UTLX 205400 cr, plus an undecorated version. The cars are sold singly and in three-car sets, all with different roadnumbers.

Considering their moderate price, the new Athearn cars should be on the wish list of any modern-era model railroader. There ready--to-run cars feature extras that not too many years ago would have meant buying brass or doing a lot of extra work. To begin with, the detailing is exquisite with phot-etched end platforms and top platform walkways, wire grabirons and safety rails, and delicate brake lines. The ladder supports are something you would expect to find on a model costing much more than the Athearn car.

The printing is first-rate, though I had to get a magnifying glass to read some of it. Car and inspection data are sharp and clear and ever the air cylinder has the correct printing. One especially nice touch is the safety placard holder, which is embossed to replicate the prototype.

Of course, it takes more than good printing to make an accurate model. I am happy to say that when it comes to a by-the-numbers examination, Athearn delivers the goods.

Thanks to Don Flowers of Union Tank Car, I was able to obtain the factory specifications for the protytype and I found the new Athearn car measures out to be within a scale inch or so of company specs. It weighs in a 4.6 ounces, very close to the NMRA RP20.1 recommendation for the car's approximately seven-and-three-quarter-inch length.

When I checked with the NMRA Mark IV Standards Gauge, the metal wheels matched the NMRA RP-25 recommendation; and of the dozen wheelsets on our three-car review set, only one was out of gauge. As close as I could measure it, the error was at most two thousandths of an inch. A slight twist of the wheel on the axle corrected this very slight variance. All of the cars rolled smoothly on the test track

The trucks ar good-looking replicas of the prototype's Barber S-2 HD roller bearing trucks. I could wish for sprung trucks, but with all the goodies Athearn already has packed in these models, it would seem almost churlish.

The Athearn car comes equipped with McHenry upper/lower shelf-type couplers. This type of coupler helps prevent cars overturing in an accident and has been required on tank cars since 1983. All of the couplers on the Athearn tank cars mated perfectly with the Kadee coupler height gauge, so there should be no problem running these cars in a mixed-coupler consist.

Since the cars are lterally almost brand-new in the real world, only minor weathering is needed and the cars are otherwise ready to go into revenue service right out of the box.

To add peace of mind to your purchase, Athearn provides an exploded view diagram of the car with a listing of the component parts. Should there be a missing part, the company provides telephone and e-mail contact information to obtain a replacement.

Conclusion

Tens of thousands of tank cars travel the North American railroad network every day. With the new demands for ethanol, it's a good bet we will see lots more of them in the future. While pipelines compete with railcars to deliver petroleum products, no such infrastructure exists for ethanol. Long-haul trucking is an alternative, but that industry is facing problems of its own, including significant increases in the coast of fuel, new federal regulations on diesel fuel and engines, and perhaps most important, a serious shortage of drivers. Even though the railroads are facing similar issues, their ability to cost-effectively deliver large point-to-point shipments of commodities like ethanol from production facilities in the Midwest to refineries anywhere in the country gives them a significant advantage. Like coal drags that travel from the Powder River Basin to a single power plant in Houston, ethanol shipments play to the railroad's strengths All of this adds up to make the new Athearn 30,000 gallon tank cars almost a must-have for the modern era model railroader's roster. Whether you model the American heartland where the loads originate or one of the destination regions where refineries are located, they will be a perfect addition to your fleet of rolling stock.

To make the good news ever better, Athearn is also producing the 30,000 gallon ethanol cars in N scale with all the same numbers.

Athearn clearly has done their homework. They have combined prototypical accuracy, highly desirable features, and a reasonable price to make a product that's hard to beat.