Dual Diameter Tank Car

Found this pretty well weathered whalebelly tank car temporarily spotted on the street just outside of the location of my future Midwestern Plastics plant. There must be a switcher working around here someplace, because they wouldn't just leave a tank car out in the street for very long...would they? Oh well, maybe this one's empty anyway because the hazmat placard is blank.

I'm not sure why this type of tank car has disappeared from the railroads. This one is an Atlas model, and I've got another one like it in the storage cabinet, but it's not as weathered as this. I like this one better than the other. I entered this one in a weathering contest 3 or 4 years ago.  Came in 4th out of 7 entries I think. It really should have "shelf couplers" in place of the regular KaDee's, and brake line piping below the tank would really make it look good. Maybe I'll get those couplers one day...I'm less sure about doing the piping.

I've found in the past that getting "rust" to show up the way it should on a black model freight car is not easy. The same thing can happen on brown or boxcar red cars. My solution to this takes quite a bit more time, but is worth it in the end.  All of the rusted areas that I've done on this tank car - tank, walkway, and handrails - were done first with white. Then, once that was thoroughly dried, I went over it again with burnt sienna covering all of the white, and then emphasized heavier corrosion with burnt umber.  The white layer gives the rust shades more "pop" than just burnt sienna over black.

Looks like the switcher is just coming down the street now...

Same car, back at the freight yard.