Model Railroad Hobbyist | March 2016 | #73 GETTING REAL column Tony Thompson Tank Car Basics: Part 2 | Accurate tank  car modeling follows the prototype PART 1 SUMMARIZED THE HISTORY OF tank car construction and regulation for the period up to and including the 1950s. It showed details of car appliances, along with a description of tank cars in service. In Part 2, the intent is to show examples of modeling approaches that take advantage of the prototype information in Part 1, with emphasis on HO scale, my own modeling scale. These are not descriptions of modeling projects as such, just indications of what models may be possible, and ways to address them. It is useful to begin by reminding modelers that though there have been many commercial tank car models down through the years, before about 1990 these were usually rather generic. They often did not match any specific car exactly; they were also often oversize, perhaps reflecting a desire by XX MODELING REAL RAILROADS AND WHAT THEY DO • INDEX • TABLE OF CONTENTS