36’ BITUMEN and HEAVY OIL RAIL TANK CARS

Between 1957 and 1959 Tulloch Limited constructed 12 rail tank cars designed to carry bitumen or heavy oil products. The underframe design was standardised between all 12 cars, being 36’ long over headstocks with 6” channel solebars. Bogies were standard RTC 5’6” wheelbase with 33” diameter wheels. Wheel centres were spoked or 4 hole disc. We have designed a new round cap friction bearing bogie for the 1960s series.

Of the twelve cars constructed, two 5000 gallon cars were built for Ampol, these were unlagged. They were designated to carry black oil products and fitted with steam heating coils to assist with content discharge, if required. They were numbered AMP No.32 and No.33 and painted corporate blue, later becoming NTBF 4032 and 4033 and re-painted black.

Nine 7500 gallon cars were built for Bitumen and Oil Refineries (Australia) Limited, BORAL, all of these cars were lagged. Cars RC100 to RC108 were fitted with steam heating coils, RC107 and RC108 were also fitted with gas burner heating tubes and end flues. The gas burner fittings were identical to the road tankers, which allowed content heating with the road tanker equipment. All were clad in polished aluminium sheeting with black painted metal work.

Later RC100, 101 and 102 had the lagging removed but retained the steam heating coils for black oil products. The BORAL registered cars migrated to the TOTAL fleet in the 1970s; TP100 was re-painted black and TP101 and TP102 were painted Indian red with orange TOTAL branding.

The final unit in the series was a 7500 gallon car constructed for BHP to carry Tar products and numbered BHP237.

Bitumen was a highly necessary commodity during the 1960s and 1970s. In rural NSW many new roads were being constructed and the sealing of older roads was taking place due to the rise in automobile ownership.

Bitumen was loaded and transported hot (up to 400 deg F) and if transported for longer than 48 hours usually required reheating prior to unloading. As the need for the product could be anywhere within the country rail network the cars were designed to be unloaded with a minimum of facilities. They were regularly discharged directly into road tankers with only the discharge pipe requiring heating before the contents could flow.

Heavy oil or black oil was used in many places where package boilers where used to produce large quantities of hot water or steam heating like hospitals, schools and industry. Heavy oil had replaced coal as the preferred fuel for these applications.

The models follow our earlier OAK milk tank cars and TE wagons with Centurion Tank load in multimedia construction. The new 36’ chassis is injection moulded ABS plastic part that utilises our existing 45’ RTC brake gear and the bogies are also from our earlier RTC and OAK range, with the exception of the new round lid friction bearing version. We have also included a new 33” diameter 4 hole disc wheel centre for this project.

The four unique barrel designs are rapid prototyped masters and then hand cast in polyurethane resin. The walkways and handrails are etched stainless steel. The production lead-time was over six months due to the complexity of the casting, painting, printing and assembly.

The couplers are genuine Kadee #158 scale head whisker style.