AZL - 90513-1 - Tank Car, Single Dome, Funnel-Flow - Port Terminal Railroad Association - 4-Pack

Model Information: Tank cars are specialized pieces of equipment. As an example, the interior of the car may be lined with a material, such as glass, or other specialized coatings to isolate the tank contents from the tank shell. Care is taken to ensure that tank contents are compatible with tank construction.

A large percentage of tank cars are owned by companies serviced by railroads instead of the railroads themselves. This can be verified by examining the reporting marks on the cars. These marks invariably end in X, meaning that the owner is not a common carrier.

Prototype History: GATX introduced the Funnel-Flow series in the 1960s. The Funnel-Flow® tank design slopes to the center of the car to assure quick, complete unloading. As result, they have a distinctive "dip" in the center of the car. These cars were developed by the Union Tank Car Company (now UTLX Manufacturing Inc.) in the 1960s. Designed for liquids that can be unloaded by gravity (as opposed to pressurized unloading), the car is lower in the middle so the tank acts like a funnel to facilitate unloading.

Road Name History: Opened in 1924, the PTRA today serves 226 customers on 154 miles of track on both sides of the Houston Ship Channel in Texas. PTRA has seven yards with a total capacity of 5,000 cars and 20 bridges. Traffic, which typically runs about 2,500 cars per day, includes chemicals, coke, high-wide loads, automobiles, grain, fuel, food products, plastics, steel and industrial products plus intermodal traffic. The PTRA locomotive roster consists entirely of one model, the MK1500D genset switcher built by Motive Power Industries using components of old GP7’s and GP9’s (most from Conrail.) PTRA has 32 of these engines. For most of its history, PTRA was a paper railroad with the connecting railroads serving customers on the line directly. PTRA gained their own identity with the arrival of the first MK1500D’s in 1996. Today the company is jointly owned by the Port of Houston Authority of Harris County, Houston Belt & Terminal Railway, Union Pacific, BNSF, and Kansas City Southern.

Brand/Importer Information: AZL is the leader in North American Z scale locomotives and rolling stock. Since 2000, AZL has released a vast variety of freight, passenger and locomotives. AZL continues to push the boundaries of Z scale with amazing details and incredible performance. No matter if you are looking to run steam, or the most modern diesels, AZL has something for you.