"Spirits Cars" Freight Car Set

Freight belongs on the railroad! For decades that was not a slogan, but rather a matter of course. The railroad management and also large private firms built special freight cars early on for individual types of transported materials. At the end of the 19th century Bavaria was not alone in having numerous special designs – such as for milk and beer, but also for sewage, for ammonia water, tar, or for spirits such as ethanol and alcohol as they were designated at the time in general conversation. The Royal Bavarian State Railways had 45 special cars built by 1912 for the last hazardous materials mentioned. These cars were equipped with a flat basin-style tank. These cars had two platforms. One side was a pump station with emptying nozzles and a handpump to allow loading of the freight in question without special equipment. These cars with brakes were equipped on the other side with a handbrake on a manual spindle or with a Bavarian design brakeman's cab. These cars were used as leased cars or as purely privately owned cars. Their use was by no means limited to Bavaria. They also ran in "cross-border" service with other provincial railroads and even into neighboring countries. These were very rugged cars and a number of them even survived World War II.