Prototype: 3 different chemical tank cars, used on the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB/CFF/FFS). Design with funnel-flow tank. Privately owned cars painted and lettered for the Swiss firm Wascosa AG. Use: Transport of caprolactam and/or chemicals.
Article No. | 24544 |
---|---|
Gauge / Design type | Trix H0 / |
Era | V |
Kind | Freight Car Sets |
Model: The cars have detailed, partially open frames. They also have separately applied details. The cars have NEM coupler pockets with a close coupler mechanism. The cars come individually packaged. Total length over the buffers 540 mm / 21-1/4".
AC wheel set 12 x 700150.
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One-time series.
Railroad tank cars are used for more than just transporting fuels; they also transport all kinds of chemicals for industrial use: One chemical that requires specially insulated tank cars capable of being heated is caprolactam - a starting material for the plastics industry – more precisely for the ring-opening polymerization of polyamide 6 (perlon). Another possibility for the polymerization process is in the hydrolytic splitting of the amide bond and the condensation polymerization that then follows. Several mega-tons of polyamide 6 are produced each year. Cyclohexanoxime is produced from cyclohexanone for this purpose by a conversion process with the hydrogen sulfate or the hydrochloride of the hydroxylamine. This is then transformed into caprolactam with a Beckmann rearrangement process. Usually, concentrated sulfuric acid is used as a catalyst. caprolactam forms white crystals at room temperature that are soluble in water and that have hygroscopic properties. Caprolactam is therefore usually stored at temperatures over 80° C or 176° F and is transported by rail as in our example. In the presence of greater heat caprolactam breaks down under the formation of ammonia and nitrogen oxides; the elaborate technology for transport therefore requires special, modern tank cars.