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AHM Helium Car 5423 C Dept. of Mines Updated 4-29-07
Many years ago AHM produced a plastic model of the helium tank cars that were found on the ATSF. Jay Miller reports: "Both the AHM and the Ambroid helium car kit are, at best, "holding pattern" cars until the real thing arrives-- hopefully in a year or so as a resin kit. "The Pecos River Brass car is a late design (1961) Magor car and not suitable for 1940-1950 era modelers. "A complete treatise on the operations and design of the helium fleet will hopefully be presented as a clinic next year at the SFMHS convention in Oklahoma City. At that time, there should be an announcement of availability of the kit. "It was our hope to have the kit in 2006 at the Amarillo meeting as the official convention car but we were unable to have the patterns completed in time. "A very abbreviated history of the cars is as follows: "One experimental car had three tanks-- 1001 circa 1929. The first 10 production cars were built by GATX (ca. 1930) and had 28 tanks. Subsequent orders through 1962 were built by ACF and Magor with 30 tanks. Car were rebuilt during their careers. "In 1943 there were 76 cars and all were marked USNX and painted Navy gray. This continued through WWII and up through June 1955 with a typical roster of 85 cars. "After July 1955 the fleet was parsed between the Bureau of Mines and the US Atomic Energy Commission. Some new cars were ordered and some were lettered ATMX for the AEC. The remainder of the fleet were re-lettered MHAX for the Bureau of Mines. At this time, we suggest that the color was changed from Navy gray to silver. The Navy went out of the lighter than air business with the last flight of an airship in 1962. In 1962, nearly 200 helium cars were in operation. "By the 1980s the cars were all lettered MHAX. In 1996 the federal government went out of the helium business and the cars headed for scrap. "The cars were all based in the Amarillo area and loaded from production plants at Amarillo, Exell and Keys, Oklahoma. The natural gas in the enormous Panhandle field has the highest concentration of helium gas, hence the location of the Bureau of Mines Helium Operations Center. " "For 1951, the cars would be gray and the lettering black and
all would be lettered USNX." Jay Reports recently (2007) discovering a wealth of material on these cars and promises an update in thenear future.
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