This is for Ken. Too bad G is not your scale! Dan http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aristo-Craf...984333?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item4186c5cd4d
Hmm, the placard ("Poison") is a little extreme. Ken would grab it in a heartbeat if the placard was "UN 1805 Corrosive." George
Dan - Thanks! Aristo-Craft must have modeled this car using the old Walthers Monsanto t/c decals from the 1960's-1970's. Attached is a pic of an old Tyco t/c from Kurt's Christmas train set that I redecorated as a MONX t/c, probably around 1978, using the Walthers decals. (Truck mounted couplers on this model!) Obviously these decals served as the pattern for Aristo's model. The Aristo markings are all bogus, however. Monsanto, Tennessee is more correctly Columbia, Tennessee, south of Nashville. We never made nitric acid there, in fact we made no acids at all there. And, the DOT placard is all wrong - in fact, it is silly. It would never say just "Poison" - nitric acid's (HNO3) nasty features go far beyond just whatever poisonous properties it has. To be technically correct, the DOT placard for HNO3 should read 1760, 2031 or 2032, depending on what grade of nitric is being handled. Nice looking car, though. But, I don't like them splashing "poison" signs all over a model with the company's name on it. In fact, much of what we made at Columbia went into food and pharma products. Typical uninformed image of the chemical industry on display here. Ken ps - Sorry about the crummy pic, I didn't take the time to use the tripod.