(in Russian, zheleznodorozhnaia tsisterna), a railroad car consisting of a cylindrical welded metal tank mounted horizontally on a one-piece metal frame or on two half-frames, each of which supports one end of the tank. The frame or the pair of half-frames rests on two trucks with two or four axles each. For filling a tank car with freight, a hatch with a leakproof valve is located at the top of the tank. Tank cars are also equipped with devices for draining liquids from the tank. In the USSR, the tankcar fleet consists of four- and eight-axle cars with a freight-carrying capacity of up to 120 tons. (See alsoTANK TRUCK.)