Karl,
I agree of railroads running cars of various dimensions in a train consist on main lines, which may have been more prevalent years ago where I live, but lately the L.I.RR. seems to be running less freight on it's main.
And yes, those beautiful 'Copper Range' boxcars are unique in their own and that's what I like.
Prototype RR's. run an abundance of varied and interesting cars of freight and especially M.O.W. type.
That's one of the reasons that modeling RR's. is interesting and exciting to me.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Ralph
50 orange cars, 50 mineral brown cars. Never to be made again, at least by us.
The brown scheme is the original used from 1948 to 1964 (a few cars stayed in the brown scheme), the orange scheme happened in 1964 and that was it to the end of operations in 1972 . These cars were sort of an early form of Railbox as they were allowed to roam all over North America. So, it doesn't matter where your layout is based, one of these Copper Range boxcars probably roamed through there at some time in the 50's and 60's.
There are still a handful left of each color, so if you are thinking about it, don't put it off too long. They're at www.nmrrc.org
John
Prototype ore cars also varied in size even in the same train. Iron ore hauling railroads such as the Chicago and Northwestern had several different types of ore cars due to the time of purchase and car manufacturer, as well as cars bought used from other railroads. There were also 50 ton and 70 ton cars. The copper country was no different and had even more variety among the various railroads. It was very common for any given ore train to have different types and sizes of cars. These ore trains look almost haphazard compared to the unit trains we see today with all matching cars. Sometimes what looks "wrong" to us now was actually prototypical and common in the past. Therefore it would be fine to run different sizes of cars on any mainline ore train. Personally I enjoy having the ore cars from different O scale manufacturers on my layout because they are all different enough to add to the variety. The December 2007 issue of CTT had a great article comparing the O scale ore cars offered through the years.
The reason I like these new boxcars available from John's club is because not only do they fit my layout theme, but they are also different from what everyone else has. In fact, I believe they only produced 100 of these cars.
Karl
Thank you John,
The ore car may be the correct proportions for an ore mine and main line, as I have seen cars of varying dimensions, on some short line railroads.I'll run cars of varying sizes on smaller roads, which are further from view and the full 1:48 scale on what's considered a main line, which is closer to the viewer.
Hi Ralph, that picture is from Karl's (Firesteel) layout. The first photo is from mine. My CRRR docksider has the running gear blackened.
Anyway, re the Lionel ore cars - the length and height is pretty close to scale,but the car is narrower than the Atlas/ K-Line ore cars. There is a real precedent for this though - the LS&I RR bought some used ore cars from another railroad and found out that they were too wide for the ore dock.
As far as the caboose goes, it is very undersized. You would have to repaint a scale sized caboose if that matters to you.
John,
Your Copper Range boxcars look great with your Lionel "Copper Range Mine" dockside and ore car, in the picture's frame.
I know the dockside switcher is of 1:48 scale, or close to, proportions, are the ore cars and caboose, of the set, the same 1:48 size proportions?
The reason I ask is, Lionel's ad. states 'O' Gauge and usually Lionel's 'O' Gauge car widths are narrower, than the 1:48 widths of Lionel's Standard 'O', Weaver's, Atlas 'O' and the rest of the 1:48 scale train makers.
Thank you,
Otherwise, the set and box cars look great together
I agree these are very nice boxcars. I purchased both the brown and the orange cars to run on my layout. The photos in John's post above show the Lionel Copper Range docksider pulling these cars. Currently I am only running the brown car on my layout as it fits the era better, but I have a feeling that both cars will find their way onto the layout before long.
If anyone would like more information about the Copper Range, a gentleman by the name of Kevin Musser created a web site(CopperRange.org) dedicated to the history of the Copper Range Railroad. Sadly, Kevin passed away in 2007 at the age of 47. The web site still exists and is maintained in memory of him. I encourage anyone who is even remotely interested in this railroad to check out this web site. I know I learned a great deal from it through the years. The Copper Range connected to the Milwaukee Road at McKeever, north of Rockland in Michigan's upper peninsula. In addition, the Mineral Range/DSS&A/Soo Line interchanged with the Copper Range in Houghton. These cars would be a great addition to the rolling stock collection of folks modeling any of these railroads. Karl
Good looking boxcars, will go well with the Copper Range set put out by Lionel a few years ago.
Bill T.
Each year my club, the Northern Michigan Railroad Club, does a special run of cars featuring local railroads. This year's car is the Copper Range PS-1, which has never been done in O gauge before. We made 50 of each of the two color schemes that the railroad used - mineral brown and orange. These are available now from our website; www.nmrrc.org
Photo by Karl Sablich
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month