Hi,
I'm considering buying some of the new MTH iron ore hoppers, but wanted to know whether they are a match to the prototype, or if this is a car that they are producing and putting fictitious road names on. MTH has had a history of some good fidelity cars, but also some that are out in left field. I'm not an iron ore hopper expert, but I was hoping to find somebody that is. Any help is greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!!
Mark
Thanks for the response. The cars that I referred to are the HO scale cars. They appear to be pretty good models. The O scale cars aren't even close (I didn't think there was much mining of iron ore on Long Island ).
The roads that I'm considering are the GN, SOO Line, Milwaukee, and Bessemer & Lake Erie. These roads did own ore cars. I'm just hoping for some more authority on protypical accuracy.
LIRR did have ore cars. They were bought from CN for gravel service if I'm not mistaken. They eventually wound up on LS&I.
The HO paint schemes and the cars generally look pretty good. The CP and UP cars were different. There is a minor problem with the yellow top striping on the BN car that can be fixed with some yellow paint. I don't remember if the LIRR cars had high sides or if they got them after going to the LS&I.
The pictures of these cars actually look pretty good for a generic ore car. The detail is better than Athearn/MDC, similar to Walthers.
There are books by Pat Dorin that cover the Lake Superior iron ore railroads and specifically ore cars and ore docks.
BLE cars generally did not make it into Minnesota or Michigan.
Ore trains were generally all the same road name's cars except near the docks near Duluth/Superior where some ore interchange took place. Michigan cars (LS&I, SOO, and CNW) did not make it to Minnesota, and Minnesota cars (DMIR, GN, SOO, and NP) did not go to Michigan. After 1924, SOO and NP cars from the Cuyuna Range were in pool service and mixed freely.
That's a start.
The MTH website doesn't say whether they're Minnesota cars or Michigan cars. Just looking at them I'd guess they're Minnesota cars. Upper Michigan ore cars, like the old MDC/Roundhouse ones that Athearn makes, were a little higher and a little narrower side-to-side than Minnesota cars, which were a little lower and wider.
GN/BN/NP and DMIR served Minnesota, MILW, CNW, DSSA and LS&I served Upper Michigan. I believe the Soo was the only railroad to serve both areas, and I think used slightly different ore cars in each state. As noted, the Minnesota cars tended to stay in Minnesota, and Michigan cars in Michican, but the CNW did buy some used Minnesota cars from the DM&IR in the 1970's. CNW painted over the DMIR herald with black paint and stencilled over that. Walthers did offer cars lettered like that at one time.