Portland Cement Cars

[dharmon]

Anybody know if someone manufactures models of these:

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo=2003022605074416255.jpg&byrail%3A2%3ASafe_Handling



Thanks in advance..
Dan

[Anonymous]

Just what is it your looking for? whole kits or just some decals to apply? I dont have a clue to the kit part but if your looking for some custom decals I might beable to help. Drop me a line at [e-mail] with a subject of portland trains so I know where the mail came from. I will see what I can do. I also am on MSN messagener with the same email if that will help any. hope to hear from you soon

[M636C]

Dan,

There are kits and ready to run cars of an Australian prototype very similar to these cars (basically two cones together at an angle, with a straight top).

These are made by the AR Kit Company. My Local Hobby Shop advertises them at $Aust 27-20 Kit or $Aust 42-00 Ready to Run. The conversion rate is about $Aust 1-00 = $0.75 (as of last night)

They are moulded in light grey plastic. The kits include Kadees and trucks with metal wheels. The Australian cars may be smaller than the US cars, and the safety appliances will differ. I think the "tank" ends are more domed.

The models are described as PRX or PRY class Cement Hopper cars, that being their description until 1980, when the letter "N" was added to provide a national code.
(ie NPRX, NPRY). The final "X" referred to truck exchange for broad and standard gauges, and lettering for both of these classes was included, but there was no difference in the model.

The shop is called "Tom's Discount Hobby Warehouse", and is the largest retailer of model trains in the country.

They show a website of

http://home.pacific.net.au/~tomshobbys

and an e-mail of

[e-mail]

(assuming I've transcribed those correctly, including the strange spelling of "hobbies"!)

Peter

[dharmon]

Thanks guys. I'm more interested in the car itself than the decals, but I appreciate the response. Peter, I'll be checking out the website.

Thanks again
Dan

[M636C]

Dan,

There doesn't seem to be an illustration of the (N)PRX cars anywhere, so I pulled out the official railway diagram (from January 1979!)

This shows that the Australian cars have a greater taper in the conical section, and as a result the support frames above the truck at each end are much larger. There are also horizontal beams the full length of the car each side at coupler height. These beams are braced to the tank with angled triangular flat plates, which fill in the space from the tank to the "frame" beams. The headstocks at each end are also braced to the tank by flat plates, giving the car a much more enclosed appearance.

There is also a much smaller top walkway, on one side only, running the centre two thirds of the car. The ladders run down each side at one end just inboard of the truck.

The walkways and ladders could easily be changed, but it would be difficult to modify the lower (enclosed) part of the car to closely resemble the "Dragon" car.

A few Australian cars were painted white, but the remainder were unpainted aluminium, but are now basically cement- coloured, not having been cleaned in 25 years.

Peter

[dharmon]

Peter-

I took at look at the links and it got me looking at more stuff and I ended up looking at Aussie trains for over an hour..The NPR car looks a lot like the GATX car in the pic but larger. You guys got some interesting stuff down there. I also came across some pictures of the "road train?" ..that is pretty wild stuff on the highways... I found one manufacturer of the GATX model here for ..$285 US..which is a bit pricey for a piece of moving scenery..I may end up having to build one or import some NPR cars...heck for $285 I could have a train of them.

Dan

[CBQ_Guy]

Well if you have deep pockets, check out:

http://www.railwayclassics.com/freight01.htm

[M636C]

Dan, Paul

Wow, a single car that will cost more than the locomotive to haul it!

The photos show that at least some of the cars have flattened sides, which spoils my thought that you just buy some disposable plastic drinking glasses, cut them off at an angle and glue them together, add trucks and couplers, roof walks and ladders, and paint in your preferred scheme!

Even if you had to modify the Australian car, you are literally hundreds of dollars ahead.

Road trains are generally limited to fairly remote areas, but a lot of trucks are what we call "B-doubles", a prime mover with two trailers, one is about 48' but the leading one is about 30' with a rear end open above the wheels, to allow a conventional articulation connection. These are everywhere, on two lane roads, and they do carry a "long vehicle" warning, but they do hold up traffic more than single trailers.

"Tom's" accept Visa and Mastercard, but for some reason accept AMEX in the Canberra shop but not in Sydney or for mail order! Just a local idiosyncracy!

I don't know what sites you found, but www.railpage.org.au has some good links. I couldn't open any of their locomotive photos today, but when in working order their "Locomotive Page" is a good up to date listing of Australian locomotives.

Peter

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CBQ_Guy

Well if you have deep pockets, check out:

http://www.railwayclassics.com/freight01.htm

That's the one I was talking about.......holy cow...$285 for a piece of rolling stock......for that it had better have a DCC sound decoder of brake sounds and cement being loaded and unloaded.[:)]

I think I like Peter's idea..I'll just get two Solo cups and throw some trucks on them.

Peter - after I saw the pics of the road train, there is abolutely no doubt in my mind that 1) Oz is as much if not more in to vehicles than the US and 2) where the idea for some of the stuff in Mad Max came from...

[M636C]

Dan,

The Mad Max series were all filmed in Australia, near Broken Hill in western NSW. Road trains are allowed to run there, and I imagine the producers and director had the same impression as you.

You might notice that the railway has concrete ties and 120lb/yd rail. They were able to use the East West transcontinental for their filming. I imagine they were able to clear for regular trains.

Sadly, younger Australians have taken Mad Max as an educational film on driving technique!

I notice that somebody actually buys the $5000 passenger trains from that website - at least they claim to have sold out on some vehicles!

Peter

[CBQ_Guy]

One thing I should mention is that I read a year or so ago that there was "someone" who was considering doing these cars in resin. Haven't heard a thing more since! But...ya never know.

BTW, the last I heard the company decided not to do the brass ones. I don't remember the reason but I think there were not enough orders or they decided there weren't enough roads who bought the prototype cars, therefore limiting the market of potential buyers.

I read somewhere there were only three railroads who ordered these cars. One was Burlington whom I believe bought the most, one other railroad, and a third railroad that bought only one (or was it three?)!

[dharmon]

I believe that SCL or ACL bought them and Dragon Cement uses them also..