These cars were in use from 1906 to 1940. Can I back-date them somehow to say 1895-1899?
Also, I’m not opposed to scratch-building ore cars, but at this point I’m not sure what I would need. I’ve not yet looked for pictures of ore cars, but I’m thinking that that small flat cars with wooden sides might have been something a small mine might have pieced together back then.
30-ton hopper car built by Ensign, 1891. Soon it would be building 40-tonners that looked very much like this.https://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/builders/ensign.htm
Pittsburgh, Youngstown & Ashtabula Railroad # 1818 hopper car GG class hopper car built in July 1895 <
These are more like what I had in mind. Thanks.
I think the Tichy timeline for these cars is a little off. There were a few wood ore cars that made it into the 1930’s, but most iron ore railroads had replaced the wood ones with steel ones in the 1920’s. Also, although it’s possible the particular class of cars Tichy based these on (Milwaukee Road prototype cars IIRC) may have been built in 1906, I believe they were similar to cars built 10 or 20 years earlier.
I think stix is right on point, cars like these would not have been built any later than WWI, and would have been replaced by the early 30’s for the most part. I agree that similar cars likely go back into the 1890’s if not farther.
I think 1940 woukd have been the last few survivors at best.
Sheldon
That’s an “in use” timeline, as stated above, not an “in production” timeline. Production of ore cars shifted to steel pretty quickly during and after WWI, so agreed there. But used freight cars are kicked around for years after production ceases.
There are good drawings of a similar wood ore car in the June ‘78 Model Railroader. They show the trucks as having a 5’ wheelbase. The Tichy trucks look a bit longer than that.
Dave Nelson
The Tichy cars are fine for the 1890’s.
The tichy cars have steep slope sheets because they are desinged for hauling ore and the PRR GG hopper and C&O hopper are designed for hauling coal.
Other options:
Silver City sells resin kits for 1880’s coal hoppers that could be used:
If you go to the Railroad-Line Forums, on the Early Rail forum, the “Canfield and McGlone Resin Kits” thread there is a build of on of those cars described.
Amesville car shops sells a PRR class GA gon:
http://www.amesvilleshops.com/index.htm
Bitter Creek sells a couple types of gons and some 4 wheel jimmies that could be used:
http://bittercreekmodels.com/page3.html
Westerfield sells kits of the PRR GG hopper in both the high and low side versions.
The real answer is to find some pictures of 1895 ore cars and compare them to the Tichy models. That will give you an idea or what changes you could make to the Tichy cars look like the photographs. I’m not an expert on turn of the century ore cars, and I don’t have any photographs, but the Tichy ones look very plausible to me for 1895. Looking at the model photos, they lack a road name and reporting marks. Let’s guess (I don’t know for sure, but I can guess) that reporting marks in 1895 were different from reporting marks in 1940, or today. And is that an AB air brake I see on the model? If memory serves the AB brakes did not replace the earlier K brakes until the 1930’s.
http://s167.photobucket.com/user/MPRailway/media/image_3.jpeg.html?sort=2&o=14
Links above takes you to some 1886-1895 era cars I scratch built a few years back. Design-wise, these probably preceded the Tichi cars- I suspect the Tichy equipment incorporated more metal members to support a larger load. But I have seen pictures of both types in service on the DM&N and D&IR in the pre-WWI era. The Tichy design seems to incorporate a lot of post-1900 recommended practices (e.g., brake location) but I am not enough of an expert to know whether the grab irons are pre- or post-1900.
Split K type. Version used a lot in hopper cars and gons that split the reservoir and cylinder.
Surprise!!! Tichy makes split K brakes (set #3034, $3.00 per set).
Thanks everyone!
Just an added note at this point…
I built these “old time” hoppers back in the late 1970s from a article in the July '78 MR. They were quite simple and didn’t have any brake detail other than the wheel. I just liked the article and the cars. Not bad for when I was 21 I guess and pretty new at scratchbuilding. They don’t fit into my RRs time era by a long shot.
They’re mostly wood, and feather light. I have to put weight in them when I feel like running them behind a 4-4-0 or something for kicks.[:)] Dan
Handsome cars, Dan.
I made some cars similar to those posted above in HOn3. The first few I scratchbuilt. The latest one I 3d printed through Shapeways and it came out great. Perhaps I need to draw up a standard gauge version.
Vernon Smith worked as an engineer on a mining railroad on the Mesabi Range from I think 1929-33. In his book “One Man’s Locomotives” (which I don’t have in front of me, so am just going by memory) he noted that after the Crash of '29 business collapsed but then rebounded in 1931, and the need for iron ore was so great in 1931 that Great Northern pulled out what I think he described as either “elderly” or “ancient” wooden ore cars to use to help fill the desparate need for ore cars.