I’ve got a pair of cars that I plan on testing a freelance paint scheme on. One of them is a 100 ton three bay hopper, produced by Bowser which leads me to suspect it is of Pennsylvania lineage. The other is a generic MDC 70 ton ore jenny (or jimmy if you are so inclined to call them). Perusing Microscale, Champ, and some other decal producers out there, I wasn’t able to figure out exactly what I should be looking for. One hundred percent accuracy isn’t really needed, but I’d like to be in the right ball park. I’m almost willing to suck it up and buy decals for , say, DM&IR jennies if I have to, but if I can avoid that (so as not to waste the decals I know I"ll never use like the DM&IR arrowhead heralds) I’d like to. Preferably they’d be white. Any help in this matter would be most appreciated.
If you’re looking for dimensional data for ore cars, try Champ. While they’re no longer producing decals, they still have plenty in stock. Unless they’ve changed their stock numbers, you’re looking for set HD-27 Ore Car Data. Depending on how much of the data you require, there should be enough in one set to letter two cars. The set includes weight info, Blt. dates, repack and brake gear data, etc.
They don’t show a listing for 100 ton hoppers, but set HD-5 is for 70 and 90 ton triple or quad hoppers. You could probably alter the individual digits to get the correct capacities, perhaps by using left-over digits from the ore car set.
Wayne
Yes I believe Champ still lists ore car data sets, also Walthers used to make generic data sets that included ones for ore cars, but I’m not sure if they still do. Champ also makes an ore car set that includes enough markings and data to do cars in IIRC 6 different lettering schemes. Don Manlick (of DM Custom Decals) makes ore data sets too, but I think you have to buy a minimum of 25, so that might not work for you unless you’re primarily modelling an ore road.
BTW the MDC ore cars are based on Upper Michigan ore “jims”, the rectangular side one is pretty much spot-on for a Milwaukee ore car for example. The Walthers cars are Minnesota style ore “jennies”. In both prototype and model, the MN cars are a little shorter and a little wider than their U.P. counterparts.
Yeah, the kind of ore cars that once ran from Lake Erie to Pittsburgh in my neck of the woods weren’t the big rectangular sided ones. Thats sort of the reason I’m making this one I picked up somewhere along the line to a sacrificial lamb to test with.
So it looks like my suspicion about Champ being the way to go appears to be correct. Thanks.
It wasn’t exactly clear to me if you were looking for decals for both cars or just the ore jenny. If you are looking for the coal car, I’m assuming it is: http://www.modelrailroader.net/hof_100t3bayhop.php if it is the 100 ton car.
This car is a very good model of a Pennsy 100 ton H43 hopper. They then became Penn Central, then Conrail, and I guess that they are now CSX or NS, except with the hoppers removed. So if you want decals and are willing to throw away the reporting marks, you have a choice of MicroScale 460-87856, CR hoppers w/quality logos 1985+.
Hearld King, which I believe may be back in business, (http://www.heraldkingdecals.com/), had/has H-360 (PC open hopper) and H-700 CR open hopper. There is a similar Reading RR open hopper set, H-502, and a Upper Merion and Plymouth set, H-1780. All of these sets are in white, and should have appropriate data for a 100 ton car.
Hope this helps.
I knew I should have had a look at this thread one last time (just put the order through with Champ for the 90 ton decals). That’s the exact hopper I was talking about. Although its too late through my own haste to help me with this week’s project, those Conrail decals would help with two future projects. The data to one hopper and the Conrail Q logos to another. Not sure how I missed those Microscale ones when I searched their site.
Sorry about that, chief! By the way, if you are interested in decal projects, take a look at the Hearld King site. They actually picture the decal sets, as opposed to MicroScale where you have only a list to reference.