In another thread I started on Ore Cars, it was stated by a few folks that some of the Model Die Casting (Roundhouse) Ore Cars are Michigan cars and others are C&NW cars.
All of the Ore Cars I have are MDC models. From what others have said (as in above) I assume the Michigan cars are the ones with what I will call a “Bill Boards” on the sides and the C&NW cars are the ones which don’t have this “bill board”? Someone said that the Michigan cars would not have been used by the Minnesota Iron Ore mining railroads.
I am from Minnesota and have seen the cars used by DMIR, and other ore haulers going back to the mid 1960s. I have driven by Proctor Yard many, many times on my way to to Duluth; or, to the Apostle Islands. I have to say the MDC cars I have, look exactly like the ore cars I see there, in both styles!
Obviously, there are subtle differences that my untrained eye, is not picking up. Could one of you guys who really knows this stuff educate me as to the differences.
Knowing the difference will not cause me to scrap what I have, which I’m absolutely happy with as I’m not doing a Minnesota Ore Hauler, anyway. But, I am interested in knowing what makes the Minnesota Car different that the others. Also, let me specify that I am talking about these cars before roller bearing trucks were used.
Although this topic has caught my interest, I am afraid that I cannot contribute to it since I am not versed in the differences among the various types of ore cars.
However, I did find some interesting discussion in the Kalmbach book, The Model Railroader’s Guide to Industries Along the Tracks 2. I don’t have the book but there are excerpts from it on Amazon, and it appears that this topic is discussed in some detail on pages 70 to 74.
I look forward to learning more about the differences in various types of ore cars.
I do have the book “The Model Railroader’s Guide to Industries Along the Tracks 2”, and the discussion isn’t that involved (or maybe the topic itself isn’t that overwhelming):
Great Lake ore cars in general had a coupled lenght of 24ft to fit the unloading facilities, and were rated for 70tons by the 1920s.
Minnesota cars were introduced in 1936; Minnesota cars were about a foot wide than typical Michigan cars, but not as tall (about 6" shorter) - so the dimension of a Minnesota car were in the area of 10’-9" wide and 10’-3" tall.
It then goes on to mention that cars in general could differ in construction techniques and designs, which is acually true of most classes of rolling stock.
I was thinking because others had brought up that there are differences, the differences were going to be significant and noticeable, maybe with differences in construction configuration, not mere dimensional differences which for the most part are almost unnoticeable at HO Scale!
As noted, the difference is in ‘inches’ MDC had both the rib side and flat side cars in their line. I too have been on the ‘range’ many times and also have been to the Michigan ore fields/docks - I never knew there was a difference until Walthers brought out their cars! Since I model the Milwaukee Road, the MDC cars work out just fine!
I gotta believe that there is someone out there on these forums who can educate us about the differences between Michigan-type ore cars and the other types of ore cars.
Here are links to my favorites the PSC ore car. Made in 1899 these cars lasted a long time and made their way to the west coast ending up on the Sierra and Yosemite Valley Lines…
Westerfield made kits in resin of the many variants. The kits are famous for being hard to build…They were also done in pricey brass many years ago. Many YV modelers (the Yosemite Valley had lots of these) track down the brass after looking at the kits. I have 14 of the kits waiting to build…The Westerfield site shows the kits currently OOP but possibly being retooled…
The rectangular sided MDC ore car is based on a Milwaukee Road car, and I believe the one with side braces is based on a CNW car. Several other railroads in Upper Michigan had similar cars. (See links below.)
Michigan ore cars are noticeably taller and narrower than Minnesota cars. To give you an idea, I’ve found that the top of an MDC ore car will be about even with the top of a Walthers Minnesota car that has taconite extensions.
Back when MDC were the only ore cars around, I thought they looked fine lettered for Minnesota railroads. However once Walthers came out with the Minnesota cars, the MDC cars no longer looked correct to me, so I relettered my Michigan cars for railroads that served the U.P., and got Walthers cars lettered for Minnesota roads (or lettered them myself for my free-lance “St.Paul Route”.)
The DMIR sold some used Minnesota cars to the C&NW, so you could find Minnesota cars in the Upper Peninsula after about 1980 or so. But I don’t believe any Michigan cars migrated to Minnesota. IIRC the Soo Line, who served both areas, used Minnesota cars in Minnesota and Michigan cars in the U.P.