so i recently picked up the walthers 4-pack of ore cars. i decided to purchase the data only version because i didn’t really want any of the roads that they produce these in. they look great, but now i have the question of how widely used were these cars… did many railroads own these or was it only a small subset much like the ones walthers produced?? i am having some difficulty identifying a railroad id like to authentically decorate these cars as.
also, if anyone knows specifically of any railroads that had these in the pittsburgh/ohio/west virginia area that info would be greatly appreciated…
The Walthers cars are models of the “Minnisota” cars used by the railroads in that area. D.M.& I.R, GN, NP. The railroads in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan used a car that was slightly narrower and taller. The DM&IR sold cars at verious times to other roads so any road that hauled a heavy load such as iron ore could have used them. I’m sorry that I haven’t any information on any roads in your area. Check some of the historical groups for those roads I’m sure they could help.
Roads other than the Minnesota/Michigan ore carriers did have some of these cars, but for the most part they stayed around the Great Lakes. The cars were built short so that coupled they are on 24’ centers, which line up with the dock pockets on on the Great Lakes ore docks. With a 70 ton payload on a short wheelbase, they can stress some older bridges and usually have a speed restriction when loaded.
Back in the late 60’s, I worked on a few ‘all rail’ ore movements over the CB&Q. The GN cars had been upgraded with roller bearings and pellet extensions - but we were restricted to 35 mph with the loaded EB trains. WB empties could be run up to 50 mph…
Previous posts are correct, the Walthers ore cars and taconite cars are based on the Minnesota type ore car. The old Roundhouse ore car is based on the Michigan style car (on a personal note, Athearn PLEASE bring them back in RTR 12-packs, 50-packs would be even better!). For an ore car that you could easily pass off as being on the P&LE, look at Stewart’s ore car design. It is based on PRR’s G-39 type ore car that were used around the Lake Erie, Cleveland and Pittsburgh steel making regions. http://www.bowser-trains.com/hocars/stew_ore_jenny/STEW_ORE_JEN.htm
Railroads uesd mostly their existing coal hopper cars going back from the great lakes ports to the steel mills, many times the cars looked empty because the weight of the ore only allowed a small pile over each truck due to the weight of the ore. (Also the reason for the short ore cars in the Minn and Mich iron ore territory) Also if there was a car shortage gons would also be used, again a small pile over the trucks.
The Pennsy G38 and G39 ore gons were mostly used from Atlantic ports to the various steel centers.The Reading used the majority of their coal hoppers shipping ore to the Bethlehem Steel plant from Atlantic Ports also.
The great lakes traffic was coal to the ports in Toledo, Sandusky, Cleveland, Conneaut and then ore back to Pittsburgh, Dayton and other steel centers using the same cars.
And then, of course, the (fictitious) North Georgia Mining Company could also use some for moving processed gold, copper, and lead ores from the mines to market. But then we would have to replace our ancient wooden covered bridge which can only hold up loaded 55 ton 34’ twin bay cars. When using the 2 bay cars we only load them about half full, which is about 55 tons. The bridge really creaks and groans under all that weight.
