# AMS Iron Mountain Ore Car: Experience/opinion?



## Skeeterweazel (Feb 11, 2014)

I like this little car. Looks kinda plasticy, but has potential.
http://rgsrrhobbies.com/AMS-Iron-Mountain-Ore-Cars.html

Listed at 4-1/4" tall. Do you think that is the height above the track, or the height of the "box".

Please let me know what u think of this car.

Thx.
Marty


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice looking, very nice, great detail, high quality, but for it's size, bloody expensive!

Personally for the price I can get several HLW mini-cars. Not anyway near as detailed but alot more accessible for me. 

If you can afford them - go for it, they are nice.


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## Garratt (Sep 15, 2012)

The Iron mountain is a nice little mining car and fairly robust with not much that can break off. It is about 4" to the top of the hopper. The Accucraft small flat car goes well with it but has delicate brakes underneath.
The Hartland V hopper is there for comparison but the one in the image has smaller 25mm Bachmann wheels fitted.
Hope this helps.

Andrew


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## dms1 (May 27, 2010)

Garden Railways magazine has plans to make cars just like these. I am planning on making 6 of them.


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## Garratt (Sep 15, 2012)

Dave, that's not such a bad idea. Once the journals, wheels and couplers are sourced the construction is fairly basic timber and glue work. I think you end up with a nicer car made from the real thing with it's rough weathered and used look. They would be far more resilient outside behind a live steamer too. Plastic looks plastic.

Andrew


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## ChrisBerry (Feb 9, 2010)

When did those plans appear? 
Thanks,
Chris


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## dms1 (May 27, 2010)

You can purchase the plans here 

Plan No. 17 is 1.22.5 and plan No.56 is 1:20.3

You can also download a PDF of available plans here


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## dms1 (May 27, 2010)

I just wanted to add that I ordered the journals from Ozark. Hartford (now owned by Ozark) has journals that are almost identical to the AMS model but Ozark is not selling them yet (if at all) so I bought the standard Ozark journals.


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## Treeman (Jan 6, 2008)

They do come with metal wheels.


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## Skeeterweazel (Feb 11, 2014)

So stuff on Hartford site isn't really available? I'm confused...
http://shop.hartfordproducts.com/category.sc?categoryId=49

I don't want an ore car per se, but a car that would have been used to carry wood for fuel. Was there such a thing? Like a tender. Gonna use it to hide electronics in.



dms1 said:


> I just wanted to add that I ordered the journals from Ozark. Hartford (now owned by Ozark) has journals that are almost identical to the AMS model but Ozark is not selling them yet (if at all) so I bought the standard Ozark journals.


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## dms1 (May 27, 2010)

Skeeterweazel said:


> So stuff on Hartford site isn't really available? I'm confused...
> http://shop.hartfordproducts.com/category.sc?categoryId=49



I ordered those journals on the Hartford site and after a lengthy period they called and said they were not available at this time.

So I ended up just making an order for the Ozark journals on the Ozark site

I hope Ozark gets the Hartford products integrated into the Ozark web site soon because I would like to order some Hartford items in the near future.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

The plastic cars look pretty good as long as they have a load. There doesn't seem to be any interior detail.


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## Garratt (Sep 15, 2012)

The AMS Iron Mountain Ore Cars have internal planking and wood grain. They also have an internal beam, upper center, between the two sides.

Andrew


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## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

Marty
That is a real good quality weathering, I have some of those cars, always wanted to weather them, you have really intrigued me to get going on it.
Thanks for the idea
Dennis


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## trainsbt (Jan 11, 2008)

```
<a href="http://sierravalleyenterprises.com/mm_ore_car.html">
```
Sierra Valley

The above is the link to the Sierra Valley Munger Mining Series Ore Car.

I scratch built similar ones and averaged about $35 each for parts alone. I used Ozark and Hartford metal pieces, and completed without interior opening mechanism, figuring I was modeling full loads and that would never be seen.

You can scratch-build them cheaper, but sometimes the time it takes to build them makes up the difference in just buying a completed model.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

One other thing to note, the prototypes of this car would have had interior slope sheets on the ends of the car to funnel the ore to the drop bottom opening. The plans that I have for the car are based partly on standard railroad builder's practice, and on the only known picture of the Iron Mountain Mining cars. At least, that's what the notes on the plans say. On the plans, the slope sheets start about half way down the ends of the car and have about a 45 degree or so angle to the drop bottom opening on the car.
I've been slowly working on a car of this type in 7/8ths scale-2 foot gauge, but the car is really narrow in 2 foot gauge. I may have to modify the frame to get a bit more width on the inside of the car. I was thinking about adding extra frame members on the outside of the basic frame to hold the side walls.


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