# Interesting Ore Car



## Naptowneng (Jun 14, 2010)

I found an interesting little ore car at ECLSTS in one of the used vendor booths.
It has opening doors under the V shaped body, is nicely detailed with KD couplers.










Has two brake wheels which have realistic castings










There is a label on the bottom which reads 

"Built Boothwyn Shop Oil Creek RR D. Currie"

It even came with a bag of ore...(kitty litter).

I think I will make it a ballast car for my MOW train. 

It would be nice to know where it originated from

Regards

Jerry


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

Jerry, indeed a very interesting ore car. My first thought when seeing your pictures, was that cars like that might have been used to bring ore up and out of some of the deep open pit copper mines in the west; Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Montana. The ore is heavy and the grades are steep. Unfortunately, a quick search on the web showed some ore cars for these mines, but no matches.

Chuck


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## Naptowneng (Jun 14, 2010)

Thanks Chuck, actually I think someone at the booth mentioned copper ore, hmmm...
I am planning an iron mine and foundry/mill and was planning to use some MDC/PIKO ore cars, but this one may get the job. Now I just neeed two more, as I like three of most cars....

Jerry


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## Naptowneng (Jun 14, 2010)

Or it may be a representation of a Gilpin Tram ore car, another fascinating part of NG history
http://www.gilpintram.com/images/Ore%20car-1m.jpg

http://gilpinhistory.org/Exhibits/Tram_Rail.html

Jerry


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

Jerry, thanks, to me your car sure looks the Gilpin car. I lived in Colorado for twenty plus years and was not aware of them.

Chuck


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## Naptowneng (Jun 14, 2010)

One version found on web of Gilpin ore car


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## Mike M (Jan 3, 2008)

Jerry I was the one you got it from The name on the bottom was a persons RR He built it himself
Mike


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## Naptowneng (Jun 14, 2010)

Thanks for the info Mike, I really like the car and will make good use of it with my iron ore mine or MOW work. 

Jerry


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

That's a model of a phase 3 Gilpin Tram ore car. They were the heaviest ore cars on the Gilpin Tram. The prototypes were 2 foot gauge cars, used to haul gold and silver ore.


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## Naptowneng (Jun 14, 2010)

Thanks Amber, I thought it might be 2 foot gage, a fascinating little tram. The car will go well with my iron ore mine, replace a cheap Lionel ore car.....










Jerry


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

That's a nice looking mine hoist frame.


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## Naptowneng (Jun 14, 2010)

Thanks Amber. I based it on the Atlantic Cable Mine in Rico, Colorado which is still there right by the side of the road.


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Hey Jerry, great car! 

Seems fairly sophisticated for a home-cast body, the guy knows / knew his stuff. Serves as inspiration for me, for the V&T cars -- which were vaguely similar in form. 

Cliff


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Cliff, are you talking about the 2 axle ore cars with steel hopper bodies that were used by the V&T? If so, there are plans for the 30 inch gauge version of the V&T ore cars used by the Eureka Mine Tram in the November 1997 issue of the magazine "Finescale Railroader"
I built 3 of those cars back then for G scale, none of them are finished, as usual, but they just need the small details.


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

Jerry, it is seldom that Rico, Colorado is mentioned anywhere. What is your connection?

As a geologist for the USGS, some colleagues and I, back in the early 80s, found an anomaly in our data just up Silver Creek. Not too far from your head frame. We predicted a possible large mineralized system at depth. A few years later a mining company, using their data and ours drilled some exploratory holes. They located a world class molybdenum deposit. At the time I calculated the value to be about $20,000,000,000. Unfortunately, it would have cost more to get it out. It is a resource for the future. For those of you in geology, it is in a class with Climax (not the engine) and Henderson.

I have a very fond place in my heart for Rico. Not just because one afternoon, after work, I caught 45 trout on my fly rod fishing in the Delores River (not too far from your head frame).

We need to meet and talk at Jim's later this Spring.

Chuck


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## Naptowneng (Jun 14, 2010)

Hi Chuck

Thanks for the Rico story, what a good one! My wife and I have, for the last 5 years, gone "west" for 2 months with our little Aliner camper trailer. We wander around Colorado, New Mexico, Ariz and Utah adventuring and doing photography and maybe a little railroad related fun as well. We have camped in a Forest Service camp ground off Delores River Road a few times and used that as a base to explore the San Juan region. After I saw the mine at Rico, I decided to model my iron mine head frame after the Atlantic Cable Mine. And grabbed that photo when the aspens were at their peak 2 years ago. We do the same out of Durango and Ridgeway as well. I am quite fond of the that region, the railroad history, the senic beauty and the fly fishing! I was at Dallas Divide for a snow storm last October and got some nice photos of aspens in the snow along the old RGS right of way. Hope to see you at Jim's

Jerry


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Amber said:


> Cliff, are you talking about the 2 axle ore cars with steel hopper bodies that were used by the V&T? If so, there are plans for the 30 inch gauge version of the V&T ore cars used by the Eureka Mine Tram in the November 1997 issue of the magazine "Finescale Railroader"
> I built 3 of those cars back then for G scale, none of them are finished, as usual, but they just need the small details.


Hi Amber,

Yes, those Eureka cars (and the tiny Porter that pulled them) were beauties. 








Though that was an independent RR (of the Eureka mill) the cars indeed looked like the typical V&T ore cars, such as these:

























A few years back, I tried to design around a hopper from G Scale Larry, and some LGB chassis. I got pretty far with the build, but lost heart because they didn't look right. 









But, with 3D printing and (as with Jerry's car builder) casting new superstructures, maybe I'll take on that little project again, and get closer to the mark

===>Cliffy


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

The Eureka ore cars were built in the V&T shops for the Eureka tram. That's why they look similar to the V&T ore cars.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)




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## Naptowneng (Jun 14, 2010)

Nice looking cars Amber. 

Jerry


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

Now, if I'd ever get the details put on them...


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## TrotFox (Feb 15, 2008)

Those trucks look a lot like the Roundhouse tender trucks I have under my Ruby's tender. Lends credence to the home-brew idea. Are they metal with brass bearings? Single screw to attach the sideframe to the bolster?

Trot, the under-detailed, fox...


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Those are nice looking cars; how did you make the hoppers, Amber? 
And did you use Ozark journals / etc.?


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

I made the hoppers from evergreen styrene sheets that I cut to shape and then glued together. I put small plastic angle stock on the inside of the joints that are 90 degrees to help hold it together. Making the little brackets that go between the hopper sides and the sideframes was a pain in the butt. I had to make a gluing jig from aluminum pieces to assemble the parts for those. I glued the aluminum pieces together for the jig with superglue. I used aluminum for the jig because the plastic glue doesn't stick to it.
I used Hartford Products sprung pedestals for the cars, and the small wheels that you can get with them. I believe the wheels are a scale 20 inch wheel. I built these cars before Hartford products was sold the first time, so they've been around for a while in their unfinished condition. I think I stopped working on them because I could never figure out how to do all the rivet detail.
I still have the hopper parts cut out for a couple more cars, if I ever get around to it. I need to get an arbor press for the rivet embosser that I bought last year so that I can put rivets in the plastic before I assemble the hoppers.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

You know, I think building the hoppers for the Gilpin Tram ore cars, like the one at the beginning of this thread, would be pretty easy. There's no complex angles involved with them, 2 side sheets and 2 slope sheets, that's about it, other than the reinforcing angle irons and channels. The wood end assemblies probably wouldn't be very difficult to build either. I don't know about finding the proper trucks, but you could use other trucks under the car if you wanted to.


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Thanks for the info Amber. 

Were you going to apply rivets on your already built cars? If so, it seems like a top row can be embossed in a wrap-around angle. And for the lower row, at the top of the slope, perhaps embossed on a wrap-around strip? The former would be more prototypical than the latter though...


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## Naptowneng (Jun 14, 2010)

Ah Ha

Back to the original topic, I have found the origins of the ore car. A set of plans for the car was provided in the June 2001 issue of Garden Railways, #50 in their series of centerfold plans that they provided at one time. 










It was based indeed on the Gilpin Tramway ore car, with a tweak to widen it a bit to look right on gage 1 track. It was designed by Ted Stinson, who did most or all of those plans.

And it was sold as a kit by NorthEast Narrow Gage, Kit # 279, unfortunately now discontinued.

http://www.nemodel.com/shop/agora.cgi

(PS- I have made two of their NG flatcar kits, and they were a fun and easy build)

So there it is.

Regards

Jerry


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Nice bit of research, Jerry. 

Their kits look like a lot of fun, but I wish they offered them in 1:24 or thereabouts.


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## Naptowneng (Jun 14, 2010)

Cliff- The two NENG flat cars I made were labeled Narrow Gage (duh) but have a length of 11 1/2 inches and a width of 3 7/8 inches, which I think is rather modest, but as NG is rubbery regarding sizes of cars, maybe ok for you?

Jerry


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)




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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

This is part of a set of plans from an older Narrow Gauge & Shortline Gazette, showing the phase 3 cars. As you can see, the trucks were a bit different than on the Ted Stinson plans, not that that matters too much. The original cars were 2 foot gauge and the phase 3 cars had 20 inch wheels. The smaller phase 1 and phase 2 cars had 14 inch wheels and a shorter wheelbase on the trucks.


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Naptowneng said:


> Cliff- The two NENG flat cars I made were labeled Narrow Gage (duh) but have a length of 11 1/2 inches and a width of 3 7/8 inches, which I think is rather modest, but as NG is rubbery regarding sizes of cars, maybe ok for you?
> 
> Jerry


Yes, that would be just fine. I just measured an LGB flat, it's 4"W x 14.5"L. Rubbery indeed, I'll have to check back with them.


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