Who has the moulds for these LS ore cars, and is now producing them ?
Piko? with the 0-6-0 sets?
You got it…thank you.
At $79 each, the ore cars are no bargain…no detail…poor trucks, very light…no bargain at all…
Then to look at the price they are asking for a starter set…over $500…pile of crap.
It’s one thing to buy an inexpensive string of cars and detail it and quite another to pay that price for something you still have to rebuild!
These guys were selling them, not sure they still are or not:
http://www.midwestcompanies.us/manufacturedproducts/mainlineamerica.html
Fred Mills said:That's Australia. Different currency rates and maybe a VAT too. Ralph
At $79 each, the ore cars are no bargain.......no detail....poor trucks, very light....no bargain at all.... Then to look at the price they are asking for a starter set.....over $500......pile of crap.
I have some of the MDC cars and they have good detail. This is from the Piko site:
(http://www.piko.de/piko_bilder/37800.jpg)
That is NOT the same as the MDC car I have. Are these from the same molds? Hard to believe that someone would remove all the rivet detail. The MDC are as detailed as the USAT (ex Lionel) and the LGB in general, rivet detail, etc. Trucks are not great I would agree. Regards, Greg
Jerry, my fine son;
There is a great difference between an “Ore Car” and a “Hopper Car”
I was only interested in the “Ore Car”
The story started, with a fellow talking with me about locating some of the old Model Die Casting "Ore Cars". He has about 14 of them and wanted to increase his fleet.
I thought I remembered seeing a note somewhere, that they were again being produced. I asked here; “If they were, and by whom”
I passed on the information that Piko was producing them…
I can’t understand why anyone would appreciate them, even though we have a few of them in our Standard Gauge operational fleet. I’d gladdly trade them, 1 for 1, for LGB ore cars.
Of all the ore cars, other than the B’mann ones, which we have around 25 of…they are obviously of Narrow Gauge style; the best on the market are the LGB ones.
There are the Lionel/USTrains offerings, which were too high on the trucks, to begin with, but are far worse since USTrains started producing them, and the MDC ones.
The LGB ore cars are not too bad, once you body mount Kadee 820 couplers on them, then repaint and letter them. Out of the box they are coupled too far apart to be in any way realistic.
Metal wheelsets are of good use on any of these cars, as they all tend to be on the light side, due to their smal size. The LGB ones are the heaviest by far.
It might be noted that you would seldom finde “Ore Cars” in the consist of a regular freight train. They usually were a captive fleet, hauling heavy ore between mines and ore docks, in unit trains of 50 or more.
If you do see one or two running in a regular freight train; it is usually a move of the cars to a repair shop somewhere…
The LGB ore cars, by the way, are “Sort of”, models of a specific railroad’s cars. This is indicared by the air and signal hoses location, far up on the ends of the cars. I think the road is the B&LE, but I may have that wrong (And the body style).
Any other lettering, like Santa Fe, is pushing it a very big bit. Even the Canadian National waffer is not correct at all…
In Santa Fe, it is pushing it beyond reality! Santa Fe never had any ore cars of this type. Believe me I know, because I like them and want a string of them, but I cannot find any evidence that this type of car was ever owned by Santa Fe.
By the way, I agree, the LGB is the closest in the 1:29 realm, which is just plain weird, ha ha!
In 1:32, I would go the MDC though.
Regards, Greg
Greg-
Look up ATSF Ga-T 50, Ga-W 75, and Ga-Y 25.
The Ga-78 is a very odd slab-sided jobbie, but check those out.
They are all out of service in late 50’s or early 60’s, I think.