Ore Car Overview

[Railroad Pony]

Okay, I said I'd post my observations on the common G scale ore cars available. This isn't intended as a product review. I'm going to list them from best (in my opinion) to not so good. I'm going to TRY to post pictures with the descriptions.

First up is the LGB ore car. It's a beauty. It has all the characteristics of the standard type of offset side ore cars. There are a million rivets all over the car. The ladders and grabirons are all round profile and added on. It has full foundation brake rigging including high mounted brake hoses. It has a full simulation of the door latching mechanisms. I really shouldn't say simulated because if you push on the gear on one end of the car, it unlatches the doors. LGB also has some cars with an added overload addition on the top of them. This car is crammed with details everywhere. It looks very close to photos of the actual cars.

Now the down side. It has the LGB roller bearing trucks with added brake beams and shoes. The problem is they are mounted where they are on the prototype and the outside wheels protrude past the end of the car like they are supposed to. However, this pushes the couplers WAY past where they should be. The gaps between the cars is nearly six feet. On the prototypes, the outside wheel flanges are almost touching each other. A lot of the ore cars were connected in blocks of usually five cars connected with solid draw bars instead of couplers. LGB gives you a special coupler piece that simulated the draw bar, but the gap between cars is still immense.

It looks like the site is going to force me to split this up into separate pieces.

 

[Railroad Pony]

Now, the middle car. Lionel makes a rather well detailed offset side ore car for their G scale line. It matches the overall look of the cars, but the details aren't as plentiful as they were on the LGB car. There are scads of rivets, but not quite as many on the LGB. They have simulated some of the door operating equipment, but in a rather simplified manner. There is air brake equipment, but only the air tank, AB valve, and brake cylinder. The doors do open and are unlatched by a tiny lever under the side sill.

Now the not so good. The most noticeable negative features are the truck mountings. The bolsters are too far inward and set too far down. It gives the a car a noticeable tiptoe look. It sits a good foot and a half to two feet taller than it should be. I'm going to modify it so it will sit lower. The existing bolsters will have to be removed and new ones installed in the correct positions. They probably designed it that way to bring the cars closer together, but they are still too far apart. There are no stirrup steps on the ends of the car. They would need added. The brake wheel looks like a radar dish instead of a brake wheel. The grab irons are cast on and are a bit flat, more like step ladder steps.

 

[Railroad Pony]

Now, the bottom car. Roundhouse makes an offset side ore car. This car has very few rivet details. There are hardly any cast on details like the LGB and Lionel cars have. There is absolutely no brake gear or door operating mechanism details on the car at all. It does have two add on covers to hide the top of the hollow bolsters and add on stirrup steps. The inside of the car doesn't even go to the bottom doors. The floor could be cut out to show the top of the doors. Needless to say, the doors don't open. The grab irons are cast on and are wide step ladder steps, too.

This car appears to be a G scale version of their H.O. scale car scaled up. The bolsters are mounted correctly so the wheels protrude correctly, but the gap between cars is still way too big. This car would require a TON of extra details added to make it even close to the prototype.

 

[Railroad Pony]

Of the three cars, the LGB is hands down winner in the looks department, but you pay for that level of detail. They aren't cheap. But, you get what you're paying for.

The Lionel is a good looking car, but the hijacker trucks make it look ridiculously top heavy. New, shorter bolsters are needed to drop the car to prototype height. Some additional end details and brake levers would improve the looks of the car. The price for the Lionel cars makes them attractive for making a unit train.

The Roundhouse car. Even if you add a ton of details to it, it would still look stripped down. The only advantage is price. Cheapest of the three. Long strings of unit trains could be built with these. But, I recommend the 10 foot rule for them.

After receiving all three cars and evaluating them, the LGB car is what I would have used if I could keep getting a good buy on them. The only reason I'm not going with any of them is that I'm really not fond of offside side hopper cars. I had hoped one would grow on me, but none of them did. There were ribbed side ore cars, but I'm pretty sure they're not available in G guage. I'm giving that shorty Bachmann hopper another chance.

 

[santafewillie]

Nice overview. That big ol' "Lionel" on the middle car would turn me off.

 

[Railroad Pony]

Nice overview. That big ol' "Lionel" on the middle car would turn me off.

Yea, they're proud of their name. The winner would have gotten a coat of mineral brown to hide all of that.

 

[Mixed Freight]

I wish that the mainstream O-gauge manufacturers would make ore cars with the level of detail offered by LGB. No such luck that I'm aware of, however. At least they all seem to be at or near the Lionel G-scale detail level, and not as lacking as the Roundhouse G-scale offering.

Although I really have no use for ore cars in the area of the country that I model, you can bet your bottom dollar that I would have at least a few roaming about my layout if O-gauge offered anything at the LGB level of detail!

 

[goscrewyourselves]

Have to admit - all of my rollingstock/passenger cars were LGB when I had my G Gauge. I don't think you can past them for quality or appearance.

 

[Iron Horseman]

Although I really have no use for ore cars in the area of the country that I model, you can bet your bottom dollar that I would have at least a few roaming about my layout if O-gauge offered anything at the LGB level of detail!

Did ore cars go through exchange?

 

[Mixed Freight]

Did ore cars go through exchange?

Not that I'm aware of.