Ore cars

 Sand or aggregates.  Real railroads use ore jennies for sand and gravel.  Virtually the same design ore gons the PRR used for taconite were used by the SP for sand and gravel.

I have a vested interest in this question because 4 of them are going to become aggregate cars for Dyer Quarry on my layout.

Maybe use them in a quarry,

Maybe use them in a quarry, in the small rock department..?

Rocks

New England does have lots of rocks...

(As someone who kept up a lawn there for a LONG time, trust me--more grow each winter...)

Some Options

Hi all,

Some options where you might have used wooden hoppers?

• Crushed stone traffic for construction works
• Track ballast
• Transfer traffic - say coal delivered by canal/river for a coal dealer sited away from the canal/river

I'm sure others will chip in with more ideas,

Destination

How about an iron furnace?

I saw lots of Penn Central ore trains and the ore was mined on another continent!

RF&P

Had ones from the upper Midwest for ballast service. 

Snow Plow

I know the Great Northern and Northern Pacific took some older Ore cars and made them into snow plows.

Here is an idea

http://nekr.tripod.com/snowplow.jpg

Flatcar load. 

Flatcar load. 

POTATOES!

Northern Maine is POTATO country! 

The ACL leased a couple

The ACL leased a couple hundred ore jennies from the B&LE to haul sand, so yes, there are other uses other than just ore.

Mike S

in Florida

Sand

In the '70's, '80's and 90's CNW used them (steel not wood) to deliver sand to a ready mix plant near me until they were absorbed by UP. Of course this is the Chicago area not Maine.

Mining in

" Maine is not, to put it mildly, a mining state."   ??????

Mining in Maine:

https://www1.maine.gov/dacf/mgs/explore/mining/virtual/virtual_mining.pdf

http://maine.gov/dacf/mgs/explore/mining/index.shtml

The other end

You don't need a mine to have ore cars, just like you don't need a coal mine to have coal cars.  You could have a small iron furnace.  Most of them died out around 1900 or so but you could stretch one into the 1920's.  Ore, coal , limestone in, pig iron out.

Thanks for the links

The first one is terrific well worth a look, some great scenes...Kenn.... Australia

Woodchips

Dear MRHers,

Remember that the MDC "3-in-1" ore jennies were sold with "hungry board" extensions, which allowed the modeller to configure them for coal and woodchip service...

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

Prof

I was going to suggest wood chips. You beat me to it once again!

Limestone for lime and cement

Dear IrishRover,

Limestone for lime, cement and the previously mentioned iron production. Caution: limestone is about 3x heavier than coal so you only need to fill those hoppers to about 1/2 way. 

Check out pages 29 to 31 at  https://www1.maine.gov/dacf/mgs/explore/mining/virtual/virtual_mining.pdf It was one of the links posted previously. 

Also remember that these hoppers only have to be "passing through" to "somewhere else" if you can't model any of  a quarry, a lime kiln or a concrete plant.

For the period you are modelling, some of these industries could have been quite small operations, satisfying only the local demand  They needn't tie up a whole lot of your modelling real estate. For example this small Aussie lime kiln in O scale was less than 30" long and only a few inches deep.

I have no doubt that similarly-sized operations existed in Maine.

Grow vegetables.

We grew zucchini squash in our 1:1 ore car this year. 

Nice links!

Thanks!  those links are useful

Maine slate

Maine slate was so common that the tailings were used for ballast. Your little cars would be perfect for that. 

Neil

Wood Chips?

Wood chips would be one of the last commodities I would expect to see in one of those cars.  Ore jennies are designed to haul the heaviest commodities, wood chips are one of the lightest.  You could haul twice the amount of wood chips in a twin hopper with extensions or even an old bocar with the roof cut off.  Plus wood chips are a relatively modern commodity, and those are cars from the 1890's.

Any type of crushed rock or ore product would make more sense.  You just have to use your imagination for types of ores besides iron.  It could be gypsum, pyrites, copper concentrate, zinc concentrate, asbestos, quartz sand for glass, granules for roofing. lava rock for pumice, fluxing stone, gravel for an asphalt plant, etc. etc.

Limestone

useful

OK--so the four old cars can find use as MOW, or bringing almost anything crushed, almost anywhere.  I say old because I'm modeling 1920's.--but they can find a home and use.

Doors

One thing to watch if you are using for another purpose is the gates underneath. Those gates were great for emptying the car of ore out on the trestles for ore loading.

They are not so great for dumping ballast. Looking at photos (I have a 6-pack of cars I'm converting to ballast service), you'll find the gates have been replaced to allow the alternate use. For example, MK doors (2 side-by-side, 4 total) were added to many ore cars that are in ballast service. MK doors are available from 3rd party sources including Shapeways.

Think of grain-loading boxcars. Kind of a pain to get the grain in with the doors open. So you leave the doors closed and put small doors on the roof.

So, just make sure the loading and unload of the product fits the open top and gates below.

Charles