Reverse Eng...

Dear Toni,

Let's see what we can reverse engineer...

- RMGX is the reporting mark for Railcar Limited, which is a leasing company. They hire cars for a price, so we can't really tie down who the cars are actually working for, or what they're hauling. (we can take a punt that they are hauling something dense and heavy).

- However, according to the pics available on Railcar.net, we know that these cars originally came from the Ontario Northern Railway, numbered 6600-6660

- a search along these lines suggests that either AC&F or National Steel were the manufacturers of the ONT cars

It's worth noting that these cars were/are equipped for automated load and unload, check the rubber tyres-on-sticks pointing vertically up from the clamshell loading hatches along the top.

- I _seem_ to recall that these cars, or very similar, were offered as a (resin?) kit by one of the Canadian manufacturers (Kaslo Shops? Sylvan Models?). However, to say that it's "challenging" to make contact with or source said kits would be being exceedingly polite.
(I can see why Canadian modellers find modelling their local railroads harder than their US counterparts).

Intermountain does a 4-bay grain hopper that might make a starting point if shortened, but it appears the loading hatches and possibly the unloading gates may be significantly different...

Best of luck on the search!

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

Ore Car

This car is a staple of Canadian Ore Service, I've seen them in service for CN and Ontario Northland. I don't Remember if the ACR (Algoma Central) or CP have/had them.

Hopefully Jurgen or Ted will chime in here, they will have lots of details on this unit.

Cheers,
- Bill

Interesting

I've seen cars similar to these while overseas in the Middle East. Could they be a Canadian adaptation of a European design?

Also, from the weathering it appear that the end platforms are probably just steel grating.

George

These post are EXACTLY why...

...online publications are suffocating the ink and paper world - and for the better. Imagine, three thorough responses to Toniwryan's question, on an early Sunday morning, no less, from fellow modelers with a trove of valuable info to share. I salute MRH for not only sponsoring THIS page but for drastically raising the bar on the reporting facet of the hobby. You offer not only an up-to-date answer to hobby mag publishing but provide a superior product that attracts some of the best in the field.

barrel cars

Indeed CN and ONR used similar cars in great quantities for ore concentrates - they come in at least two lengths.  I believe Sylvan made or possibly still makes a kit.  You might also enquire on the Ontario Northland Yahoo site.

David

ps the little wheely things on top of the car fit into tracks in the ceiling of the loading tunnel and automatically open hatches on top of the car as it is pulled through.

wheelies...

more accurately, these open and *close* the hopper.

Ex-ONT

The car above is definitely one of the former Ontario Northland or CN hoppers. These were originally used in dedicated service between Sherman Mine at Temagami, Ontario on the Ontario Northland to one of the steel mills at Hamilton (pretty sure it was Dofasco). CN and ONT jointly provided cars for this service; identical cars were rostered by both railroads. Both railroads also rostered short and long versions of the car. All of these cars were used exclusively in this service. As noted, Sylvan had a resin kit at one point in HO scale for both versions. No N scale.

http://www.onrhts.org/Rolling-Stock/Hoppers-1/3838036_FkCx3P

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn346558&o=cn

The mine shut down or at least stopped shipping with these cars a long time ago and they were disposed of. I'm not sure what kind of services they're used for today by RMGX.

Algoma Central and Canadian Pacific did not own any cars quite like this, although the AC did have a series of curved side open hoppers, and CP had a group of hopper cars dedicated to hauling a type of nickel ore slurry in the Sudbury area. (Sylvan also did a resin kit for this car in HO, we have a whole bunch of them at the club that we need to get built at some point; no one's really made the effort yet because we haven't come close to building either end of their journey, although the whole route will be modeled on the club layout.) These slurry cars are superficially similar to thee ore cars with the curved shape and open end platforms, but for there the details differ quite significantly.

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=ac8010&o=ac

http://trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/sudbury/falconbridge.htm (see about halfway down a pic with three of the slurry cars)

Some of the CP slurry cars survived (modified) as scale test cars:

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp420927&o=cprail

As did at least a couple of the smaller CN ore cars:

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn52283&o=cn

Iron Ore? Copper?

Dear Chris,

Maybe I missed it at the beginning, but what were these cars hauling between Sherman Mine and Hamilton steelmill? Coal? Iron Ore? Copper?

I also note that Sylvan appear to have dumped their model RR line, and are now focussing on ships and vehicles. Do we know where the Sylvan car kits went? Are they still available?

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

little different car ?

Different car ???Its very similar! 

Maybe I missed it at the

Iron ore/pellets.

The Sylvan railroad kits are not currently in production, but if you order 50 or so, Clare will re-run a batch...

Little Different Car?

Yep, a little different. Those are owned/leased by a cement company, they appear to be used for aggregates.

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=pwcx121932&o=pwcx

thank

thank you for this anwser

Sylvan !

I find this for you ,in HO SCALE . 

Sylvan cars still available?

Dear Pascal,

Are the Sylvan cars actually still available? If YES, where from?
Last check suggested that Sylvan was getting out of the railcar kit line, and were focussing on structures and vehicles...???

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

Sylvan! HO

    If I were only building in HO!!!

 - sniff -

Toni

Prof Klyzlr

No its not available.i find them a (2 cars) at Ottawa train show yesterday.

Maybe i let you one car if you want it , its very rare.its a complete kits you to build. it very similar kit from Kaslo shop.

great kit !

They were used in dedicated

They were used in dedicated service fron both the Sherman Mine, just north of Temagami, and The Adams Mine, in Dane, a bit south of Kirkland Lake. In both cases, they went to Dofasco in Hamilton. Both mines were bought by Dofasco in the 1960s(?) or '70s and were managed and operated by Cliffs of Canada, a subsidiary of Cleveland-Cliffs.

On normal days, each mine sent about 30 hoppers, with each hopper loaded with about 96 short tons (2000 lb tons) of iron ore pellets. All production went to Dofasco, which is now owned by ArcelorMittal.

Both mines ceased operation at the end of March 1990. The cars, from both railways, were stored on a siding at South River, Ontario for a few years, then disappeard.

I worked at both The Adams and Sherman mines for a few years until closure.

The cars each hauled about 96

The cars each hauled about 96 tons of iron ore pellets.

The pellets are a semi-refined product, each with a concentration around 60% iron, and the rest various kinds of binder and filler, and in later years, flux. They are rolled into about 1/2" balls that are then run through a rotating kiln to harden them. The end produc looks and feels like a heavy clay marble.

These pellets are loaded into a large hopper, in a reinforcing hill,  over the rail line, the cars are pushed through, and as they enter the wheels on top engage a track that open the lid at the top. Pellets were dumped in, the car continued and the wheels closed the lid. The locomotive was not allowed under the hopper. When the cars were pulled out, the whelles opened and then closed the lids, and away went the train.

The cars were not full, by volume, at all. One time, something, somewhere, messed up, and a car came to us at the Adams.  It was loaded with its 96 tons or so of pellets and sent off. The Ontario Northland weighed every car once it got to Englehart. One car was found loded with nearly 200 tons of pellets. We don't know if it was loaded twice by us, or never unloeaded at Dofasco, but a crew had to be sent down to Englehart (only a half hour away) to shovel out the car by hand. I wasn't on the crew.

@ Prof

As Chris mentioned earlier, the minimum order for Sylvan to rerun a kit is 50 items