Ore cars

Do a forum search as this topic has been discussed before.   Cliff notes version -  the RMT cars come from Altas then K-line tooling and are the best looking.  The Atlas cars started in the 70's as kits. The dimensions have remained consistent. The MTH ore car is the same width inside, but is slightly longer. The load for the RMT car sits lower. The Lionel car is narrower then the other two.

-Greg

Greg, I agree about the RMT ore cars being the best looking, with MTH second. Loads for K line will fit the MTH cars, but will sit lower due the the longer length, but this could be a plus if considering adding more realistic material to the plastic insert. Lionel are a bit too narrow, and look bulky on the trucks.

Still no answer on the latest Lionel. No stirrup steps, so they may be the same old non scale compressed toy cars as in the past?

When RMT was closing out the Aristo partnership, I bought a ton of the RMT ore cars for $10/ea, one of the best deals I have run across on new stuff.  They're really nice cars, I'm quite happy with the quality, even compared to MTH, K-Line, Lionel offerings.

I buy kline ores on ebay for 10ea. Blast, re paint and letter them. Up to 10 LIRR ' s now.

Nice true O cars. Easy to dissemble.  They make a nice sand train👍

I haven't seen any K-Line ore cars on eBay for $10 or I'd own them.

I did not know the kline and rmt cars had the old atlas ones in their dna. I had some old atlas ones w all plastic trucks and wheels and they looked great. I feel the kline ones ride too high on the modern trucks they come with but just my opinion.

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

Lionel, K-Line, MTH, and RMT have all made/are making ore cars. Any comments on the relative sizes of each brand? Any striking disparities? For example, I know few, if any, Lionel ore cars, have metal trucks, and, conversely, I believe all MTH cars had metal trucks, but that would be the extent of my knowledge.

Considering that the prototype ore cars were made in a number of different designs/sizes, I would not be too concerned about the differences between the various manufacturers' models.

Note that I happen to like the Atlas/Roco cars as they are the easiest ones to two-rail. At the time, Atlas offered two-rail axles and scale couplers.

The Atlas, Kline, RMT are indeed the best...  Walter from RMT was nice enough to run LS&I ore cars several years ago.  I have many of them.

RMT is currently running several special runs with Pat's Trains that will be fantastic.  LS&I, DSS&A and Soo Line.  Below is a K-Line DSS&A ore car with an ore load created by friend Don Kane. @rail

Here some information from RMT website regarding their ore cars.

AVAILABLE ONLY FROM RMT AUTHORIZED Hobby Store DEALERS!

The RMT-new Premium Ore Car series of freight cars are clearly superior in many ways to any previously produced O-gauge/O-scale Ore cars.

The RMT-Premium Ore cars are now a completely new tooling freight car with chassis underbody details showing an airbrake system, operating metal couplers w/hidden uncoupler tab, fast-roll metal wheels and a separate detailed coupler airhose.

However, any previous RMT Ore car production of only 1 specific Railroad road number will not be repeated...allowing each railroad series to continue with multiple road NUMBERS available.

The RMT-New Premium Series cars are true 3-rail O-gauge O-SCALE freight cars

They feature:
Different road numbers for each RR car
Removable Ore Load
Operates O-31 curves
Realistic painting -lettering - numbers
Diecast metal trucks w/operating couplers
O-gauge Dimensions: 7 1/4in L over couplers x 3inH to top of ore load x 2 5/8in W

All RMT-New Premium Series freight cars will be produced as individual items but RMT Dealers may be offering Ore Car SETs. However, there will be different road NUMBERS available for each railroad NAME as shown below or just a single road NUMBER depending upon specific railroad  name.

These freight cars are fully compatible with RMT BEEP®, BEEF® and BANG® diesels and cabooses and are an exciting addition to any toy train empire.

Also compatible with most LIONEL, K-line, MTH, Atlas, Williams and Weaver electric trains, these O-Gauge O-scale cars are perfect for use on O gauge 3-Rail model train layouts.

Here are a set of Detroit & Mackinac Ore Cars from K-Line.

Gary 🚂

This is an ore car from MTH from the few years.

Lionel circa '98.  Die-cast bodies, Sprung trucks... H-e-a-v-y ...there are certainly better photos out there.

Here's a dozen