Ore cars : Lionel? MTH? other?

My favorite ore cars are from RMT.  Scale size and nice detail.

You won't go wrong with any of the 4 choices out there:  Lionel, MTH Premier, MTH Railking, or RMT.  They all blend well together in a train.

Price-wise, RMT is your best bet, as dealers are trying to unload old stock now that RMT essentially sells direct to the consumer.  Typical dealer pricing nowadays is $25/car "on sale", but RMT's factory blowout pricing around the beginning of 2013 was the best we'll ever see at 1970 prices of $10/car!!!    

Prices for Lionel and MTH have been on the rise steadily, with the newest cars selling above $40/car... which is pretty ridiculous for an ore car when you think about it.  Lots of production shortcuts being taken, and the newest ones seldom come with die-cast sprung trucks anymore -- just plastic.  Yet the price keeps going up.

Lionel made a series of Standard-O ore cars many years ago with sprung trucks.  They're quite nice, and you can often find them "new" or LN on eBay for a great bargain.  They also made a few with die cast bodies which are very hefty, but they tend to go for a premium.

Happy hunting!

David

If you're going for Lionel, go for the older cars made in the 80's and 90's. As David said, the newer ones are still rather steep in price, but the older ones you can get for $20 or so a pop. I even acquired a couple with die cast sprung trucks made in 1992 for that amount.

Here's a video I took of my ore train when it was 51 cars (it's more like 70 now):

It's comprised of Lionel, K-Line (same as RMT), MTH and even some 1970's era Atlas cars (the really low-riding ones near the end of the train). There are size and ride height differences, but they're not very evident in a moving train, assuming you're aware they're there.

You missed out on great prices on the RMT ore cars, $10/ea and they are scale sized.  I bought a ton of them when I could, they're very nice looking and performing cars.

I did a Milwaukee Road ore train using 11 of Lionels ore cars, RS3 and a bay window caboose. It looked good and was always a favorite when I ran it. Might dig it out from storage and fire it up this Christmas.

Jerry

They are very nice cars.

Plastic trucks! Say it ain't so David. One of the great things about ore cars is that you can easily fill them with loose change, nuts and bolts, whatever then add the lid back and you have a nice heavy car that rolls smoothly and rocks back and forth nicely on the sprung trucks. Getting trucks with no springs is a bummer but plastic??

Go with the RMT ones.  High quality and lower price.  Plus you get the figure thrown in each box for free.

Plastic trucks with very little detail?  No problem... I get it... then just price it at $20 and call it a fair price.  Instead... while visiting one of my LHS's yesterday, I saw the new Lionel ore car for 2013 in DM&IR livery priced at $42.95 with the cheap plastic trucks.    I might have bought a six-pack of them if they were $20, 'cause I like the DM&IR.  As it was, I didn't even buy one.

David

I have very few plastic trucks in my inventory, I avoid them whenever possible.

I like the RMT ore cars and their hopper cars. They are priced great, look great and smooth running over the rails. 

The only thing for me buying is my budget and that they don't have many in my favorite roadname.

Lee Fritz

Break out the paint.

All the details are similar.

The MTH O Scale model is the largest.

The K-Line, now RMT ore car is the smallest.

The Lionel Ore Car is longer and shorter than the K-Line/RMT ore car.

Andrew

lee fritz...and what is your favorite roadname???? Don't keep us guessing.

Walter/RMT

Walt, in regard to roadnames, do you remember Lionel doing a run of BHP ore cars? Please consider doing them. BHP is an Australian company that has since merged with Billiton from South Africa and is now the world's biggest miner. They have a big presence in the US and all over the world, I'm sure they would be popular. I would sell them here in Australia for sure.

I'll have to disagree with you on this.  I have over 100 ore cars from all the manufacturers.  The MTH car is taller than the others and IMO has the crudest detailing.  Especially note the gears that open the hopper doors and compare them to any of the others.

The Lionel car is noticably narrower than the other cars, and narrower than the prototype.  It is the smallest. The mold detailing is better than MTH and decoration is decent.

The Atlas (1970's production), K-line, and RMT use identical body molds.  They are O scale sized and have the best detailing.  The difference between the 3 manufacturers is in the trucks and decorating. 

The Atlas car sits at the most prototypical height, however the trucks are plastic and the decorating is plain jane.  I do have a lot of these that I bought back in the day.  In the process of repainting them, haven't changed the trucks yet.

The early K-line cars use Lionel style plastic trucks and sit ridiculously high on the track, and the decoration is just so so. You would need to replace the trucks on those.  I found a number of these at a really cheap price, repainted them and replace the trucks with Weaver trucks.  Still sit a little higher than the Atlas cars but MUCH BETTER than the way they were. 

The later K-line cars are on lower diecast trucks and have pretty good decoration.  The RMT cars are also on diecast trucks and sit a bit high, but have the best quality of decoration and added detail.

I would recommend the RMT ore cars and the late production K-line cars as being the best of the bunch.

I mix MTH and Lionel UP cars from about 10 years ago. The MTH cars are larger, but they are 90 ton, while the Lionel cars are 70 ton.

There is a book with photos of UP freight cars that shows both of these cars and in the colors that I own.

I agree that RMT or late K-Line cars are great.

The Atlas cars are nice.  The K Line and RMT bodies are the same but the Atlas cars sit so nice on the trucks.

Dave

Almost. The K-Line models are likely clones of the Atlas tooling, as I found when examining both:

Note the six mold gates in the bottom of the Atlas car below, versus the four on the K-Line above.(it might be easier to spot if you enlarge the image). If so, it remains a mystery as to why they made the truck mountings identical, knowing (I assume) that they were going to use arch-bolstered Symington trucks on them.

---PCJ 

I also really like the RMT ore cars - nice detail, great paint, excellent price.  I look forward to ordering more of these when in stock.

I have some of all of them......beware mixing brands and their different sizes. I run one brand at a time....or similar size together. None of them are 'bad' unless you don't like the plastic weird trucks on some older Lionel.

I have 95% K-Line and RMT, with a couple of MTH and Lionel cars.  The K-Line and RMT are basically identical, you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart.

I maintain that the RMT ore cars are right on scale length, but I agree they sit a little high when compared to the prototype.

Here's the specifications for a 70 ton ore car, it's 24' over the pulling surfaces, and 11' high, this excludes the couplers.  Of course, our couplers are truck mounted and not frame mounted, but they pretty much all are.  ORE Car 1150 cu-ft Bottom Dump

The RMT car is 6.250" long exclusive of the couplers.

6.250in * 48scale / 12 = 25feet

Actually a tad big for this one example.

Height of the RMT car is 3.875" above the track.

3.875 * 48 / 12 = 11.5

Also pretty close, and as we know, the RMT car sits tall compared to the prototype.

If someone came up with a mod to lower the trucks a bit, we'd have a clear winner.

Guys! I found this on the bay.. 12 K-line ore cars for 100$.. it's 8,5$ per car... very affordable what you think?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181249299544?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Oh, boy, I can imagine.  Mine only have to go down a big slope and come back up.  I have the Railking ones.  Will have to do a test.

George

Before you jump, do a shipping calculation.  For shipping them from Boston to near Phila, about 300 miles, he has $43!  I can only imagine what it would cost for them to get to you!

You are so right John, regarding the size and weight, it double the price of the items... 

But did I am not going to make that deal as I am not looking for the cheaper deal but for the most prototypical item.. I am much attached to details and the K-Line cars are good looking .. from far .... but when looking closer the ladders are too thick and the details are not "crisp"  

@Nick : You are so funny, you make my day!

Im glad your having a good time!Have fun.N.

@pidjay:  The Atlas/K-line/RMT cars are the best that you will find in plastic.  Years ago there were some done in brass but the are very rare and very expensive.  If you want better ladders, etc, your only choice would be to get these cars and modify them.

@Railride: I didn't mean they were the same molds, I meant that they are identical in appearance and size, so much so that the parts interchange.  When I first got some of the early K-line cars I used original Atlas trucks to replace the dorky ones - just had to drill out the mounting hole a bit, but my supply ran out and those are getting hard to find. 

@Rockstars1989:  Most of thes cars were used in relatively short hauls between the mines and the ore docks on Lake Superior or Lake Michigan in real life.  All rail movements were just a fraction of the tonnage shipped, as it was a lot cheaper to ship the ore by water as far as it was practical.  BTW, I was a ship's officer (mate) for a number of years on the ore boats.

   As far as the models go, adding some lead weights or real ore cargo makes them track a whole lot better.  I have run up to 70+ car trains and when I get the trackwork done on my new layout I will do a 100+ car train.  MichRR714 (Charlie has already done this.

These are the early K-line with the way too high trucks (bogies).  You would have to replace all of them if you you want a realistic appearance, which would add a lot to the cost.  I would pass on these.

So would I Nick!  I tore down my old layout and am just finishing up on the benchwork on the new one.  At my usual rate of progress it'll be a decade or so before I have something to show.