Who makes really nice ore cars?

Jeffrey-

 

Lionel, MTH, K-Line, and Ready Made Toys all made or make ore cars. The only diecast cars I know of were made by Lionel and K-Line. Interestingly K-Line's plastic ore car tooling is still in use by Ready Made Toys.

 

Any ore cars from the manufacturers above would be good choices. The only issue I've heard of is that some brands ride very high on the trucks, leaving a large gap between the carbody and the truck.

 

-John

You'd be wise to check out RMT ore cars.  They are probably the best in price/performance for O-Gauge ore cars IMHO.  A couple of years ago, RMT had a super New Year's sale where these ore cars could be had for $10/car (in sets of two).  That was arguably the best deal that's come along in O-Gauge for quite some time -- especially considering that price point was as close to 1966-era pricing that we're gonna see... possibly ever.  I still have a few unopened boxes!!! 

 

David

I believe the MTH and the K-line( also RMT) were a better size than Lionel. There were prior posts on this and I believe the Lionel cars were narrower.

Lionel made a Die Cast UP ore car set in the late 90s which is very nice and hard to find,I have some of them along with numerous Lionel,MTH and K line ore cars.On Lionel ore cars from the 1980 to 1995 era you should remove the plastic trucks and replace with diecast trucks.

I have ore cars from all the manufacturers, close to a hundred now.  The late production K-line cars with die cast trucks and the current RMT cars have the best detail and are scale size.  They both sit a little high.  The early K-line cars use the same body mold but sit way too high on plastic trucks.  These were based on the 1970s Atlas ore cars, which are the only 3 rail compatible ore cars that sit at the correct height. The Lionel cars are narrower and a bit smaller, but detail is OK.  The MTH cars rate last, poor detail and sit too high.  To find anything better than the the RMT/K-Line/Atlas cars you'll have to look at 2 rail brass cars, which cost a bunch more.

One thing I've never seen in 3-rail 0 is a high-sided ore car. Ore cars are small because ore, specifically iron ore, is very dense. When the iron mines started shipping ore in the form of taconite, a low-grade ore processed into pellets, ore cars had to get bigger because taconite is less dense than unprocessed high-grade ore. So, many iron ore cars were fitted with upward extensions on the sides, sort of like the extensions that turn regular hoppers into chip cars. Newer cars were built with bigger bays to handle taconite. I haven't seen any 3-rail 0 scale cars that represent older style cars with extensions. 

 

Here's an ore car that's been modified for lighter-weight ore. This one is pretty crude-looking. The DM&IR and the Milwaukee Road, among others, modified whole fleets of ore cars on an assembly-line basis and those cars look much better. 

 

Thanks for ALL the replies. Looks like k-line and RMT are the way to go-- as long as they have metal trucks. Apparently MTH is not favored by many-- and since I've never seen any of these in person this info is very helpful.

 

Jeffrey

I concur with John23 and others, that the Atlas/K line/RMT ore cars are the better of the three manufacturers. The Atlas cars started in the 70's as kits. The dimensions have remained consistent, as ore loads I've made fit the same. 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.

Don

RMT's are true "O" which were old K-line O series.

Why would anyone want heavy die-cast cars?

I never understood this?

Jeffrey,

 

I believe the RMT, and KLine car bodies are the old Atlas molds from the 70s.  The Klines sit way too high on the trucks.  The RMT are a little better but still sit too high.  The Atlas cars are still out there and ,when converted to Kadee couplers, look the best.  The only drawback is the plastic trucks.  

 

 

How is the layout coming?

 

Dave

 

I just took some photos of my MTH New Haven ore car and my K-line kennecot ore car. I am not sure if k-line changed anything after this car.

 

In my opinion, the MTH car looks better.

100 cars in John23's collection, over 50 in Railride's, and then David's train-- a lot more folks have these in quantity than I ever imagined. As far as the diecast question-- probably a moot point-- and problems from an operational standpoint due to the weight-- just "seems" like metal is "nicer" than plastic...

 

As far as the layout-- I am still finishing out my basement train room-- and summer has slowed down my progress. That is one sharp layout you have there David!

 

All these replies, along with videos and photos is very helpful. Those Atlas cars sure look good-- but as Dmasso and Railride have pointed out-- they all look pretty good. The plastic chains molded onto the sprockets could use a little paint or some weathering or something.

 

MTH fixed that problem with a shaft instead of chains and sprockets.

They were all good cars and who's to say they all have to be alike unless you are just running one road of them. For late production RMT would be my choice if you can find what you want.

As a comparison between MTH and Lionel, I took these photos.  Lionel die cast hoppers are very heavy...they are also bulkier looking than their plastic offering.  I love the look of the diecast one.

 

From left to right...MTH...Lionel diecast...Lionel plastic...

 

 

The Lionel metal and plastic cars look like the same mold. And since you can make injection molds work with either plastic or metal....I can't see Lionel make all new tooling for the metal cars. 

I have about 40 of the K-Line, or versions of, plastic cars. I do wish ALL of them sat more correctly on their trucks. 

The RMT cars are my favorite.  Hoping to be pulling a long LS&I ore train soon.

Here are some pics of the same cars that better illustrates the diecast car being wider...

 

 

Thanks good info....never knew. 

Odd how Lionel made a new mold....but looks so similar. 

Just to let you all know, I just checked the weight of the Lionel diecast ore car...it is a whopping 1 pound 8.7 ounces.

 

 

I did my own take-a-closer-look-see with my own K-Line and Atlas ore cars a couple of years ago and came to the conclusion that the K-Line version is actually a clone of the Atlas ore car tooling. Not surprising being they were tooled in China:

 

 

Note the K-Line above has four mold gates in the center, while the Atlas below has six. The K-Line cars sit high since the toolmakers in China also cloned the Atlas end-frames, which have a downward-projecting collar for the Atlas plastic trucks with a level bolster, rather than a flat bottom for the arched bolsters found on most 3-rail trucks. They could have removed the raised collar where the screw goes, but what do they know--they were likely told to "clone this car" and they did exactly that.

 

---PCJ

Obviously from this information, loads for the plastic cars will be too small for the die-cast cars. Good to know for future reference.

Don

RMT Walter said he bought the ore K-LINE O molds several years ago.

Not sure why Lionel plastic ore's are even in this discussion?

They are compressed, non-true O toys.

 

Here are 3 RMT gravel cars next to oversized, larger than O, MTH RK Subways...

 

 

I like the K Line 19th century era ore cars that they sold in sets with thier Plymouth diesels switchers for some reason. I have a bunch of the sets. These were often orgionally operated as unit trains and very close to scale.

I like those K-Line 19th behind a Winans 0-8-0 

 

I have a ton of the RMT cars, when they were $10, I bought some.  After I got them, I realized what a great deal they were and scale sized as well.  Then I bought a WHOLE lot more.   Like David, I still have a few unopened cases of them, I couldn't see how I could go wrong.

 

I have some K-Line and Lionel ones, and even a couple of the MTH ones.  All are very close in size and quality, but you'll likely never see $10 NIB ore cars again, especially of decent quality like the RMT cars.

K-Line Ore Cars

   Gary • Cheers from The Detroit & Mackinac Railway

   Click on photo to enlarge....

Rgds the MTH cars,  the reason that I don't like them is detail & their height.  I have a lot of MTH freight cars so I'm not against the brand, but when I look at them closely there are several points that stand out: no poling pockets, the door release mechanism is greatly simplified, the end sill is also simplified, riveting doesn't look right, & no interior detail.

 

I agree with Dave M, the original Atlas cars look the best.  I've been converting my K-Line cars to the original 70's era Atlas trucks when I can find them.  I did a couple with Weaver trucks, but the way the 3 rail coupler sits on top of the Weaver truck causes an increase in height - although not as much as the K-Line trucks.  If I can find enough 1970's Atlas trucks I'll do the RMT cars too.

There are many styles of real ore cars that have not been produced.

 

The Chicago & North Western ore cars are not like the others made for O scale or O gauge.

 

Andrew