HO scale short ore-hopper cars

[Ace-Garageguy]

HO scale model railroading is getting pretty expensive, especially now that many online auction sellers are hawking items they know nothing about, asking stupid prices for old toy-train junk just because it's old and it looks kinda like the good stuff, or was made by some of today's well known name mid-range manufacturers before they moved from toy-quality products into high-quality scale models over the years.

HOWEVER...I'm usually pretty good at finding deals, and I do a lot of research before I buy anything.

My to-be layout will include a coupla different mining operations, and ore-carrying short-wheelbase hoppers (they're shorter than regular hoppers because iron ore is HEAVY) can run into a substantial pile of cash if you want enough to realistically model the kind of long ore-trains that run from mines to ports or steel mills.

                                 

Anyway, these ore car shells came up pretty cheap, missing underframes, trucks, and couplers.

I got to looking at them carefully, and they looked to me like they were one-piece copies of the Varney multi-piece ore car kits dating back to the mid 1950s I'd seen online earlier.

                                             

So I rolled the dice and bought several of the vintage nobody-much-want's-em multi piece kits to see what what was what.

Turns out I was right, and the ancient Varney underframes are a drop-in fit under the much newer one-piece cars (which appear to have been tooled directly from an assembled Varney kit). A little silicone mold work to copy the ancient Varney underframes in a low-melting-point-metal cerro-alloy (I've already been amassing decent Bettendorf trucks and Kadee couplers in bulk as they come up cheap) and I'll have a nice fleet of shorty steel iron-ore cars for a fraction of what I'd have to pay for new...or even good used.

The 1950s Varney underframes fit under the new one-piece shells like they were made for them...which they kinda were.  

Edited February 14 by Ace-Garageguy

[mustang1989]

On 2/13/2024 at 6:08 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

HO scale model railroading is getting pretty expensive, especially now that many online auction sellers are hawking items they know nothing about, asking stupid prices for old toy-train junk just because it's old and it looks kinda like the good stuff, or was made by some of today's well known name mid-range manufacturers before they moved from toy-quality products into high-quality scale models over the years.

HOWEVER...I'm usually pretty good at finding deals, and I do a lot of research before I buy anything.

My to-be layout will include a coupla different mining operations, and ore-carrying short-wheelbase hoppers (they're shorter than regular hoppers because iron ore is HEAVY) can run into a substantial pile of cash if you want enough to realistically model the kind of long ore-trains that run from mines to ports or steel mills.

                                 

Anyway, these ore car shells came up pretty cheap, missing underframes, trucks, and couplers.

I got to looking at them carefully, and they looked to me like they were one-piece copies of the Varney multi-piece ore car kits dating back to the mid 1950s I'd seen online earlier.

                                             

So I rolled the dice and bought several of the vintage nobody-much-want's-em multi piece kits to see what what was what.

 

Turns out I was right, and the ancient Varney underframes are a drop-in fit under the much newer one-piece cars (which appear to have been tooled directly from an assembled Varney kit). A little silicone mold work to copy the ancient Varney underframes in a low-melting-point-metal cerro-alloy (I've already been amassing decent Bettendorf trucks and Kadee couplers in bulk as they come up cheap) and I'll have a nice fleet of shorty steel iron-ore cars for a fraction of what I'd have to pay for new...or even good used.

The 1950s Varney underframes fit under the new one-piece shells like they were made for them...which they kinda were.  

This is frickin' COOL!!! If I had the space I would build a small town with a railroad surrounding it. I've heard from more than one person that model railroading prices have skyrocketed.

[Dave Van]

I must have 30 of the old MDC ore cars. I bought them new back when undec versions were under $3 ea. I painted them silver with D&RGW decals.