Micro-Trains Line N scale Ortner high-capacity hopper is designed for heavy loads

This distinctive Ortner Rapid Discharge hopper car, designed for heavy, dense loads like sand, gravel, limestone, and iron ore, is a recent addition to the Micro-Trains Line. It’s a replica of a 100-toncapacity prototype built in the early 1970s by the Ortner Freight Car Co. (now part of Trinity Rail Group). Thanks to its steep 60-degree end sheets and Rapid Discharge hopper door system, the car unloads completely in less than 30 seconds without the need for a car shaker. The rugged 43-foot car remains in production three decades after its introduction.

The Micro-Trains car is an accurate ready-to-roll N scale model of this distinctive modern freight car. The model closely matches prototype dimensions from the Official Railway Equipment Register and drawings published in the February 1988 issue of Mainline Modeler.

Details abound, from the etched-metal deck plating on the end platforms to the delicate cross braces inside the 2,300-cubic-foot hopper. The model includes finely molded vertical grab irons that are attached to the end-platform handrail stanchions – an unusual feature of the prototype.

The Micro-Trains sample car is evenly painted and crisply lettered for Southern Pacific. Ortner’s other Class 1 customers included Florida East Coast, Chessie System, and Southern Ry. Smaller railroads, construction contractors, and lease fleets also bought this car in sizable numbers. For example, the Georgetown RR, a Texas short line, owns nearly 300 of them.

The model includes truck-mounted Magne-Matic couplers that match the National Model Railroad Association’s standard for height. Couplers and truck frames are made from red acetal plastic. The trucks come with deep-flange, black plastic wheelsets, but Micro-Trains also provides each car with four shallow-flange replacement wheelsets.

The car weighs about an ounce, so it matches the NMRA recommended practice for N scale of ½ ounce plus .15 ounce per inch of carbody length.

Trinity’s catalog description of the prototype cars states, “These cars are tough, they’re durable, and they’re the most efficient way to move aggregate that you can find.” Thanks to Micro-Trains, these distinctive cars will also look great doing a similar job on any modern-era N scale layout.

N scale aggregate car

Price: $20.30 each

Manufacturer
Micro-Trains Line
P.O. Box 1200
Talent, OR 97540-1200
www.micro-trains.com

Description
Plastic and metal, ready-to-run
freight car

Road Names
Southern Pacific and Florida East Coast

Features
Cast metal underframe
Detailed interior
Excellent paint and lettering
Magne-Matic magnetic knuckle couplers at correct height
Optional wheelsets with National Model Railroad Association RP-25 contours (in gauge)
Rigid-frame Barber roller-
bearing 100-ton trucks
Truck-mounted couplers
Weight: 1 ounce