Price: Single car, $34.95; six-pack, $199.95
Manufacturer
MTH Electric Trains
7020 Columbia Gateway Dr.
Columbia, MD 21046
www.mthhotrains.com
Era: Mid- to late 1990s, as decorated for the LIRR
Road names: Long Island Rail Road; Bessemer & Lake Erie; Burlington Northern (with side extensions); Canadian Pacific; Great Northern; Milwaukee Road; Soo Line; and Union Pacific. Three single cars and two six-packs per scheme.
Comments: A 70-ton center-discharge ore car is the latest release in MTH Electric Trains’ growing line of HO scale freight cars. The ready-to-run model features an injection-molded plastic body, die-cast metal underframe, separately applied brake hardware, and wire grab irons.
The MTH model is based on a Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range class U25 70-ton center-discharge ore car built by Pressed Steel Car Co. For the most part, the model’s dimensions follow prototype data published in the 1953 Car Builder’s Cyclopedia of American Practice (Simmons-Boardman). The interior is a bit short and narrow, but that’s typical of models molded from plastic.
Our sample is decorated for the Long Island Rail Road. At first, I thought this was a fictional paint scheme, as I typically associate the LIRR with commuter railroading. However, I learned that the LIRR did indeed have a fleet of ex-Burlington Northern and Canadian National ore cars in the mid- to late 1990s. The cars, which featured side extensions, were used to transport rock and sand. The load on the model is painted to look like the latter. The LIRR later sold these cars to the Lake Superior & Ishpeming, an ore-hauling railroad in Michigan.
The full-size LIRR 4044 was built by National Steel Car Corp. Ltd. (NSC) for the Canadian National in the late 1940s. Though the NSC ore cars are somewhat similar in appearance to those built by Pressed Steel Car, there are key differences. The NSC cars have four vertical braces between the sill and carbody instead of two, a different rivet pattern, and a smaller cubic-foot-capacity (825 instead of 1,000).
The Kadee no. 158 scale whisker couplers are mounted at the correct height. At 2.1 ounces (with load), the car is .3 ounce too light based on National Model Railroad Association recommended practice 20.1. The 33″ all-metal wheelsets are correctly gauged. The car negotiated the no. 5 turnouts on our Wisconsin & Southern Troy Branch layout.
