Eastern Railroad Discussion > Ore Trains

Did anybody besides the DM&IR run trains with those little 26ft?? ore cars? I am curious to know if the SOO or CP or any big Railroads run these cars in unit trains?
Thanks

At least a few years ago CR ran a unit train of short (I assume 26') ore cars eastbound through Pittsburgh several times a week. About 2/3 of the time it was simply coal hoppers loaded about 1/3 due to weight limitations. I haven't seen it lately, so it may have been to any one of a number of mills that have recently shut down. As an added bonus, a good part of the ore car fleet were the somewhat ancient short (height wise) cars inherited from the Pennsy (I belive). I also read somewhere that the length of ore cars was, at least a long time ago, "standardized" so that they could match unloading equipment at mills and docks.

I've seen the smaller ore jennies on C&NW, WC, E&LS and BN.

Conrail used to have a substantial fleet of ex-PRR jennies, but the last of them were retired during the mid-to-late 1990s. One of the final assignments I recall for these CR cars was hauling "dirty dirt" away from Liberty State Park in New Jersey.

CN is a large railroad that hauls ore in short cars and also construction rock, both in unit trains. (On former WC lines)

BN(SF) runs Taconite trains with short ones, although a different style than the DMIR ones. They run from Keenan, Minnesota and Hibbing, MN to the Allouez Taconite Facility at Allouez, WI (Outside of Superior). Some go further south on all-rail Taconite trains.

If a RR ran (or runs) through the Great Lakes area, or possibly farther East, then they probably did/do run them at some point. They change around a lot season to season depending on the weather, market, demand... whatever. The small cars are slowly decreasing though. I know there's a bunch of the old CNW ones still being used on one run, but they also use older rib side coal cars now too, and just fill them half way up. DMIR was testing new cars from different makers that were pretty much the same as the old small cars though, so they will probably still be around. The thing is, the unloading docks at the lakes kind of dictate what car can be used because of the spacing between the chutes and stuff.

But with the steel biz down and everything, that whole industry is kind of up in the air right now. If you're really interested, there's an e-mail list on Yahoo called OreRail.

BTW... I also think the Arkansas & Missouri uses them for sand too.

Dave D.
Los Angeles, CA

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Many large roads had ore jennies heres the ones I
know about -

GN, NP, Soo, DSS&A, WC(1st), LS&I, C&NW, CN, UP,
SP, PRR, B&LE, DM&IR

The ones on the UP and SP have been gone for awhile,

B&LE got rid of theirs since their coal hoppers
would backhaul ore.

BNSF still has some, WCL acquired some from C&NW

DM&IR and LS&I still use theirs.

The Milwaukee Road had 'em too. They were used primarily in Michigan's Upper Peninsula but I have seen pictures of unit trains on the Chicago-Milwaukee main. There is an article on modeling these cars in the current edition of The Milwaukee Railroader published by the Milwaukee Road Historical Society.
In later years, these cars were also used in aggregate service.

Add GB&W--i've photographed modern ore jennies in the last couple of years.

The ore conrail hauled came from over seas. I think from Chille. The mines ran out over there. =That ended Conrails ore hauling trains. This happened quite some time ago. Thats why the unit ore trains through Philly have stopped.
HB90MACH

South American Iron Ore comes from Brazil and
Venezuela, both are still producing. Brazil might
just be the largest exporter of Iron Ore. Unless
Australia exports more. Alot of Brazil's ore goes
to Europe. Wheeling-Pittsburgh has been get getting some shiploads via New Orleans in the last
year. This traffic has been moved over CN-IC to the W&LE at Toledo.

The current BN ore cars are a more modern car from Johnstown Car Corp. See this link:
http://www.johnstownamerica.com/products/fcp_orehopper.htm

Unit Ore Train Symbols

ZAK Middletown, OH AK Steel
ZAK empty to Chicago, IL
ZLW Warren, OH WCI
XLW empty to Ashtabula, OH
ZSP Sparrows Point, MD Bethlehem Steel
XGW-B empty to Philadelphia-Greenwich, PA
ZSR Clairton, PA US Steel
XGW-T empty to Philadelphia-Greenwich, PA
ZSS Pine, IN US Steel
XGW-P empty to Philadelphia-Greenwich, PA
ZWM Mingo Jct., OH Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel
XAY empty to Ashtabula, OH
ZWS Steubenville, OH Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel
XAY empty to Ashtabula, OH
ZWW Wierton, PA Wierton Steel
XWI or XGW-W empty to either Cleveland, OH or Philadelphia-Greenwich,PA

The loads were usually the heaviest trains on the rr, and out of Philadelphia often had to run the scale track at Bridgeport PA, except when they were doing the DPU testing (2-3 engines, 80 cars, 2-3 more engines mid train and then 80 more cars).