Model Railroading > Modern Aggregate Gondolas

One of the biggest holes in the modern freight car market in both HO and N scales is the complete absence of any modern aggregate rock cars. These make up most trains on my home subdivision here in Texas and there's nothing even close currently made. Walthers made some older styled Ortner cars a while back (a similar design to the 2nd image), but those cars are fairly hard to find and only vaguely resemble anything currently seen. These cars primarily run in unit trains, but can also be seen on manifests. 

I'm not posting here to shame any manufacturers for not meeting my wishlist or anything- I'm sure there are perfectly valid reasons these cars may not have been made yet- but I just wanted to gauge the folks here about if this is something that you think there would be demand for? The squared off designs seen in pics 1 & 2 seem like a simpler tooling than many other modern freight cars require. I'd emailed ScaleTrains a while back, and they were very interested in this idea but said FreightCar America (who builds a similar 2518cf car) had been tough. Given the popularity of the American Limited 2-bay hoppers, which often run on the same trains as these rock cars, I'm optimistic that the market may exist for such a thing. 

1) A Trinity 2480cf car. 

2) A FreightCar America 2430cf car in the more traditional "Ortner" style

3) A FreightCar America 2518cf car


Thanks for viewing..

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This is an underrepresented class for historical modelers as well. I could use a couple dozen of these.
https://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=68063

I am a fan of the Texas Rock trains too. If they were the right price point, I'd consider buying a unit train of these.
The price on some of the newest cars, like the ore cars from Rapido, is prohibitive; unless it's something I really want tho.
Some of these newer cars is the under $40 per unit could pique my interest.
There may be a crossover between the Texas rock cars and the newer iron ore cars used in the Iron Range, that might
be worth investigating by a manufacturer, to allow a wider interest for potential customers and road names. If not the
'same' cars; then maybe a commonality of parts similar to the 2 sized cars that Rapido did.  
Much needed cars for sure.

I just saw photo 1 and 3 in a manifest train last weekend. Would be nice to have a couple of new kinds of cars for sure. 

Mike ONeill
Parker, CO

I also find modern aggregate cars very interesting.  Would love to see some in model form.

How do they unload the gon's?

ts1457 Wrote:
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> How do they unload the gon's?

I can't speak for everywhere, but on our local shortline, Watco's Austin Western, they use an excavator

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atx_railfan Wrote:
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> I can't speak for everywhere, but on our local
> shortline, Watco's Austin Western, they use an
> excavator

Thanks. Next question obviously is how did the excavator get into the cars? I know some operators are really skilled and have some tricks in their tool boxes, but I haven't figured it out yet.

ts1457 Wrote:
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> atx_railfan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I can't speak for everywhere, but on our local
> > shortline, Watco's Austin Western, they use an
> > excavator
>
> Thanks. Next question obviously is how did the
> excavator get into the cars? I know some operators
> are really skilled and have some tricks in their
> tool boxes, but I haven't figured it out yet.
Some good vids on YT of folks climbing their Hoes  and excavators into hoppers .Very interesting to watch. 
DK

These would probably be good subjects for 3D printed models.

Yes, and since price is based on volume, these would use less volume.

Victor Baird

PHall Wrote:
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> These would probably be good subjects for 3D
> printed models.

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> Yes, and since price is based on volume, these
> would use less volume.
>
> Victor Baird
>
> PHall Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > These would probably be good subjects for 3D
> > printed models.

It's something my friend and I have looked into.

atx_railfan Wrote:
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> ts1457 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > How do they unload the gon's?
>
> I can't speak for everywhere, but on our local
> shortline, Watco's Austin Western, they use an
> excavator


We get one unit rock train a week here in Tyler and ours are
unloaded by excavator also.  I am amazed how quickly a complete
60 car train is unloaded this way, usually within a 24 hour day.

For the BA&P cars, they actually used a rotary dumper that would dump two cars at once. These were ore cars for the Anaconda Company.
steeplecab, Montana

Excavators climb up a steel ramp to access the tops of the cars.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4842117

I'd be interested in the Trinity RDL aggregate hoppers used by Rock & Rail. Although they do look somewhat "kitbashable" from a Walthers Ortner.  

Excavators straddle cars, too.

https://piercepacific.com/products/rail/#straddlecarriers

MP555 Wrote:
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> Excavators straddle cars, too.
>
> https://piercepacific.com/products/rail/#straddlecarriers

Thanks.

That's more like I was thinking.

3D Printing: Have separate wire grabs for the modeler to install but provide dimples and nbw detail for the modeler to drill in the dimples and install the grab irons.. No 3D printing that I'm aware of will replicate these grabs well. Or 3D a grab iron jig for the modeler to quickly bend the brass wire for the grabs to be preformed and install with super glue. The modeler will likely have to clean, paint and decal anyway.

Victor Baird



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/23 20:26 by wabash2800.