Building the Classic Miniatures Ore Car

These are my notes on how I constructed the kit.

*Trout Creek Engineering On3 Ore Car

*Couplers--Kadee #807 On3

*Trucks-- from Evergreen Hill Designs Shopbuilt Flatcar Kit [Wheelsets: PSC On30 number unknown. Trucks: Macleod Western, part number unknown (visit website at http://www.macleodwestern.com/page30.html)]

*Screws--#0 X 1/8" roundhead brass wood screws from Micro Fasteners or Walthers

*(2) Body Bolsters--9" X 12" X 24" basswood

*Woodland Scenics Medium Talus

I painted all wood and plastic pieces with Barn Red acrylic paint (from craft department at Wal-Mart) and let dry. This acrylic paint did not stick well to the styrene parts, and I ended up repainting them with enamel paint.

Then all the body and frame sub assemblies were built with white glue. Once they had dried, any visible glue was removed with sandpaper. Sanding also removed some of the paint, letting the wood show through

I repainted the styrene pieces with a mix of Testor's Rubber and Model Master Signal Red. What resulted is a red/brown color, darker than the barn red. The brass parts were painted with this darker color after they were installed.

I omitted the lift bars, the chain for the hopper doors and some of the NBW castings. And if you noticed, I accidentally glued the end braces in upside down.

Choosing Trucks and Couplers

I chose On3 couplers because I thought they would look in better proportion to the car than HO couplers. The couplers were mounted to the car underframe and then the body set on the trucks and the coupler height checked with a Kadee On3 gauge.

The first trucks tested were the Grandt Line on30 trucks. They looked too small and the body bolster needed to be over 12" thick. Dummy bolsters were made and everything set in place--the car looked like it would fall over.

An EHD flatcar was handy and the truck sideframes were larger as well as the wheel diameter so they were brought to the task. These are almost identical to the trucks shown in the instructions. Now the bolsters needed to be 9" thick.

The rock load is poured into the hopper. No lettering was applied.

This was a great kit to construct. The pieces fit well and the detail parts included were amazing! Thanks to Trout Creek Engineering, Evergreen Hill Designs, Kadee, and Woodland Scenics.

This is my last column for Light Iron Digest. I have enjoyed writing for this magazine and hope that all of you have enjoyed the projects. I will not be writing for any other magazine or book that is model railroad related.