Besides Iron Ore, What Else Can Ship in an Ore Car?

[Kisatchie]

I have a couple hundred Atlas ore cars, all with iron ore loads. For some variation, I was wondering what other commodities can be shipped in ore cars. Thanks for any recommendations.


Hmm... probably not
some low density item
like styrofoam...

[victor miranda]

uh, Kiz,

the major reason ore cars were invented is because
there is little else quite like ore.  (iron ore as I understand it)

it is possible that one can fill an ore car with anything.
it is considered a waste of efficiency...
the think is along the lines of an axle uses a certain amount of energy
no matter what so the best thing to do is weight it to what ever is maximum.

... return cars must happen, so anything in them that pays is all to the good.
so even coal for the power plant and engines is quite possible.

planning to ship sugar beets?

victor

[C855B]

The Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice uses ex-UP ore cars for gravel service: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1138856. These are 100-ton cars surplussed when Geneva Steel's Atlantic City, WY mines were shut down in the mid-'90s.

The main problem you have is that the low cubic capacity of ore cars are uneconomical for handling less dense and low-value materials. They'll do in a pinch such as the OL&B has, but generally ore cars are not repurposed, usually scrapped when the mines they were purchased for play-out.

[Kisatchie]

uh, Kiz,

planning to ship sugar beets?

I already have a few dozen Tichy Train Group sugar beet cars.Looks like I'll keep the iron ore loads I have.


Hmm... what kind of car
would you ship termites
in...?

[nkalanaga]

They weren't uncommon, singly or in small groups, in Pasco during the late 60s and early 70s.  Somebody was shipping lead/zinc concentrate from ? to ?.  There was a smelter in Tacoma, and it may have been going there, possibly from north Idaho, but I have no information on that. 

My railroad uses them for hauling lead/zinc/silver ore, not concentrate, for economic reasons.  The ore is too heavy to fill a standard hopper, the smelter in East Helena didn't want gons, and there was a surplus of old ore cars as the BN replaced them with new taconite cars.  Taconite is less dense than iron ore, and the old cars couldn't be filled to capacity with it.  The original solution was sideboards, but by the early 70s new cars were being built specifically for taconite, and the older cars needed new jobs.

I doubt that they'd be economical for sugar beets, but one could try it.  Shredded scrap metal would be a possibility.

Dee:  For live bulk termites I think I'd use a covered hopper, possibly an Airslide type.  Certainly nothing with a wood interior, and it would have to be sealed, or they'd escape.  Probably best to put them in unchewable boxes.  That way they can be shipped in any boxcar, trailer, or container.

[peteski]

Depleted Uranium? 


Um, don't give Kiz any
bright ideas...

[Missaberoad]

Sand, gravel, ballast... They have been used for just about any open air aggregate... And they have been used second hand all over North America.

Very very plausible

[Scottl]

It would be rare to have a lot of metal concentrate sufficient to move in a string of hoppers, but a few is possible.  Most high value metal concs (unlike iron, which is valued by the tonne rather than pound) are protected from the elements by covers.  I routinely see gondolas with covers for this purpose.

Even gravel and aggregate is not dense enough to warrant these cars.  As someone pointed out, iron is unique in terms of its density and the quantities shipped.

[Missaberoad]

Soo line, Arkansas and Missouri, Greater winnipeg water district and others all used second hand ore cars to haul
Sand/gravel... Sometimes in small cuts sometimes in train lengths...

Yes the cars are of too small cubic capacity to reach their weight limit but they were abundant and the price was right
In soo lines case they were free, transfered from their own ore operations.

Conrail even used their ore gondolas to haul dirt in the 1990's

[Dave Schneider]

Sand, gravel, ballast... They have been used for just about any open air aggregate... And they have been used second hand all over North America.

Very very plausible

Do you know if the Missabe used them to haul limestone from Twin Ports up to the taconite plants? I seem to remember this from somewhere. My mom was from the Iron Range so we used to visit there as kids. As I recall, limestone was added to make a specific pellet formula (flux pellets?) for steel making.

The Milwaukee Road used them for sand and gravel service. I can think of a couple of reasons such as lack of resources to purchase/build more efficient cars, utilization of cars during slow periods of iron ore shipping (winter) or in some cases load limits on light rail.

Best wishes, Dave

[Dave Schneider]

Found the answer to my question.

http://www.twinportsrail.com/site/system/files/imagecache/Medium_Landscape/8126470501_e24ce9c9eb_b.jpg

http://www.twinportsrail.com/site/system/files/imagecache/Medium_Landscape/7396473804_5e6f494a6a_b.jpg

Best wishes, Dave

[Scottl]

Yes, limestone is the flux for taconite production.

[Missaberoad]

Cool to see that cn is still using the ore cars for limestone. I was wondering if the difco cars completely replaced them in this service.

[chessie system fan]

ACL bought some used cars for sand service.  I've also seen an RF&P similar car in MOW usage. Some have been turned into scale test cars too.

[wazzou]

The Milwaukee Road used them in Limestone service near Bellingham, WA.

See here. http://stevereno.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=538752