Steel cars

[gysob]

Hey Mr. Bachmann, I love Bachmann On30 equipment. I am an HO scale convert. My layout is set in the late 30's to early 40's so any chance we might see some early steel cars in the line up. I think that would be fantastic!!!

[the Bach-man]

Dear G,
Welcome aboard!
I'd like to see some steel cars as well!
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[ebtnut]

I should point out that most all of the U.S. narrow gauge lines operated with wooden rolling stock.  Those that survived well into the 20th century did so on a shoestring and couldn't afford to acquire newer steel cars.  There were exceptions, the East Broad Top and the White Pass being the most prominent examples.  The Rio Grande had some former standard gauge flats that were converted to narrow gauge for the oil pipe traffic, but virtually all of their narrow gauge stock was wood-bodied. 

[Charlie Mutschler]

D&RGW narrow gauge steel flats. 

Nos. 6500 - 6544, rebuilt from 1907 standard gauge steel gondolas in three batches, between 1939 and 1944.  These 42 foot long, 40 ton capacity cars were narrowed, and had fishbelly side sills.  Two (6526 and 6527) were rebuilt in 1955 with bulkheads for shipping wallboard to Farmington, both were scrapped after 1970.  The 6500 series cars obtained by the C&TS have all been rebuilt into passenger cars.  The D&SNG still has some unchanged examples of this series of car. 

Nos. 6600 - 6619, rebuilt  from standard gauge box car underframes in 1955, are 37' 4" long.  Nos. 6400, 6401, 6404, and 6407 were identical conversions done in 1957. 

Nos. 6620 - 6694 were rebuilt from standard gauge stock car underframes in 1957, also Nos. 6402, 6403, 6405, and 6406.  These cars are all 37' 9" long. 

Examples of both lengths of 6600s have been preserved. 

Charlie Mutschler
-30-

[ksivils]

Pullman built a lot of steel narrow gauge freight cars for the military during WW II.  They wound up all over the place, just cannot recall where at the moment.

Steel freight cars were common in places with high humidity that would destroy would quickly, just not on the U.S. narrow gauges.

[Ken]

   My vote go's for Hidden Creek Copper CO's   (3FT)  Kilbourne & Jacobs Steel ore
cars, supplied by Seattle Car and Foundry in 1915/16. For those who like
signalling, the HCCCo had block signals a first in NA for NG Railways.

  Magor was also a major builder of steel cars for export around the world,
  Std and NG. Perhaps some Steel cane cars for the 2-6-6-2 to pull<G>.

   Ken Clark
    GWN

[gysob]

Hey everyone, thanks for all the info on narrow guage steel cars. I know that some of my ideas might not be prototypical, but I'm in this hobby to have fun and be creative. Let's face it there were not to many 30" railroads in the US anyway, so lets not get to picky,OK?

[Woody Elmore]

Some folks have converted "S" gauge cars to narrow gauge, as they are close to the right size.

Yup - I have seen American Flyer cars on On3 layouts. Their offset hopper looks a bit out of place but is about On3 size. The problem with converting S Scale cars is that they can cost as much or more than an O scale model.

Of course it's your railroad so you may operate anything you like!

[Mister Lee]

With all due respect to ebt nut, there were a fair number of non-US three foot gauge railroads that ran both steel as well as composite boxcars into the 1960's and beyond. The Mexicans ran a number of steel boxcars on the National Railways of Mexico, the Coahuila y Zacatecas, and the Unidos de Yucatan (Both the CyZ and the UdeY have contributed locomotives to US tourist railroads). The famous (Or infamous) International Railways of Central America had its own fleet of steel outside braced boxcars which looked very US. The Mexican and IRCA cars were reminiscent of the EBT's steel cars, except that they had corrugated roofs.

Need I mention the composite wood and steel bracing boxcars that ran on Oahu?