EBT ore cars

[bob kaplan]

Would ore cars similar to 98514 ever be fitted with air brakes so that they might be included in a freight train? 

If cylinders etc. were not installed, might a line passing the air pressure through the undercarriage so that it could be passed to car further on in the train.

[grcaprez]

Members with more profound knowledge may correct me:

The prototype of this car is a ET&WNC hopper, and it had air brakes. Brake cylinders were at one end under the slope sheet. The Bachmann model has this area boarded up, but prototypically there should not be any end boards. Air lines under the car and air hoses each end may be added by the modeller.

Gion

[bob kaplan]

Thanks for the info!!....it is appreciated.
bob

[Kevin Strong]

Gion, I'm not familiar with the ET&WNC having short ore cars like the ones Bachmann made, just the 40-some-odd 28' cars that they built in the early 1900s. Would they have been Linville River cars? I know Bachmann's side-dump ore cars are similar to those seen in photos of LR cars, and I know Lee is a passionate ET&WNC fan, so it wouldn't surprise me if there was a connection. I've just never seen reference to them.

Be that as it may, if a railroad were to add air brakes to their existing wood ore cars, the brake cylinders, etc. would have been added wherever the railroad could fit them. I've seen photos of wood hoppers with brake cylinders added to the outside of the frame over the trucks. I want to say Quincy & Torch Lake, but don't quote me. They usually did things as they could to save the expense of buying new cars. The EBT never added air brakes to their wooden cars. They just retired them in favor of the steel cars. By 1920, the wood hopper cars were pretty much done on the railroad. Along those lines, if you're modeling a pre-1910 narrow gauge railroad, there's a good chance the cars wouldn't have automatic brakes. They weren't mandated until 1893, and even then, it took the government 15 years to actually have any authority to enforce the law. Many industrial/logging lines were exempt, and other narrow gauge common carriers (like the EBT) then argued--ultimately unsuccessfully--that they, too, were exempt. The EBT didn't start adding automatic couplers and air brakes until 1913 when it became clear the courts weren't buying their argument.

Later,

K

[Larry S.]

The wooden ore cars are too short for ET&WNC hoppers. The ET cars had two hopper bays and air brakes. The ore cars are a factory kitbash of the gondola. There is a prototype for that ore car. The ends of cars like that were not usually enclosed. Two of them could be kitbashed into an ET style hopper.

Larry S.

[the Bach-man]

Dear All,
Back in the '90s Kevin's garden group, the WV&M club, ran an annual "Gathering" in the fall.
One event was a model contest.  For my entry one year I cut the centers out of three of our high side gons, added slope sheets based roughly on Quincy & Torch Lake cars, and was gratified to win a ribbon, (although I can't recall what color...).
I then showed the cars to the folks I worked with at Bachmann and they decided to produce them.  They are, therefore, freelance cars reminiscent of Q&TL.
A few years later, Larry was kind enough to send me a beautiful model of an ET&WNC car he bashed out of our cars, and it remains a valued piece in my collection.
Thanks to all involved!
the Bach-man