[toddalin]

Larry G-Scale (no affiliation) sells cast resin hopper/ore car bodies ~3/$15.

http://cgi.ebay.com/HOPPER-ORE-CAR-BODIES-3-1-24-SCALE-G-SCALE_W0QQitemZ160306504014QQcmdZViewItemQQptZModel_RR_Trains?hash=item160306504014&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50#ebayphotohosting


These were obviously intended to be used as some sort of ore car that never made it to production.


When I first saw these, I determined that they would work great in my static display where the sprinkler crane lifts the full cars off the line and replaces them with empties. Furthermore, I had never seen these on anyone's railroad, a definite plus!


I had some trucks around and it was a simple matter to use a pin vise to drill a hole in the resin to mount the trucks. The small wheels are from the Bachmann mine car. A piece of Plastruct "L" on each sides provides some framework, some rust, and voila, instant ore/mine cars. If I were to use them as operational, it would be a simple matter to CA a piece of rectangular brass to the bottoms and drill a hole for a coupler pocket.


I've posed them with the MDC ore car as well as a couple different figures so the relative scale can be seen. These is cute!

 

[vsmith]

Very cool idea, All you need to do is add some link and pin couplers and you in the mining business

 

[toddalin]

Posted By vsmith on 12/30/2008 8:11 AM
Very cool idea, All you need to do is add some link and pin couplers and you in the mining business



Yes, as I noted, it would be a simple matter to CA a piece of rectangular brass to the bottoms (that are nice and flat) for the pocket to hold the link. As an added bonus, there is a "pad area" with plenty of resin at the ends (above where the couplers would be), that could be drilled out on either end of the car and a pin/pivot inserted to make these functionally dump to the side (which may have been the original intent).