---

From: "gary roe wabashrr@... [STMFC]"
To: "STMFC@..."
Sent: Monday, December 29, 2014 7:05 PM
Subject: [STMFC] Mystery Gondola Kit

 

I have a couple gondola "kits" that were acquired from the estate of a friend of mine who was a prototype modeler and Texas & Pacific fan.  The kits consist of nothing more than the two sides and ends (which are injection molded), and some very basic (useless) instructions.  The sides scale 51'-6" long, and measure 3'-6" above the row of rivets representing where the floor would be.  The sides are fish belly and have 15 panels.  The ends are fixed, flat plates with two vertical braces above the coupler pocket.  There is a photocopy of the sides and ends with the name T. C. Schmidt printed on it.

I know this is a long shot; but does anyone have an idea of what prototype this is supposed to represent?  My friend modeled the late WWII era, so I assume these are for a car from that era; but that could be a bad assumption.

Any leads will be much appreciated.  Thanks!

gary roe

quincy, illinois

On Mon, 12/29/14, hanmer@... [STMFC] <STMFC@...> wrote:

Subject: [STMFC] Re: Lake boat Iron ore gradation
To: STMFC@...
Date: Monday, December 29, 2014, 8:15 PM


 






























Do you know what mills
were served in this area, by these
trains?  That will make a difference in
whether it is natural ore or taconite pellets being
transported.

 

US Steel didn’t have a
sizable production capability of
taconite pellets in 1957.  Their first
true production plant didn’t come online until after the
Taconite Amendment
that Cyril mentioned in his reply. 
 In 1957 the primary Minnesota taconite
plants
were Reserve Mining, owned by Republic Steel and Armco Steel
and Erie Mining
Company, composed of Bethlehem Steel, Youngstown Sheet and
Tube, Interlake Iron
Co and the Steel Company of Canada.

 

In 1957, from Minnesota
almost 62,000,000 tons of natural
ore were shipped and only 6,348,000 tons of taconite
concentrate (usually as
pellets).   I think it is much
more likely that your
trains are hauling natural ore in 1957 (unless you can
pinpoint the mill to one of the co-owners of Reserve or
Erie).

 

Iron ore is classified by
its chemical composition, and less
by size of particle.  The mining
companies were sometimes able to negotiate a premium for
lump structure in the
ore.  In 1957 about 65% of the iron ore
was “direct shipping”, meaning that went directly from
the ground to ore car to
boat as rocks or dirt.  The remainder was
concentrated in some manner to improve the percentage of
iron.  Concentration generally resulted in
some
crushing into smaller pieces.  So you’ll
probably see some variation in size from quite small up to
4” for
concentrated ore and larger chunks for direct shipping.

 

I’d suggest a train have
a mix of the different Scenic
Express iron ore sizes to reflect the varied size nature,
loading cars with
different sizes.  However if you’re
keeping the loads loose and loading and unloading the cars,
pick one size –
they’ll become mixed soon enough (I know this from
experience).
-- Bob
Hanmer

















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