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 Posted - November 22 2006 : 5:53:31 PM
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Here's a look at the new Model Power MetalTrain Ore Cars...
They come in singles or in 3 packs. I got the Union Pacific 3 Pack today...
The cars are not totally constructed of metal. The ore bin/hopper is the metal part of the car. The underframe base is plastic...
The 3 Pack included on a pair of spring-type McHenry or Bachmann EZ-Mate knuckles. A pair of drawbars are included for to hook up the cars with what is supplied in the box...
Though the coupler pockets are all the same and do obviously take a knuckle or X2F coupler. Model Power does supply enough X2F couplers for all three Ore Cars, but again only one pair of knuckles.
The Ore Car load is cast plastic...
And you can see the drawbar and the support beams that hold the coupler pockets closed are separate plastic pieces.
Here's a look at the brake-wheel end detail...
And here's a look at the opposite end detail...
Here's the Ore Car on its back. Note the small black set of screws on just inside from the wheels are what holds the metal hopper to the plastic underframe.
And finally, here's a look at the car empty to see the inside detail...
They are nice cars and ran very well for me. Thanks to the plastic underframe, the Ore Car is not as heavy as other Model Power MetalTrain offerings...though still heavy enough to give weight to this short car. Coupler height was right on the mark by my check.
The single U-29 Steel Ore Cars sell for around $15.98 and the 3 Packs sell for $43.98. Check the Walthers site at www.walthers.com or when it comes back online Model Power had pics of all the cars www.modelpower.com
Tony Cook
HO-Scale Trains Resource
http://ho-scaletrains.net
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Country:  USA ~
Posts: 1658 ~
Member Since: December 03 2005 ~
Last Visit: February 07 2010
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 Posted - November 23 2006 : 11:05:24 AM
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Had a couple PM's regarding the numbering on the Model Power Ore Cars...Yes they do feature 3 different roadnumbers...27181...27182...27183. That is from the 3-Pack Set...don't know if the other UP release of a single car is numbered with a 4th number or not. I have the single UP ordered, it just hasn't come in yet.
One other thing to note, I had one bit of trouble with my set. I could not at first get one of the wheelset screws to unscrew...it was stripped. The screw finally came out, but the threads of the screw were coated in plastic and thus the hole for it was useless to put it all together. It is a small screw and I plan to attempt to go with a slightly larger screw and see if that works. Again, this one Ore Car was dead-on-arrival due to this over-cranked-at-the-factory screw. So take care when putting together your cars. I plan to toss the drawbars and put in Kadee Scale Knuckles on them all when my 4th UP Ore Car arrives.
Tony Cook
HO-Scale Trains Resource
http://ho-scaletrains.net
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Country: USA ~
Posts: 1658 ~
Member Since: December 03 2005 ~
Last Visit: February 07 2010
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Posted - November 23 2006 : 12:15:22 PM
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Had my Dad look up in the Car Builder's Cyclopedia the prototype info on these cars and it appears the Model Power is probably correctly labeled as a U-29 class car. They were built by Pullman-Standard in 1952 and/or 1953...so the build-date on this Union Pacific example of 11-53 isn't bad. The UP example does show a May 1970 re-working date...so the car should probably ride on Roller Bearing trucks and not the Friction ones supplied.
UP built many of its own freight cars at Omaha, so the UP car may or may not be correct. UP did paint at least some cars silver as shown by the MetalTrain example. Lettering may have been black, rather than red on actual examples. However the red lettering may be right.
I've been running my set all morning with my Atlas SD24 and followed by an Athearn RTR UP Wide-Vision Caboose and my Kato UP Business Car Cheyenne and the Model Power Ore Cars run very well.
Tony Cook
HO-Scale Trains Resource
http://ho-scaletrains.net
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Country: USA ~
Posts: 1658 ~
Member Since: December 03 2005 ~
Last Visit: February 07 2010
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