Atlas Ore Car Trucks

[peteski]

Just for the record, The Minitrix/Aurora/Model Power cars were made by Roco

Are you absolutely sure?  At that time Roco and Trix/Minitrix were separate and competing companies.  I find it hard to believe that Trix would have bought and resold Roco's models.

Maybe you mean that the same U.S. importer was bringing Roco and Minitrix models to USA, then reselling them under those 3 names?  In my experience, the Minitrix/Aurora/Model Power models were all made by Minitrix (before Model Power started producing models in China).  But Roco was not part of this. But that is just my experience and I might not have all the facts.

[Spikre]

 
  many of the Short ore cars used 5' wheel base trucks.
  some of them are shown in a Train Shed Cyclopedia reprint.
  trucks could be:
  Arch Bar
  Andrews - U Section
  Vulcan
  ARA Type Y
  ARA Type W
  ARA U Section
  Bettendorf T Section
  Andrews - L Section
  AAR Double Truss,with or without spring planks
  later 40s ASF Vulcans could have Roller Bearings
  since Atlas Paul has chimed in, how about some
  Correct Ore Car Trucks from Atlas ?
    Spikre
     

[Spikre]

 
  Roco did produce a lot of the Aurora and later Mini Trix
  US design cars.
  Roco was a big sub-contractor into the 80s for AHM, and
  also Atlas.
  recall the 70s Atlas Davenport,GP9,GP30,F9.
  or the HO SD24,SD35,GP38,GP40,GP38 Hi Nose,FP9,Alco
  S1/2/3/4.
  when Roco got too expensive other suppliers moved in,
  eventually leading to Roco's Bankruptcy.
     Spikre
       
   
   

[peteski]

  Roco did produce a lot of the Aurora and later Mini Trix
  US design cars.
  Roco was a big sub-contractor into the 80s for AHM, and
  also Atlas.
  recall the 70s Atlas Davenport,GP9,GP30,F9.
  or the HO SD24,SD35,GP38,GP40,GP38 Hi Nose,FP9,Alco
  S1/2/3/4.
  when Roco got too expensive other suppliers moved in,
  eventually leading to Roco's Bankruptcy.
     Spikre
       
   
 

Still, I find it hard to believe that Roco ever made any models for Minitrix. Also, Roco has always been one of the mainstream manufacturers of European model railroad items (you make it sound like they were a mostly a subcontractor). Maybe it was different when it came to models of American prototypes manufactured by German companies? Roco bancrupcy was in 2005 - long after they got out of US market, of even out subcontracting for other U.S. prototype manufacturers.

[u36b]

Roco did make US and German models for Minitrix in the late 60's and early 70's.
They were a Rivarossi sub-contractor too.
If it is Rivarossi, IHC, Revell or Trix "Made in Austria", it is Roco

By then Roco only sold Minitanks under their brand name in Europe.

In the mid 70's (1975) they started the own H0 and N scale range. The Minitrix/Roco models disappeared from Trix catalogs to reappear in Roco catalogs.

btw
In the late 60' Trix did also sell in H0 Rivarrosi and Pocher (Italy) under their name.
However, most impact had a little manufacturer named Röwa, whose models made for for Trix 1967- 1972 (?) were years ahead of the then accepted standards.

Stephan

[cjm413]

I body mounted MT 903s, the Z/Nn3 coupler, on mine.  There's enough room to set them back under the end, so you can get the cars as close as you want, and they'll still work with MT's N couplers.  Mine also have the curved ends removed, since the GN didn't have them, which allows even closer coupling.

I didn't think so either but just from having seen Atlas and USA on all I did see.  Then these were given to me as part of a real purchase so I threw (placed) them in the box.  It wasn't until I was cleaning them up and deciding what I would do with them that I noticed the bottom chute area was different while ALL else seemed the same.  It was then that I noticed the Trix and Austria markings.  Assumed I just learned something everybody who's been at this a while already knew.  In these pics the Trix cars are the gray Bessemer ones.  All others are Atlas and USA.

(Attachment Link) (Attachment Link) (Attachment Link)

It appears to be from the same mold with the bottom modified to something more prototypical than a bridge piece holding the weight in. From the bottom rail up, the rest of the car and mechanism detail isn't just similar but quite exactly the same.  I wonder if the tooling might have been purchased and the details cleaned up. 

Looks like there's enough space to replace the truck mounted couplers with body-mounted Unimates

[wcfn100]

It appears to be from the same mold with the bottom modified to something more prototypical than a bridge piece holding the weight in.

Looks like two totally unrelated set of tools to me. 

Jason

[peteski]

Thanks for the info Stephan - I learned something new - I did not kow that before Roco started selling N scale items under their own name they exclusively made models for other European model manufacturers.

[narrowminded]

Looks like two totally unrelated set of tools to me. 

Jason

The bottom is.  That's the part that was cleaned up.  In the gray Trix pieces that solid rib in the middle that doesn't fit well is the metal weight, wedged in and painted with the body.  It appears that just the bottom section of the mold is different with the improved detail that has the weight now inserted from the top in a cavity made in the bottom mold section.  The balance of the car is too identical to be coincidence.  At the very least somebody looked long and hard at somebody else's part but I suspect somebody bought somebody's molds or maybe just drawings.  A good, logical move when the opportunity presents itself.  Kudos to Atlas for not leaving that bottom detail as is with the weight and bridge clip that doesn't pretend to be anything but a weight and bridge clip.    Don't know and don't know that it matters.  It's at least interesting with ample fodder for the speculation mill.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my original question on the trucks and reason for the post was resolved for the present and parts are ordered.  The rest of it was just an interesting side note.  I'll get that one off the table for now and maybe re-visit it at a later date with many of the good modelling suggestions offered here.  For the moment there are bigger fish to fry.  You guys are good!   Thanks to all.

[Missaberoad]

To add fuel to the speculation Atlas' O scale ore cars were made by Roco in the 1970s/80s and are nearly identical to the N scale models.

Perhaps Roco tooled both N scale models, with Atlas doing their own manufacturing.  I think it would be unlikely one became the other since they were both in production at the same time.

either way I'm cleaning off my workbench and working on some ore cars

[nkalanaga]

Plenty of room for Unimates, as long as you don't need to switch the train, and it will still come apart if needed, unlike drawbars.

[Atlas Paul]

I recently had this discussion with someone who was writing an article on the ore cars, and I located the tooling drawings for the N scale ore car in our drawing files, and they were drawn and tooled in the US.  I found no evidence that there was an N scale ore car tooled in Europe.  The O scale line was tooled after the N scale ore car, so it is likely that the drawing information was shared with Roco for the O scale car.

[Missaberoad]

Thanks for humoring our bull session with some inside information @Atlas Paul.

I imagine the similarity in the two n scale cars is simply that they used the same source material. (likely a Car Builders Cyclopedia, since I can't find an earlier model that could have been copied.)

[keeper]

Love your conversion @keeper! I have a couple dozen waiting similar treatment and you definitely have provided some inspiration.

I found the idea how to couple the quads on this webpage:
http://algomanorthland.blogspot.de/2007/01/ore-docks-mini-quads-id-read-about-ore.html

Thomas 

[keeper]

I have a few boxes with three ore cars in it. Some boxes are labeled for Atlas, the others for Rivarossi. All the cars are marked 'Atlas USA'.
It seems that Rivarossi sold Atlas cars in Europe under their label.

Thomas