Wells & French 15-ton Ore Car in On30

Reviewed by Chris Lane

It is always nice to see a new manufacturer join the ranks, especially when their first effort is a solid model. This is the case with this new car from Prairie Loco Works. The prototype for this model served on the Quincy & Torch Lake, an ore mining railroad in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The railroad owned about 100 of these cars in both a straight-braced and Z-braced version. This model follows the Z-braced prototype. Apparently, this version came from the Hancock & Calumet Railroad.

I compared the model to drawings found in the debut issue of the Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette (March 1975), and found the model matches all the major dimensions. A set of drawings for the straight braced car can be found in the June 1987 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman.

The model’s body consists of three major components molded in an oxide red plastic. They are the frame and side/end bracing, the hopper section and the upper decking. All visible surfaces have a very nicely rendered wood grain, save for the areas on the prototype car that are metal; these are smooth. Individual details include a brake wheel and staff, side wheels for the ore dumping mechanism, grab irons and wire truss rods.

The model rolls on sprung trucks featuring the very nice Kadee® 24" wheelsets. Model sprung trucks tend to perform poorly as it is very hard to get the spring tension strong enough to keep the wheels on the rails, yet light enough so that the truck actually equalizes. Using the car in regular service on Editor-at-Large Don Strait's layout shows that the trucks are extremely reliable over a variety of turnouts and trackage, and are quite free-rolling. As these trucks are offered as a separate sale item, you may wish to upgrade any poorly performing trucks in your fleet with a set of these.

The car comes equipped with HO scale Kadee couplers set at standard On30 (HO) height. The coupler box is designed so that it may be removed and Kadee 803 or San Juan Evolution couplers can be dropped in at On3 height. This is a very nice feature for those who prefer the larger couplers or On3 height. In fact, with a change in trucks, this car would be right at home on an On3 layout.

The devil is in the details, and here is the only category of the car that could stand a bit of improvement. The stirrup steps, grab irons and end sill bolts were all a little heavier than you would find on most recently released On30 models. This model was clearly designed to be a "fleet" model, balancing price and level of detail with the assumption that the modeler is going to wish to own multiple models. In that regard, this is very solid offering and the fastidious modeler could easily add or rework a few details and yield a much-enhanced version of the stock model with little effort. I mention this not to be overly critical, but merely to suggest there is room for improvement on future releases.

In studying the few photos of the prototype cars I could find, some of the cars have a brake cylinder mounted on the side of the car and the air reservoir is mounted on the center beams at one end. At least some of the cars appear to not be equipped with the air brakes like the Prairie Loco model, but if you wanted to add this detail, a Grandt Line "K" brake set gives all the parts needed.

To sum up, this car is an excellent first effort from a brand new supplier. It follows the prototype faithfully, and I give them high marks for resisting the pull of Colorado prototypes and giving the modeler something different. The slight heaviness of some of the details is more than offset by the excellent operating characteristics of this model. The trucks look good and operate even better, and the couplers are both compatible and convertible to the standards of 95% of what different On30 modelers are using. If you are hauling coal, ore, rock or just would like something different on your On30 layout, I would urge you to give these cars a try.