Iron ore cars and load
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I remember walking tracks when I was a kid and would find marble sized something or other ever so often. They were a dark gray if I remember correctly. Any idea what that was?
No they would not carry coal, but "coal cars" carried ore. Ore jennies were used for hauling sand and gravel. The SP used the solid bottom gon types for sand hauling in Texas and the CNW in Illinois and shortlines in Nebraska use the "iron range" style hopper jennies.
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The modern short ore cars only carried ore, usually taconite. They were short because the taconite was very heavy per cubic foot compared to a load like coal so they had to be short to keep the loaded weight per truck down and not damage track. Taconite is round to oval pellets and the general color is very similar to light rust. The B&O was one of several railroads that shipped taconite from Great Lake ports to steel producing centers like Pittburgh.
I remember walking tracks when I was a kid and would find marble sized something or other ever so often. They were a dark gray if I remember correctly. Any idea what that was?
It was probably a taconite pellet that fell off an ore train. They were loaded pretty high before most railroads added extensions, so it wasn't unusual for some of the load to come off in the wind. Taconite that's freshly processed has that light rust color but it turns gray after a few week's exposure to air.
cv_acr
Well-Known Member
Yep, definately sounds like a taconite pellet.
Note that while coal or other commodities generally wouldn't be ever moved in a small ore car, due to the size not allowing much of a load of light coal per car, ore pellets could sometimes be loaded in a regular hopper on some (especially eastern) roads that didn't operate the little 1-bay ore "jennies", although it would only have a small amount loaded into the car (since it would reach weight capacity long before even approaching half the volume capacity of the car).
Note that while coal or other commodities generally wouldn't be ever moved in a small ore car, due to the size not allowing much of a load of light coal per car, ore pellets could sometimes be loaded in a regular hopper on some (especially eastern) roads that didn't operate the little 1-bay ore "jennies", although it would only have a small amount loaded into the car (since it would reach weight capacity long before even approaching half the volume capacity of the car).
Beachbum
Member
Yup. My grandparents lived next to the ex-CNW line between the UP mines and the ore dock at Escanaba, Michigan. The round / oval steel gray balls are taconite. There used to be so much spilled on the tracks that the ballast was almost covered with it. Makes great slingshot pellets BTW...
jbaakko
Diesel Detail Freak
The reason it looks like a marble is they make it that way by combining the iron or, after crushing the Taconite with clay. Taconite ore is less rich the the originally mined Hematite ore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taconite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hematite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taconite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hematite
No they would not carry coal, but "coal cars" carried ore. Ore jennies were used for hauling sand and gravel. The SP used the solid bottom gon types for sand hauling in Texas and the CNW in Illinois and shortlines in Nebraska use the "iron range" style hopper jennies.
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