My dad is a life long Minnesota Viking fan and has grown to love the ore docks in Iron Range of Minnesota. So much so that he named his taconite processing plant on his model railroad, Viking taconite. So, last Christmas (2007) I surprised my dad with some custom made ore cars. Well at least I tried. I found out making your own decals is more difficult than ever anticipated. I finally got an ok color match but then ran into a certain chain printing establishment no longer willing to print them for me. After months of discouragement and preoccupation with other things I thought I would try again. Thankfully I found someone willing to give it a try. Three weeks ago I was able to finish the remaining 11 cars and present them to my dad. Here they are on home rails at last! Sorry for the poor photo quality. It was too dark and cold in Wyoming to get some natural light into his garage. Here they are on the ore dock waiting to be unloaded. Here they are at the stock pile waiting to be loaded for a return trip to the dock.
They are Walthers taconite loads. They are pretty easy to remove. Some of the cars are bowed in the middle which makes removal a little difficult. One could trim the load a little or try and straighten the car side with warm water.
They look great Mikel. I can imagine your father is happy with them. Now he has a nice fleet of orecars.
Nice work! He needs the purple GE U33 to go with it. One questions, do these cars fall off the tracks once the playoffs start? No to be outdone, I have finished the blueprints for my Detroit Lions Memorial to Greatness, and am begining work . Seats one. No flushing required. Manages to smell just like the Lions after repeated use. If you write "-16" next to the seat, you get a faithful representation of their greatest acheivement. -Mark
I would have loved to been there when you gave them to him. That is a very nice thing you did for your dad. He raised a great child.
