Product Review and Photos by Gareth Bayer
Following the release of its National Steel Car 6,400 cu. ft. gondola in HO scale, OVR Trains has followed this up with the same builder’s 6,000 cu. ft. variant, primarily employed for carting scrap metal to recycling facilities. Around 1,200 of these cars were delivered between 2020 and 2022 with the main recipient being American Iron & Metal (AIMX), which has acquired two batches numbered in the 20xxx and 21xxx series. Interestingly, this owner has chosen an overall black paint scheme for its fleet with white AIM branding, contrasting with the light gray body and black logo of its 6,400 cu. ft. cars.
In fact, except for the gray MWCX cars, almost all operators of these cars have gone for an overall black dip paint scheme making for a very homogenous-looking group of models from Otter Valley Railway’s private label. As well as 12 AIMX cars taken from the first batch, five other road names are included in this first production: Integrated Metal Recycling (IMRX with small logo), Niagara Metals/NMPX, Triple M Metals/TLPX and XRMX. All schemes are available in six different road numbers, with eight different road numbers for NMPX and twelve different road numbers offered for AIMX, along with an unnumbered AIMX car.
End details of Otter Valley Trains’ National Steel Car 6,000 cu. ft. Gondola.
OVR Trains is also offering loads for these cars which include bailed, shredded and rusty-looking scrap. Briefly looking to the future, hopefully OVR Trains will consider offering 21xxx series AIMX, and the attractive large logo IMRX to kick off a second production run.
Unsurprisingly the level of detail on these models is almost identical to OVR’s NSC 6,400 cu ft cars released last year. All road names feature seven-rung ladder ends and ASF Motion Control trucks, although the real AIMX 20xxx and TLPX cars have the heavily branded NSC Q4 Quadri-steer version. Reflecting their premium status, each car features a fully detailed underbody with a full complement of brake hardware, near-scale width draft gear boxes, separately applied coupler cut bars and accurate appearance air hoses, rotating wheel bearing caps and genuine Kadee scale head couplers.
Quality wise they very much mirror the previously released OVR NSC 6400 gondolas with excellent build quality, adherence to NMRA standards and paint finish. They also exhibit some of the weaknesses of the 6400s too with some minor lettering discrepancies and incorrect logo positioning. Although these do now have correct-sized NSC builder stickers. Overall, these NSC 6000s are an excellent addition to the rapidly growing range of freight cars from OVR Trains. Each HO scale NSC 6000 gondola retails for $69.99 CDN direct from ovrtrains.com while supplies last. N scale versions of these cars from ovrtrains.com have been announced for 2025 delivery.
Underside detail of the car.
NSC 6000 TLPX 2280, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, November 8, 2023 – Photo by Gareth Bayer.
