Hatton's ballast products

[Crepello]

Has anyone got advice for me on which size iron-ore product to use for 50s/60s 'ironstone' trains that were made up of 27t tipplers?  I model N-gauge.

[Fat Controller]

I couldn't find the Hatton's ballast products, but here is a link to a photo album of the High Dyke branch, one of the last domestic iron-stone quarries:-

The photos show typical sizes of material; this domestic ironstone was often loaded at the quarry face, without any crushing having occurred. Imported ore, and that from the Welsh and Cumbrian haematite mines, was much denser and darker in colour. Due to the much greater density, loaded wagons would appear to be only half-full, and the individual pices of ore would be much smaller.

[Crepello]

Thanks a lot for your extremely helpful reply. Your observation about the density is often overlooked and I've seen layouts with 16t minerals loaded to the brim with 'iron ore;  presumably the suspension and construction of the 27t tipplers was designed for the heavier product. 

[jonny777]

In the years before I left school, I lived by the route of the Frodingham iron ore trains, and although an occasional 16t wagon did appear in the tippler rakes it was only one or possibly two and those may have only been in a couple of wagon sets but I saw then going to and fro; which made them appear regularly. I have been told that a few 16tonners may have had strengthened springs, which is why they were there. 

 

The 27t tipplers were loaded to just above the level of the wagon top, and some of the lumps of iron ore were quite large - maybe 18in to 2feet in length, which equates to 3-4mm  for N-scale purposes. The colour of the ore seemed to vary quite a bit, too. Some loads were a rather dull brown, but others had quite an orange hue - unlike any other load I ever saw on the rails.