Re: Pioche Ore Cars

Mark,
These cars were built by Kilbourne & Jacobs of Columbus, OH. The best source of info is David Myrick's "Railroads of Nevada and Eastern California" but I suspect you already have that based on the scanned photos.
A dozen similar cars were built for the Death Valley Railroad in 1914. There aren't many images of these cars online, but go to ttrr.org, drill down to the images database & look through the DVRR photos for a few photographs.
The best collection of photos in print is in Railroads of Nevada and Eastern California, Volume II: The Southern Roads by David F. Myrick. Also lots of information in To Death Valley by Rail: A Brief History of the Death Valley Railroad, by Gordon Chappell (from the Third Proceedings Death Valley Conference on History & Prehistory) but not many photos.
These cars were transferred to the United States Potash Railroad in 1930. I don't know of any photos online, but there are a couple of USP pics in David Myrick's "New Mexico's Railroads". I believe two of the photos show a rebuilt K&J car, but I have no proof of that. If you aren't familiar with USP, there is an intro at:
[switchstand.com]
These cars were likely scrapped, but a few trucks remain at the Museum in Laws.
The Eureka Hill Railroad also had similar K&J hoppers. See Sam Bass' site for more info:
[www.trainweb.org]
Also note that the July/August 2002 Issue of the Narrow Gauge & Shortline Gazette had info and plans for the Eureka Hill steel hopper cars.
Cheers,
Michael