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Canadian cylindrical grain hoppers


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I've been looking to buy the Intermountain Canadian 4550 cubic ft cylindrical grain hoppers, in various liveries such as the "Canada" government of Canada cars. However there aren't many on ebay and aswell as costing about $30 a piece the postage is very steep - often at $22 or so.  

 

So i was wondering if anyone knew of any shops who do mail order, here in the UK that would stock these.

 

Im fine with both the ready to run and/or the kit variety.

 

cheers!

 

R

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I can't help you with sources except to say that the Intermountain cars are quite well detailed which is reflected in their price.

 

What I will point out is that the various Canada cars, the Alberta cars, and the Saskatchewan cars were all (as built) specific to either CN or CP and that was reflected in the lettering. CNWX and CPWX were, respectively, the CN-allocated and CP-allocated cars. ALNX and ALPX were the equivalent Alberta cars and SKNX and SKPX were the equivalent Saskatchewan cars. Most of the Canada cars are now lettered CN and CP with the WX patched out.

 

Adrian

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I can't help you with sources except to say that the Intermountain cars are quite well detailed which is reflected in their price.

 

What I will point out is that the various Canada cars, the Alberta cars, and the Saskatchewan cars were all (as built) specific to either CN or CP and that was reflected in the lettering. CNWX and CPWX were, respectively, the CN-allocated and CP-allocated cars. ALNX and ALPX were the equivalent Alberta cars and SKNX and SKPX were the equivalent Saskatchewan cars. Most of the Canada cars are now lettered CN and CP with the WX patched out.

 

Adrian

Hi Adrian. yes I was aware of the lettering, my plan was simply if I could only get hold of CP cars (I am going to be doing CN and my own made up shortline coming off a CN line, probably off the Wainwright or Watrous subs near Saskatoon), I would just redo the lettering.  I will already have to do that with a Bachmann hopper I got at a show which has CPWX on it!

 

cheers

R

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Try the American Railroad centre in Bodmin - I was in there last week and I think they did have some of the cylindrical hoppers.

Chris

Hi Chris, thanks for that. Now looked up their site and they have some "take an Alberta break" cars.  cheers and thanks again!

 

R

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Hi Adrian. yes I was aware of the lettering, my plan was simply if I could only get hold of CP cars (I am going to be doing CN and my own made up shortline coming off a CN line, probably off the Wainwright or Watrous subs near Saskatoon), I would just redo the lettering.  I will already have to do that with a Bachmann hopper I got at a show which has CPWX on it!

 

cheers

R

 

Sounds good. There are various websites that show the number sequences for the cars.

http://www.nakina.net/private/cnwx.html

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/displayrailway.pl?o=wheatboard#covhop

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/displayrailway.pl?o=sask

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/displayrailway.pl?o=alberta

 

 

The Bachmann car, while usually nicely decorated, is not a Canadian car. It is the slightly higher capacity car with stepped. rather than straight, ends. It is otherwise a reasonable stand-in.

 

Adrian

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Sounds good. There are various websites that show the number sequences for the cars.

http://www.nakina.net/private/cnwx.html

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/displayrailway.pl?o=wheatboard#covhop

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/displayrailway.pl?o=sask

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/displayrailway.pl?o=alberta

 

 

The Bachmann car, while usually nicely decorated, is not a Canadian car. It is the slightly higher capacity car with stepped. rather than straight, ends. It is otherwise a reasonable stand-in.

 

Adrian

Yeah I did notice that the Bachmann car shape was a bit off but as you said, a suitable enough stand in.  I was browsing the walthers site and found these, I didnt even know they made them!  Any experience with these at all?

 

https://www.walthers.com/59-cylindrical-hopper-ready-to-run-canada-cnwx-109904-red-yellow-white-large-canada-double-wheat-sheaf

 

R

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Yeah I did notice that the Bachmann car shape was a bit off but as you said, a suitable enough stand in.  I was browsing the walthers site and found these, I didnt even know they made them!  Any experience with these at all?

 

https://www.walthers.com/59-cylindrical-hopper-ready-to-run-canada-cnwx-109904-red-yellow-white-large-canada-double-wheat-sheaf

 

R

They are a brand new model that I don't think (?) has actually hit shops yet, but they do look pretty good, not a long way off the Intermountain, and as they are regular Walthers stock you should be able to (pre)order easily via UK Walthers dealers?

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Its worth noting that the different manufacturers' cyclindrical hoppers are all of different prototypes with the exception of the Intermountain and new Walthers ones

Bachmann - National Steel Car 4650cf (cubic foot capacity)

Intermountain - National Steel Car 4550cf

Atlas - American Car and Foundry 3500c

PWRS - Hawker Siddeley 4550cf

Rapido - Marine Industries and National Steel Car 3800cf

Walthers Mainline - National Steel Car 4550cf

As mentioned the Walthers cars will probably be cheaper and easier to get in the UK. Looking at pics they seem fairly balanced detail wise, with some bit better on one and other bit better on others. The Intermountain ones have etched walkways, which are finer but tend to bow, the Walthers has plastic but see-through ones which should stay straighter but might be slightly more chunky, The Walthers one also has moulded hand rails while the Intermountain one has wire. This is most obvious on the ones at the ends of the top walkway,

 

Compare

Walthers

09100000007171_big.jpg

Intermountain

45117awl.jpg

And a real NSC 4550cf All the Alberta ones I've seen pics of have the 10 panels as opposed to the 13 of the IM and Walthers models

NSC%2010%20panel%20car.jpg

 

These cars came with different shapes of roof hatches (troughs) depending on whether they were for grain or other materials, but I can never remember which is which!

 

One other thing, just because your layout is on a CN line doesn't mean that the cars have to all be CN owned.

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Its worth noting that the different manufacturers' cyclindrical hoppers are all of different prototypes with the exception of the Intermountain and new Walthers ones

Bachmann - National Steel Car 4650cf (cubic foot capacity)

Intermountain - National Steel Car 4550cf

Atlas - American Car and Foundry 3500c

PWRS - Hawker Siddeley 4550cf

Rapido - Marine Industries and National Steel Car 3800cf

Walthers Mainline - National Steel Car 4550cf

As mentioned the Walthers cars will probably be cheaper and easier to get in the UK. Looking at pics they seem fairly balanced detail wise, with some bit better on one and other bit better on others. The Intermountain ones have etched walkways, which are finer but tend to bow, the Walthers has plastic but see-through ones which should stay straighter but might be slightly more chunky, The Walthers one also has moulded hand rails while the Intermountain one has wire. This is most obvious on the ones at the ends of the top walkway,

 

Compare

Walthers

09100000007171_big.jpg

Intermountain

45117awl.jpg

And a real NSC 4550cf All the Alberta ones I've seen pics of have the 10 panels as opposed to the 13 of the IM and Walthers models

NSC%2010%20panel%20car.jpg

 

These cars came with different shapes of roof hatches (troughs) depending on whether they were for grain or other materials, but I can never remember which is which!

 

One other thing, just because your layout is on a CN line doesn't mean that the cars have to all be CN owned.

Thanks for all the info Talltim! Since the intermountain ones seem pretty difficult to get hold of I think i'll get hold of a bunch of Walthers ones when theyre out.  They look real nice to my eye and as Glorious NSE said above will be a lot easier to get hold of over here.

 

 

...my real aim though is to see the real-life cars when i go out to Western Canada next yr (Edmonton, Calgary, Three Hills and possibly Vancouver) to visit family.....!  (And I'd also like to see CN sd70s of all tier generations that they own!)..

 

cheers!

R

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Its worth noting that the different manufacturers' cyclindrical hoppers are all of different prototypes with the exception of the Intermountain and new Walthers ones

Bachmann - National Steel Car 4650cf (cubic foot capacity)

Intermountain - National Steel Car 4550cf

Atlas - American Car and Foundry 3500c

PWRS - Hawker Siddeley 4550cf

Rapido - Marine Industries and National Steel Car 3800cf

Walthers Mainline - National Steel Car 4550cf

As mentioned the Walthers cars will probably be cheaper and easier to get in the UK. Looking at pics they seem fairly balanced detail wise, with some bit better on one and other bit better on others. The Intermountain ones have etched walkways, which are finer but tend to bow, the Walthers has plastic but see-through ones which should stay straighter but might be slightly more chunky, The Walthers one also has moulded hand rails while the Intermountain one has wire. This is most obvious on the ones at the ends of the top walkway,

 

Compare

Walthers

09100000007171_big.jpg

Intermountain

45117awl.jpg

And a real NSC 4550cf All the Alberta ones I've seen pics of have the 10 panels as opposed to the 13 of the IM and Walthers models

NSC%2010%20panel%20car.jpg

 

These cars came with different shapes of roof hatches (troughs) depending on whether they were for grain or other materials, but I can never remember which is which!

 

One other thing, just because your layout is on a CN line doesn't mean that the cars have to all be CN owned.

I also didnt realize there were so many differences between different sorts of 4550cf cars, I knew there was National Steel and Hawker Siddley as the 2 companies who built them, but that was about the extent of my knowledge. interesting stuff though, thanks! :-)

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They are a brand new model that I don't think (?) has actually hit shops yet, but they do look pretty good, not a long way off the Intermountain, and as they are regular Walthers stock you should be able to (pre)order easily via UK Walthers dealers?

cheers, I agree with you on that, and have decided to go for Walthers ones as they are easier to order, Intermountain ones are very difficult to find online and on ebay etc.  Looking forward to the Walthers ones coming out!

 

Thanks!

 

R

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You don't have to go out west to see them -- they come through Guelph even and I don't know what they're doing here (the line doesn't connect anywhere except at London and both big Rlys have their own routes from there).

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I checked out the prototypes of the Bachmann model. From what I can see they were mainly built for US roads as Adrian and more importantly for the modeller were/are all either grey or brown!

http://www.railcarphotos.com/Search.php?SearchCarTypeID=22&SearchBldrID=209&SearchCapCuFt=4650&Search=Search

CP had 200 of the type modelled by Bachmann numbered in the range CPI 389450-389649, all grey and they were off the roster by April 1991 according to Canadian Rail Car Pictorial Vol7, I believe some went to Seaboard Coast Line.

 

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cp/cp389548jpC.jpg 

 

Nick

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These cars came with different shapes of roof hatches (troughs) depending on whether they were for grain or other materials, but I can never remember which is which!

 

One other thing, just because your layout is on a CN line doesn't mean that the cars have to all be CN owned.

 

Trough hatches for grain, separate round hatches for other materials.

 

The Canada/Alberta/Saskatchewan grain cars are an exception as they were allocated to either CN or CP and were kept on their allocated line as they were needed to maintain that line's grain transport commitments. AFAIK they didn't wander much until more recent times.

 

Adrian

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Trough hatches for grain, separate round hatches for other materials.

 

The Canada/Alberta/Saskatchewan grain cars are an exception as they were allocated to either CN or CP and were kept on their allocated line as they were needed to maintain that line's grain transport commitments. AFAIK they didn't wander much until more recent times.

 

Adrian

On CN at least, many Canada / Gov Canada cars have properly transferred to CN ownership, and are patched to CN marks (usually by painting out the other two letters!) - so far as I can tell as CN cars they can now been seen loading anywhere on CN (which includes the former IC, WC, GTW and so on....) and offline to any places that CN grain cars go! 

 

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3230903

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4039415

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On CN at least, many Canada / Gov Canada cars have properly transferred to CN ownership, and are patched to CN marks (usually by painting out the other two letters!) - so far as I can tell as CN cars they can now been seen loading anywhere on CN (which includes the former IC, WC, GTW and so on....) and offline to any places that CN grain cars go! 

 

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3230903

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4039415

 

Yes, most of the reporting mark changes occurred around 2003, when those cars were 20+ years old. A lot of grain is now carried in newer cars.

 

Adrian

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