New Prairie Shadows 3800 hoppers announced

[Narlie]

https://www.prairieshadows.com/catalog/product/prairie-shadows-n-3800-cu-ft-cylindrical-hopper/458

New hoppers pre-order by Feb 2022 & delivery May 2022

[Missaberoad]

Okay... I am officially poor now... 

Not even sure how many I need... solid trains of CN and CP ran thru the midwest... Not to mention all the potash companies / lease cars...

[Angus Shops]

I assume Prairie Shadows has not entered the manufacturing business, and all their previous n scale products have been manufactured by Rapido. Is this also by Rapido?

Too new for me. Also, just a reminder, but Prairie Shadows still have a decent supply of their “Canadian” gondolas in stock. I was delighted to discover this last month and promptly filled a hole in my roster with a bulk order. Problem solved.

[CNR5529]

I did the same when I found out the PGE/BCR guys were about to raid the remaining inventory, prior to Jeff Briggs' new gondola upgrade kits coming out... 

[sirenwerks]

I think I remember frequently seeing the Procor cars at a fertilizer plant in the late 70s/early 80s.  Does that sound right?  I have no idea what the cars carried, I presume some ***** or another.

[cv_acr]

I think I remember frequently seeing the Procor cars at a fertilizer plant in the late 70s/early 80s.  Does that sound right?  I have no idea what the cars carried, I presume some ***** or another.

It's a pretty "standard" sort of centre-discharge covered hopper. Grains, fertilizers, minerals, etc.

While not on the first run scheme list, Alcan and Roberval & Saguenay Ry. used both these and larger 4550s for powdered alumina out of the large Alcan aluminum smelter facilities that the RS served.

PTEX/Canpotex is obviously a potash/fertlizer shipper.

If you're into kitbashing I've also seen pressure-differential, pneumatic (i.e. plastic-pellet), and sparger (i.e. sodium chlorate) versions of the body design.

[BCR 570]

I have photos of the 370XXX and 371XXX series on BCR during the 1980s and 1990s.  Two of my photos show them being loaded with lime at Pavilion.

Wondering how similar the 370XXX and 371XXX series were.  may have to get a few for my layout.

Tim

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Are these the "ubiquitous" Canadian cylindrical cars, or are there actually a host of different car styles that I've never actually paid attention to?

[Missaberoad]

Are these the "ubiquitous" Canadian cylindrical cars, or are there actually a host of different car styles that I've never actually paid attention to?

Yes and ummm yes!

The car most people think of as a Canadian cylindrical is the 4550 cuft car made in N scale by Intermountain or NARC. They are used mostly in potash and grain service, including the colorful government grain cars.

The 3800 cuft cars are a earlier but just as common prototype used to haul Potash, Soda Ash, Fertilizer, Cement, flour, sugar, salt and other dry commodities. While they were found in grain service they were far less common there. Large fleets were owned by CP, CN, Procor, NAHX, Canadian General Transit, Canpotex and others.
Likely these cars traveled further around North America then the 4550 cuft grain hoppers.

There are more variations and capacities, but between these two cars they cover most of the Canadian Cylindrical cars...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Yes and ummm yes!

The car most people think of as a Canadian cylindrical is the 4550 cuft car made in N scale by Intermountain or NARC. They are used mostly in potash and grain service, including the colorful government grain cars.

The 3800 cuft cars are a earlier but just as common prototype used to haul Potash, Soda Ash, Fertilizer, Cement, flour, sugar, salt and other dry commodities. While they were found in grain service they were far less common there. Large fleets were owned by CP, CN, Procor, NAHX, Canadian General Transit, Canpotex and others.
Likely these cars traveled further around North America then the 4550 cuft grain hoppers.

There are more variations and capacities, but between these two cars they cover most of the Canadian Cylindrical cars...

Thank you sir!

That makes these very exciting. I can see the occasional Canadian grain car on the NCR, but I bet I'd bet I'd see a lot more of these.

[cv_acr]

Yup, the 3800/3850 (modeled by Rapido) is at least 10' shorter than the larger iconic 4550 (modeled by Intermountain).

Like Ryan said, there are other sizes/variations like 4350 and 4650 cuft, but the 3800 and 4550 are the most common. (Though CN had more 4350s than 4550s, and a lot of the Intermountain paint schemes are "foobies" that should be 3800s or 4350s.)

[Scottl]

I've learned something here- great!  I always thought the cylindrical hoppers were all the same relative size.  I'll definitely get some of these Rapido models.

[cv_acr]

I've learned something here- great!  I always thought the cylindrical hoppers were all the same relative size.  I'll definitely get some of these Rapido models.

The Canadian standard covered hopper design(s) basically evolved linearly over time as:

- 3000 cuft "slab-side" hoppers   - CN, CP and PGE/BCOL had these. No private owners I can think of
- 3400 cuft curved side "tank" hoppers   - only CN and CP had these
- 3800/3850 cuft true cylindricals (Rapido/Prairie Shadows (NSC and Marine versions))   - CN, CP and lots of private owners/lessees
- 4350 cuft cylindricals   - mainly CN and NAHX had these
- 4550 cuft cylindricals (Intermountain (NSC version) and PWRS/NARC (HST version))  - all the "government" grain hoppers were this size
- 4650 cuft cylindricals   - most or all of the cars sold in the US were this size

The cylindricals were built to mainly similar designs by National Steel Car, Marine Industries and Hawker-Siddeley. Canadian Car & Foundry and Eastern Car Company also built some of the earlier "slab side designs" but had become part of Hawker-Siddeley by the time of the cylindricals.

Then there's also the specialized designs like the CNWX-only 4100 cuft aluminum cylindricals built for lightweight branches, and the 2900 cuft aluminum sodium chlorate cars.

HST (and also North American Car) also built some clones of the AC&F 3500 cuft cylindrical, mainly for lease/private owners although CN rostered some for a while (leased from NACC). (Atlas model)

You have to be careful with Intermountain as they applied schemes that only existed on 3800/4100/4350/4650 cars to their 4550 model.

[Scottl]

Great timeline and info, thanks. 

These new Prairie Shadows cars really fill a nice gap in past offerings.  It is a great time to be a modeler.

[Mark5]

Yup, the 3800/3850 (modeled by Rapido) is at least 10' shorter than the larger iconic 4550 (modeled by Intermountain).

Like Ryan said, there are other sizes/variations like 4350 and 4650 cuft, but the 3800 and 4550 are the most common. (Though CN had more 4350s than 4550s, and a lot of the Intermountain paint schemes are "foobies" that should be 3800s or 4350s.)

So, does that mean that the Intermountain "Rainbow" car is a foob? The announcement says the 3800s were built "between1967-1975", but #370708 was built 12-66.

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn370708&o=cn

Thanks!