North American Railcar Corp Announces

GRVS Club Car

Due to the overwhelming response in N scale, NARCorp is making this car available in HO Scale

North American Railcar Corp. will produce the 4275 CuFt. National Steel Car 3 bay (Based on the Canpotex (PTEX) first version) potash hopper (in GRVS livery) for The Great River Valley System (GRVS) N-Trak club of Minneapolis & St. Paul, Minnesota area.  The club has about 50 members and meets monthly in various locations around the Twin Cities.

The GRVS is one of the most active N-Trak clubs in the country with 12 to 18 shows a year promoting model railroading and supporting various charities.   GRVS recently joined with “Choo Choo Bob” (Medcraft) to sponsor an annual model train show in St. Paul, Minnesota, drawing over 4,000 attendees in its second year.

The profit from the sale of these highly detailed potash hoppers will be used by the club to further model railroading in the Upper Midwest.

Special Note: 

 1.  This car will have space to add 4 additional MicroScale numbers (after the "3") that the end user can apply.  Now you can have multiple GRVS Club cars with different numbers.

 2.  The other side of the car has "T-Traking at its best" replacing "N-Traking at its best"

Prototype Information:

    For the first time in any scale, North American Railcar is producing the National Steel Car Potash Service 4275 cu. ft. 3 Bay Covered Hopper.

    Used in unit train operations, the NSC Potash Service 4275 cu. ft. 3 Bay Covered Hopper can often be seen in large numbers. It is often seen in combination with the larger Hawker Siddeley 4550 cu ft Cylindrical Hopper. Though it has less capacity than the Hawker Siddeley car, it makes up for it in shorter car length. This allows a train of these cars to carry more potash than a train of comparable length made up of the Hawker Siddeley hoppers.

    This car operates at a gross rail load of 286,000 pounds, the current maximum limit. However, it is actually designed for a gross rail load of 315,000 pounds. It is currently produced and equipped with 100 ton nominal capacity trucks to suit present 286,000 lb. gross rail loading. If the maximum weight limit is increased, these cars can be produced and upgraded with 125 ton trucks allowing for maximum cargo capacity going forward. 

    The first version of this car was developed and built by National Steel Car beginning in 1999.  

Prototype Features:

• Version 1 Car
• Car length of 47 feet
• Car capacity of 4275 cu. ft.
• Bell curve shaped gaps between hopper bays
• 6 side panel sheets
• 11 running board supports
• Oval shaped opening in sill floor plate over outer end of trucks
  
• Barber S2 DH braced trucks

Model Features:

• Modern model accuracy of this modern prototype, this is the first time this car has been produced in any scale.
• Fully researched and prototypically accurate details
• Many separately applied detail parts, including photo etched brass and lost wax metal castings
• Accurate painting and lettering, including correct graphics, fonts and locations per prototype
• NARCorp body mounted couplers
• NARCorp high performance low friction trucks (metal wheels- of course)
  
• Properly weighted for smooth tracking and superior performance

More Information

For more information about the National Steel Car Potash Service 3 Bay Covered Hopper and their use by Canpotex & PotashCorp, including prototype videos & modeling notes, click on the links below:

Canpotex Hopper Reference Page

PotashCorp Hopper Reference Page

This would be a fantastic addition to any train

and support a great N-Trak Club

dgs