Version 4 Car

Introduced in 1999 by National Steel Car, this car is seen in large numbers across Canada and the United States. It was developed specifically to address the need for additional rail transport capacity caused be the growing Potash market.

Previously, the majority of Canadian Potash rail transport was accomplished with the larger Hawker Siddeley 4550 cu ft Cylindrical Hoppers and similar cars from National Steel Car and Marine Industries.

Though the car is a newer design, it has less capacity than the Hawker Siddeley style cars. However it makes up for this in a shorter car length of only 47 feet versus the Hawker Siddeley style cars at 59 feet. This allows a train of these cars to carry more Potash then a train of comparable length made up of the Hawker Siddeley style hoppers.

These car operates at a gross rail load of 286,000 pounds, the current maximum limit. However, they are actually designed for a gross rail load of 315,000 pounds. They are currently produced 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 upgraded with 125 ton trucks allowing for maximum cargo capacity going forward. 

These cars are currently operated in large numbers by both Canpotex and the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, and in smaller numbers by other operators. To date, over 7,000 have been produced in six versions. These cars are seen on a daily basis traveling across the Canadian Pacific, Canadian National, BNSF, CSX, NS and Union Pacific rail networks.

National Steel Car produced Version 4 of the car with internal modifications to the car design to increase capacity to 4300 cu. ft. These modifications are not visible from the outside of the car. These cars also introduced a redesigned flat sided chute design and revised A End configuration.

The first production run for PotashCorp, which was the fifth production run of these cars was of 1000 cars.

• These cars were built between July 2010 and February 2011, the 1000 Series cars are owned by General American Marks and include road numbers POTX 1000 to POTX 1999

Modeling use for prototype accuracy:

• The 1000 Series PotashCorp POTX (Version 4, road numbers 1000-1999) can be modeled from late 2010.
  
  • They generally only run in unit train operations, initially by themselves, but  mixed with 2000 Series PotashCorp POTX (Version 5, road numbers 2000-2999) cars begining in late 2012.
    
  • They can also be seen in small cuts or single cars going to various industires on mixed freights or local transfers.
    
  • They do on occassion also run in Canpotex unit trains, so they can be mixed with all paint schemes with the exclusion of the early Canpotex PTEX scheme which had be phased out by the introduction of these cars.

Version 4 Car Prototype Features:

• Car length of 47 feet
• Car capacity of 4300 cu. ft.
• Circular roofwalk tread pattern
• Long cross roofwalk panels running the full width of the car between short side roofwalk panels
  
• Raised roof hatches
• 12 running board supports
• 8 side panel sheets
• Full length side sills
• A car end configuration 2
  
• B car end configuration 1
• No wraparound ladder rungs
• Angular shape gaps between hopper bays
• Barber S2 DH trucks

Design changes in Version 4 cars:

• Capacity increase of 25 cu. ft. from 4275 on all previous versions of the car to 4300 cu. ft. - internal changes only, no exterior difference in car appearence
• A car end configuration 2 in place of A car end configuration 1 found on Versions 1, 2 & 3
  
• Angular shape gaps between hopper bays instead of the rounded shape gaps found on Versions 1, 2 & 3

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
  
• Micro-Trains couplers
  
• High performance trucks and metal wheelsets for reliable operation
• Properly weighted for smooth tracking and superior performance
• Each 6 car set includes 6 unique road numbers that will never be produced again.
  
• 2 different 6 car sets A - B

Road Numbers:

Set A:  TBA

Set B:  TBA

More Information

For more information about the Nutrien, including corporate videos, click on the links below:

Nutrien: Feeding the Future

Nutrien: A Global Agricultural Powerhouse

Or visit their website at:

https://www.nutrien.com/

Photo's Courtesy Nutrien