On a layout like my Central Prairie Railway, you need a lot of grain hoppers. I recently received a Rapido 3800 cubic foot hopper car and I took it for a drive on my layout.
As you should expect from Rapido Trains, the car is highly detailed. There are no chunky end ladders or thick molded walkways that you will see on a cheap Lifelike model.
The car features metal wheels and detailed trucks – you can read the “Dofasco” on them, proving their Canadian heritage.
My car CNLX 7475 weighs in at just under 4 ounces, which is about half an ounce shy of the NMRA recommended weight. I am not going to add any weight to this car.
I checked the coupler height, and although the couplers themselves were the right height, the trip pin dangled a little low. The manual suggests bending it if it’s too low, but I just clipped some of it off with some side cutters. Many of my cars have no trip pins any more.
This is a finely detailed car and I’m happy to add it to my fleet. My thanks to Jason Shron for the free car. He and his son were handing them out at at a talk Jason gave recently in Winnipeg.