Tangent HO Trinity 4750 Covered Hopper Burlington Northern “3 Line”

Description

Railroad Short Name: BN

Burlington Northern (BN) “Delivery Cascade Green 1990” continues our tradition of offering gorgeous BN models, and this is perhaps the most desired of them all!  These cars are from the first 1,000 car group of the 6,000 BN-ordered Trinity 4750s.  These cars came from Trinity in the “3 line” BN scheme with the smaller BN logo, all justified to the left side of the car.  While most of the stenciling is sharp white paint against the Cascade Green carbody color, there are yellow caution lettering stenciling blocks on the sides and ends.  Finally, the cars have 3” “AAR TEST WHEELS” lettering on them to denote new wheel designs being tested in the field.  We call these cars “Version 2” Trinity Pullman-Design 4750s, and they are the first cars to branch away from the Pullman-design features – notably the changeover from riveted to welded exterior construction features at the side and end corner posts.  Additionally, these cars introduce the “bolt on” outlet gate design that was found on some of the Trinity 4750 prototypes.  The sides of the cars feature the “long version” of the jacking pads, as well as the lowered bolster height version of the jacking pad assembly.  Up on the roof of the cars are unpainted galvanized “slope up” Morton-design running boards which also include end supports, and the galvanized steel trough hatches that Trinity applied are replicated on our model.  Every railroad had different hatches, and BN is no exception, with multiple hatch types across orders – and within each order!  The ends of the cars include a new-design brake reservoir, an entirely new brake layout, center-tube brake adjustment line, Ellcon National D-5600 brake housing, angled defect card holder, and straight-handle coupler lift bars, all of which are accurately modeled on our Tangent replicas.  Underneath the cars, the centersill dividers have access holes in them like they should.  These cars carrying this BN paint scheme were the capstone freight car of the Burlington Northern era.  They were the largest fleet of cars ever to wear Cascade Green Burlington Northern paint, and they exemplified the early 1990s BN era.  These cars were seemingly everywhere, and some of the fleet remains in service today in their original BN green paint, operating within the large BNSF covered hopper fleet.  Oh, and just one more thing: BN was the largest purchaser of Trinity 4750s.  The first 12 road numbers carry August 1990 build dates, whereas the second 12 road numbers carry September 1990 build dates.

Features:

• Dimensional accuracy – designed from Pullman-Standard plans and verified with field measurements
• Highly correct “true to life” colors
• “Hyper-Accurate” lettering including exact fonts and lettering placement
• “Near-scale” draft gear box with beautifully-rendered side “key” detail
• Multiple road numbers for each scheme
• Road-specific details for each scheme
• “See through” etched metal running boards and crossover platforms (in 6 possible combinations)
• Multiple new carbody configurations
• Multiple brake layout configurations
• 4 all-new brakewheel housing and clevis options
• 6 new outlet gates
• 9 all-new original + replacement style roof hatch parts
• 4 jacking pad varieties covering Trinity production from 1988-1995
• 5 different AEI tags covering different railroad-specified applications
• Models with and without shaker bracket parts, as appropriate
• Beautiful details – wire grab irons and coupler lift bars – no “molded in” plastic grab irons here!
• Separate air hoses
• Tangent Scale Models 100-ton Barber S-2 trucks with prototype-specific rotating bearing caps (four possible options!) and separate brake beam part (2 possible options!)
• CNC-machined 36” wheels
• Genuine Kadee® scale couplers