HO NSC Ballast Hopper, CP Rail #457017

Ballast! A commodity that is rarely discussed yet plays a pivotal part in the upkeep of any railroad’s
infrastructure. Many railroads simply used older open-top hoppers to carry and “dump” ballast
along their right-of-ways. In the mid-1970s, National Steel Car (NSC) designed and developed
a welded open-top hopper specifically for ballast service, complete with four bottom chutes to
spread the rocks along the rails. CN and CP purchased these cars in volumes, both directly and
under the 1978 Government of Canada Branch Line Rehabilitation Program. Fleet numbers were
also an identifier of these cars as well as their Branch Line Rehabilitation stencil and many continue
to wear those to this day.
Similar cars could be found on many American roads, wearing a wide variety of paint schemes
and graphics. We even included three generic colors for you to make into your freelance road or
another railroad that used these cars!

The NSC Ballast Hopper features:

• Removable ballast load
• Diecast frame
• Separate metal grab irons installed at the factory
• Coupler cutbars and airhoses
• Metal wheels
• Semi-scale, metal couplers
• Accurate paint and lettering
• Multiple road numbers available for each scheme