Red Caboose - RM-25438-02 - Covered Hopper, 3-Bay, PS-2-CD 4740 - Canadian National - 765254

Model Information: Precision Master first released this body style in kit form. Later on, they released the same body as a RTR (Ready-to-Run) model. In 2005, Red Caboose acquired this tooling from PM. Red Caboose released this model in RTR form. The 4740 model can be distinguished from the 4750 model by counting the ribs. The 4740 has 16 ribs and the 4750 has 18 ribs. The ribs on the 4750 are a little chubbier as well.

In 2015, this tooling, along with all other Red Caboose N Scale molds, was acquired by Fox Valley, who has since produced at least one run of these cars. The recent Fox Valley releases (2017) have redone the underframe to carry body-mount couplers and blackened metal wheels - which is very nice to see and makes this model a 3rd generation piece of rolling stock.

Prototype History: Manufactured from 1966 through 1971 by Pullman Standard, the 4,740 Cu. Ft. Hoppers were considered the 'Standard of the Industry' at the time. Well over 13,000 cars were owned by numerous railroads and private companies during this time. Today, many of the cars are still in service under new ownership due to mergers and the constant changes of lessees and private owners. Features unique to this car include the 16 vertical posts on the car side, a flat roof with 4 center through hatches.
The 4,740 and 4,750 designs are often mistaken for each other, although the 4,750 has two more panels.

Road Name History: The Canadian National Railway Company (reporting mark CN) is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec that serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad". CN is a public company with 24,000 employees. It had a market capitalization of 32 billion CAD in 2011. CN was government-owned, having been a Canadian Crown corporation from its founding to its privatization in 1995. Bill Gates was, in 2011, the largest single shareholder of CN stock.

CN is the largest railway in Canada, in terms of both revenue and the physical size of its rail network, and is currently Canada's only transcontinental railway company, spanning Canada from the Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia to the Pacific coast in British Columbia. Its range once reached across the island of Newfoundland until 1988, when the Newfoundland Railway was abandoned.

Following CN's purchase of Illinois Central (IC) and a number of smaller US railways, it also has extensive trackage in the central United States along the Mississippi River valley from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Today, CN owns about 20,400 route miles (32,831 km) of track in 8 provinces (the only two not served by CN are Newfoundland & Labrador and Prince Edward Island), as well as a 70-mile (113 km) stretch of track (see Mackenzie Northern Railway) into the Northwest Territories to Hay River on the southern shore of Great Slave Lake; it is the northernmost rail line anywhere within the North American Rail Network, as far north as Anchorage, Alaska (although the Alaska Railroad goes further north than this, it is isolated from the rest of the rail network).

The railway was referred to as the Canadian National Railways (CNR) between 1918 and 1960, and as Canadian National/Canadien National (CN) from 1960 to the present.

Read more on Wikipedia.

Brand/Importer Information: Originally Red Caboose was a manufacturer of HO and N Scale model railroading items. It was located in Mead, Colorado, and was founded in 1990 by Leon Fairbanks. Red Caboose manufactured highly accurate, well detailed N, HO, and O Scale freight cars and locomotives.

Red Caboose closed its doors in January of 2015. Red Caboose N Scale has been sold to Fox Valley Models and HO was sold to InterMountain Railway. Many of the Red Caboose toolings have seen re-releases from Fox Valley since the acquisition. We just wish they would clean up the underframes. Red Caboose always went light on the details where they thought people wouldn't look.

Manufacturer Information: While they were in business, Red Caboose split its production runs between the US and China. Which models were produced where was a function of which body style and which run. Furthermore, which Chinese company was used for production is something we would love to find out.