InterMountain - 67252-04 - Covered Hopper, 3-Bay, Trinity 5161 - Iowa Interstate - 4051

Specific Item Information: BLT 11-12

Prototype History: TrinityRail’s extensive railcar product portfolio has a complete line of covered hopper cars including a 5,161 cubic foot covered hopper car optimized to transport agricultural products, sugar, dry chemicals, or other similar products. In 1995, Trinity Industries introduced a new center-sill design covered hopper car designed primarily for grain transport. The new design was visually quite different - this one featured curved sides versus previously familiar rib-sided design adopted from Pullman-Standard.

Road Name History: The Iowa Interstate launched in 1984 to operate the former Rock Island mainline from Chicago to Omaha with a few short branches, and one longer branch to Peoria. The mainline also serves the Quad Cities and Des Moines along the way. Cedar Rapids is served by agreement with Cedar Rapids & Iowa City. This Rock Island route had been operated by the Iowa Railroad between 1981 and the establishment of the IAIS in ‘84. Chicago to Bureau is on trackage rights and the western terminal is actually in Council Bluffs with Omaha just over the state line. In total, the system is 580 miles. IAIS’s parent company is Railroad Development Corp.

Early operations were mostly handled by the usual spin-off suspects, rebuilt first generation EMD road switchers. Of the 36 engines, only 3 GP38’s and an Alco RS-36 were 2nd generation units. As traffic picked up over the years, they began to dump the first generation road switchers in favor of used 4 axle 2nd generation power. Now many of those have been returned and Iowa Interstate is going ultra-modern. As of this writing, their 44 engine fleet consists of: 12 ES44AC “GEVO”’s; 8 SD38-2’s; 22 GP38-2’s 1 GP38; and a pair of slugs.

They also have a pair of Chinese built 2-10-2 steam locomotives used for tourists and special events. They can also be found in freight service to break them in after shopping.

The addition of the 12 brand new GEVO’s permitted IAIS to retire twice that number of older 2nd generation road switchers, and still have a net increase of pulling power. Two of these GEVO’s wear Rock Island heritage colors.

In addition to the usual Midwestern mixed-manifest freights, IAIS has a respectable intermodal business. In the early years, this consisted of a single 5-unit Twinstack behind a GP9 (really!) As of this writing, IAIS sports its own fleet of Maxi-IV stack cars among others, and trailers and containers now move in sizable blocks.

Brand/Importer Information: InterMountain was founded in 1985 by Fred Brummet. They got started in the model railroad business by producing O-Scale model kits. They got started in the N Scale business almost a decade later when in 1994 they introduced the 40-23 reefer car in kit form. Later, in 1998, they started producing RTR (Ready-to-Run) models. By the early 2000s, InterMountain phased out kit production in favor of the RTR models.

The InterMountain Railway company is located at 1224 Boston Ave in Longmont, CO. They are a manufacturer of HO, N and Z scale model trains. They have produced kits as well as RTR (Ready-To-Run) models. Their N Scale products include locomotives as well as rolling stock. Their rolling stock lineup includes Boxcars, Hoppers, Tank Cars, Reefers, Gondolas, Stock Cars and Flatcars.

Their locomotive releases have primarily been diesel units, with the one major exception being their series of AC-12 Cab Forward steam locos. Their diesel lineup includes F3's, F7's, F9's, SD40's, SD45's and FT units. They are known for quality and detail. They also release their rolling stock in larger varieties of road numbers than most of the other manufacturers.