Hubert's - HN5808 - Gondola, Bathtub, Johnstown Twin Tub - Canadian Pacific - 964245

Model Information: These models come with optional, user-installed weights and internal bracing.

Prototype History: The Powder River Basin is a hot bed of coal activity. There is more coal run out of this one area than all other areas of the US combined. It is an amazing railfan opportunity, as there is train after train after train of 100+ cars leaving the basin for power plants all over the country. The trains pull through a mine and are flow loaded, with the train continuously moving at very slow speed, while the loader operator drops up to 110 tons of coal into each aluminum car. It is an awesome site to see. The flow loader piles the coal into the car, and each load settles to it's own shape. At the other end of the chain, many of the power plants or shipping docks (yes, some of this high quality cleaner burning coal goes overseas, too) unload the cars by rolling them over, while they are still coupled in the train. This is accomplished by use of a rotary coupler, which needs to be oriented correctly in the train in order to work. The orientation is accomplished visually by the unique colored end, or rotary end on the car. You will find these trains anywhere along their route with all of the rotaries lined up in the same direction. Each car is equipped with one rotary coupler, and one fixed coupler (the exceptions are the double rotary cars, which we'll get to in a second), so that the car can be rolled over without uncoupling. The most recent version of the car is constructed of aluminum for weight and strength reasons. The side stakes are a box shape of aluminum, and have distinctive crisp square corners. The earlier version of the car was made in steel, with folded steel "hat section" stiles that were thinner and rounder. Johnstown America is a pioneer in getting the most out of their materials.

When they introduced the revolutionary original all steel construction Bethgon, they started a change in the way railroads thought about coal transportation. With the Coalporter, the revolution continued. Now they are working on even more advanced systems to deliver clean fuel to America's electric plants. With their innovations, the Twin Tub has become one of the dominant coal conveyances in modern railroading. Certainly it is distinctive seeing 105 car unit trains on the rails. The cars on the road today are divided into several types. The railroad trains, like BNSF, and Norfolk Southern, are contract trains. They transport on routes that they have bid for and service with a rotating pool of equipment. The power company trains are owned or leased specifically by a particular power company, and run on a dedicated route from the coal mine to the power plant and back. From time to time, the power plant will require more coal than their owned equipment is capable of carrying, and they will lease or hire additional cars. These may come from a leasing organization (Transisco, Systems Fuels, or First Union), a railroad, or another power plant that may have over capacity. Portland General Electric is a good example of leasable trains. The Portland Rose cars often sit idle when local hydro electric power plants are generating at full capacity. At these times, the cars get leased out to other power companies at favorable rates. It is not unusual to see a train full of Portland Rose cars on it's way to San Antonio or St Louis when the Pacific Northwest has full rivers! The double rotary cars ride next to the locomotives or at any position where the train may need to be pulled in both directions to unload. If the unloader is placed on a stub track, at the end of the line, or on a wye, the loco may be tied onto either end, making it impossible to predict which way to order the cars (rotary first or non-rotary first). In these instances a double rotary is used. They are very distinctive, as whatever color is used to indicate a rotary coupler is visible on both ends. In the case of the PGEX cars, each end is equipped with colored panels and the four color rose.

Road Name History: The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), formerly also known as CP Rail (reporting mark CP) between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railroad incorporated in 1881. The railroad is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (TSX: CP, NYSE: CP), which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.

Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, it owns approximately 23,000 kilometres (14,000 mi) of track all across Canada and into the United States, stretching from Montreal to Vancouver, and as far north as Edmonton. Its rail network also serves major cities in the United States, such as Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, and New York City.

The railway was originally built between Eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1881 and 1885 (connecting with Ottawa Valley and Georgian Bay area lines built earlier), fulfilling a promise extended to British Columbia when it entered Confederation in 1871. It was Canada's first transcontinental railway, but currently does not reach the Atlantic coast. Primarily a freight railway, the CPR was for decades the only practical means of long-distance passenger transport in most regions of Canada, and was instrumental in the settlement and development of Western Canada. The CP became one of the largest and most powerful companies in Canada, a position it held as late as 1975. Its primary passenger services were eliminated in 1986, after being assumed by Via Rail Canada in 1978. A beaver was chosen as the railway's logo because it is the national symbol of Canada and was seen as representing the hardworking character of the company.

The company acquired two American lines in 2009: the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad and the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad. The trackage of the ICE was at one time part of CP subsidiary Soo Line and predecessor line The Milwaukee Road. The combined DME/ICE system spanned North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa, as well as two short stretches into two other states, which included a line to Kansas City, Missouri, and a line to Chicago, Illinois, and regulatory approval to build a line into the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. It is publicly traded on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CP. Its U.S. headquarters are in Minneapolis.

After close of markets on November 17, 2015, CP announced an offer to purchase all outstanding shares of Norfolk Southern Railway, at a price in excess of the US$26 billion capitalization of the United States-based railway. If completed, this merger of the second and fourth oldest Class I railroads in North America would have formed the largest single railway company on that continent, reaching from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast to the Gulf Coast. The merger effort was abandoned by Canadian Pacific on April 11, 2016, after three offers were rejected by the Norfolk Southern board.

Read more on Wikipedia and on Canadian Pacific official website.

Brand/Importer Information: Hubert's Model Railroad Mfg Corp group was located in Roseburg, Oregon and then Cincinnati, Ohio. Frank Hubert purchased the toolings of the LBF company (a.k.a. USA Plastics), that itself succeeded to E&C Shops, both founded by Fred Becker. Hubert had been one of Becker's partners in LBF/USA Plastics. Later, when Hubert's operation folded by the end of 2007, the toolings were acquired by InterMountain.
Like its predecessors, Hubert's released every road name with 12 to 48 different road numbers, offering the cars in 6- or 12-packs.