North American Railcar - 11-12001003-B - Covered Hopper, 3-Bay, Potash - Agrium - 6-Pack

Specific Item Information: Road Numbers: 20502, 20511, 20514, 20561, 20701, 20760

Prototype History: The first version of this car was developed and built by National Steel Car beginning in 1999. These cars were operated by Canpotex and were originally owned by GE Rail Services and had PTEX reporting marks. Three groups of cars were produced.

600 cars were built between March 1999 and June 1999 with road numbers PTEX 20000 to PTEX 20599. 1320 more cars were built between November 1999 and April 2000 and have road numbers PTEX 20600 to PTEX 21919. 95 additional cars were subsequently produced and have road numbers PTEX 21920 to PTEX 22015.

These were distinctive with their alternating white and red reflective tape along the entire length of the cars sill. This paint scheme of the car was seen from 1999 to 2004 when the last of these cars were updated with yellow visibility marks instead of the red and white reflective tape. (We were told by one of our customers who is an engineer on Canadian Pacific; There are still some of these cars with red and white reflective tape in use today).

Since that time, some of these PTEX cars have been sold to Agrium. These cars have been repainted in the current Agrium scheme and have NAHX reporting marks.

From PWRS

Road Name History: Agrium was a major retail supplier of agricultural products and services in North America, South America and Australia and a wholesale producer and marketer of all three major agricultural nutrients and a supplier of specialty fertilizers in North America. Agrium was founded as Cominco Fertilizers (short for Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company) in 1931 and changed its name to Agrium in 1995. Agrium is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Crop Production Services, Inc., a subsidiary company, is based in Loveland, Colorado and is the location of Agrium's Retail Business Unit head office. The company is a part-owner of Canpotex, which manages all potash exporting from Saskatchewan.

On September 12, 2016, Agrium announced that it had agreed to merge with PotashCorp, which will make the combined company, Nutrien, the largest producer of potash and second-largest producer of nitrogen fertilizer worldwide. Agrium will divest certain U.S. assets. The merger closed on January 1, 2018.

Brand/Importer Information: North American Railcar is a manufacturer of N Scale model rolling stock. NAR is a subsidiary of Pacific Western Rail Systems, a hobby shop based in Surrey, British Columbia, founded by owner Dan Huberman. PWRS has been working with Micro-Trains for decades producing special runs of MTL cars for sale exclusively through their store. In 2008, PWRS started production of their own body styles - which are also exclusively sold through the PWRS storefront under the brand name North American Railcar. As of 2016 they produce three body styles each with several variations to achieve prototypical accuracy. In 2017 they announced production of a fourth body style.