Model Railroading > New Rapido Bulkhead Flatcars

I received my three Rapido Canadian bulkhead flatcars yesterday ( 2 x CP 1 x BCR ). A few years ago I did some research into what I thought were the common "Thrall" bulkhead flatcars built in the 1970's as typified by the MDC/Athearn model. It turns out all those "Thrall" bulkhead flatcars were built by a variety of different builders and had different details and lengths. Furthermore the MDC/Athearn model didn't match any prototype car. It would match a class of BN cars if it had two more stake pockets per side in a different arrangement. Commonality between cars was virtually non-exsistant.....except for many Canadian cars built by Marine Industries and later NSC using the same design. BNSF also bought the cars second-hand from Procor. I shared my findings with Jason of Rapido and he disclosed they were already working on a model of the cars.
The cars come in three undec versions (early and late Marine Industries, and National Steel Car), plus painted for domestic and international versions of CP, CN and BCR as well as schemes for ONR and BNSF in both patched and full repaint versions. This red CP car is a international service car as explained in text in the white area on the side of the left bulkhead The cars come with a laser cut wood deck that is painted to the carbody color were appropriate to the prototype. This will come in handy when weathering where where I can scrape and sand the deck to simulate wear and weather the scars grey. The cars come with a small bag of user applied parts. They include the ACI plates, brake hoses and tie down loops. I didn't need the ACI label for this car per prototype photos I looked at. I also had to trim the brake hoses as they seemed quite a bit longer than what was needed. Inserting the tie down loops into the pre-drilled holes was a little bit tedious, but not expecially difficult. I'm near-sighted without my glasses, so that helped. I used some tweezers to pick up the loops and dip the pointy end into a blob of canopy glue and then carefully placed them into the holes. If your eyesight is not great, or have unsteady hands. I would just not worry about them, as they are not easy to see on the model.
The cars are well weighted with a diecast frame and roll very well. I was quick to paint the outside wheel faces, but will skip painting the axles as they can't be seen hiding deep under the car. I did find that the coupler on the A end of the car is a tad bit high, and will need to find a way to lower it. I'm pretty particular about coupler height, and many people would not find the small difference in height to be objectionable. Unfortunately the cut levers look a fair bit clunky sitting next to all that beautiful wire detail. But it's understandable as it's hard to simulate the trombone style cut lever and still have it be durable with a thin cross-section. The cars were a common sight all across North America hauling forest products from British Columbia into the US and Mexico. I especially remember the BCR cars heading to California on SP and BN trains. CP cars also went on the UP via SLC.
We are starting to see some better detailed 70's built bulkhead flatcars with Scale Trains BSC B-68 cars that came out a few years ago with another run due this summer. Walthers will have a less detailed BSC B-71 car in their mainline series coming this fall (with a whole bunch of foobie schemes). Unfortunately the lack of commonality among the 70's built bulkheads will continue to hamper accurate commercial models of the various cars. Hopefully 3D printing will make the cars available in kit form.

https://rapidotrains.com/ho-scale/freight-car/cdn-bulkhead-flatcar.html

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/23 11:50 by funnelfan.

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The extra user applied details. I did trim the brake hoses to length and also removed the cock handles and applied them to the valve on the outside ends of the car.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/23 11:55 by funnelfan.

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Thanks for sharing a writeup of those cars. I'm interested in them because I keep seeing them on CN in Chicago, one specific train has them just about every day. So, in regards to " The cars were a common sight ", I'd just like to note that they still are.

What I see are BC Rail in a few lettering varities, CN in a few lettering varieties, and both of those roads repatched as "ZEKX". Usually those have stakes in the pockets. I'm having a harder time quickly digging up shots of them for now, so these shots are just CN and BCOL.

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Was wondering about reporting marks on these cars. Some have cars labeled for international service with different reporting marks such as CNIS, CPI, BCIT . Did this have something to do where the steel for the cars came and where they were built? Or is there another reason? A friend and I were discussing this and wondering if anyone knew why the cars needed two types of reporting identities. 
Getting a pair for my 70s SP train, obviously with international reporting marks. 

Nice looking model, will have to put that on the wishlist.  And thanks for all the details Ted, it's amazing how the subtle variations can make it so hard on model railroad manufacturers.

Nathan

dmaffei Wrote:
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> Was wondering about reporting marks on these cars.
> Some have cars labeled for international service
> with different reporting marks such as CNIS, CPI,
> BCIT . Did this have something to do where the
> steel for the cars came and where they were built?

Yes, back in the day cars used in international service had to be built in the U.S. or have duty paid on them if built in Canada. Not sure when or exactly why this rule was enacted, since Canadian cars with simple CN, CP, and other Canadian reporting marks were commonly seen south of the border in the 60's and earlier.

I'm interested in modeling the D&RGW late caboose era - gotta have cabooses. (1977-1985 mainly)

I've held off on these Canadian bulkheads for now unless I can find out if any crossed the Rockies during that time frame. So far I've loaded up on the Wheels of Time bulkheads and a few from ScaleTrains and Exactrail. And I still have some Athearn/MDC Thrall stand-ins until someone finally offers some correct Thralls.

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Thank you for the mini-review.  I likewise purchased several cars but haven't yet unboxed any. 

Thanks for the info CPR-4000, and for your review Ted. 

Update on the car. I was looking at the wrong photos and did need to add the ACI placard in the position shown. The cars were rebuilt around 1988 losing the ACI placard and the paint and lettering was revised with just CP reporting marks (instead of CPI).

I also found that the Rapido couplers didn't respond well to the magnetic uncouplers I use, so replaced them with Kadee whisker scale head long shank couplers. The coupler boxes are too narrow for the Kadee plank springs like those used with the old #5 couplers.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Are they painted or molded in colored plastic? Looks like the latter. Some light weathering might knock down the plasticky look. I have a red one coming this week. Glad to hear they have narrow draft gear boxes. Should look good with Inventive Models (successor to Sergent) scale couplers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/23 08:16 by CPR_4000.

funnelfan Wrote:
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> Update on the car. I was looking at the wrong
> photos and did need to add the ACI placard in the
> position shown. 

Don't leave home without it.

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