Fleet Friday - Rapido Ballast Hoppers

    I've had eBay on the lookout for any postings with the key words "CN Ballast Hopper" for many many years.  Walthers produced a set of CN orange ballast hoppers once upon a time, but when they show up on eBay the price is outrageous.  I waited for a good deal, but it never came and I wasn't able to find an old set at my hobby shop or a train show (not even Springfield).

Rapido finally decided to make the cars I've been looking for.  Thank you, Rapido! My order arrived in the mail at the end of July.  These cars look and run great.  I replaced the couplers to match my other Kadee couplers.  I'd like to make the ballast loads look a little more real, that'll be a project for another day.

To make sure I don't run out of cars, I bought a set of six in this run.  Fun fact, I decided to go with the branchline set because I liked the Government of Canada Branchline logo on the side of the cars.