Ballast! A commodity that is rarely discussed, yet plays a pivotal part in the upkeep of any railroad’s infrastructure. Many railroads simply used older open-top hoppers to carry and “dump” ballast along their right-of-ways. In the mid-1970s, National Steel Car (NSC) designed and developed a welded open-top hopper specifically for ballast service, complete with four bottom chutes to 
spread the rocks along the rails. CN and CP purchased these cars in volumes, under the 1978 Government of Canada Branch Line Rehabilitation Program. Fleet numbers were also an identifier of these cars as well as their Branch Line Rehabilitation stencil and many continue to wear those to this day.

Similar cars could be found on many American roads, wearing a wide variety of paint schemes and graphics. We even included three generic colours for you to make into your freelance road or another railroad that used these cars!

The Rapido Trains HO scale NSC Ballast Hopper features:

• Removable ballast load
• Diecast frame
• Separate metal grab irons installed at the factory
• Coupler cutbars and airhoses
• Metal wheels
• Semi-scale, metal couplers
• Accurate paint and lettering
• Multiple road numbers available for each scheme
• Available in singles or multi-packs (Dealers must order multi-packs)
• Multi-packs boxed for individual sale