Manufacturer
Fox Valley Models
P.O. Box 1970
Des Plaines, IL 60017
www.foxvalleymodels.com
Era: 1990s to present
Comments: A modern-era coal hopper has been added to the Fox Valley Models N scale freight car lineup. The car, based on a Trinity Industries prototype, accurately features the alternating six-thin-and-five-thick exterior post pattern.
The model has an injection-molded plastic body with separately applied brake detail. Nearly half of the car’s weight comes from a one-piece metal casting that represents parts of the slope sheets, center sill, and hopper bays. The casting is secured from below with two Phillips screws.
A removable coal load and modeler-installed interior bracing are included. Some minor filing is necessary for the load to fit over the bracing.
The model’s dimensions are spot on or within a scale inch or two of drawings in the Simmons-Boardman 1997 Car & Locomotive Cyclopedia.
Our sample is decorated for Alliant Energy (LNTX). There was a bit of yellow overspray in the ladder rungs on the A end of the car. Though there are reporting marks on the ends, the smaller end stencils were omitted.
The pick-up shoe actuators, used to electrically operate the hopper doors on full-size LNTX cars, were left off the model. They should be located below the sill on the same panel as the blue square containing the operating instructions. The vertically mounted air tank, used for electro-pneumatic unloading, is on the A end of the car.
The car weighs .8 ounce (with or without load), which is .3 ounce too light based on National Model Railroad Association recommended practice 20.1. The body-mounted Magne-Matic couplers are at the correct height. The metal wheelsets are in gauge.
Fox Valley Models offers the RD-4 in multiple road numbers, making it easy to model a unit coal train.
