Product Review: Walthers Trinity RD-4 Coal Hopper

I was going to write this review last week because the coal hoppers I ordered were supposed to be in by then, but they hadn't come in, so I wrote about my plans for them. So of course, right after I hit "Publish", the package came. I ran upstairs, got the package, opened it up, looked over my new toys, and set them up on the layout. I bought four 6-packs, so I have 24 cars. 12 of them are TILX and 12 of them are NCUX.

The prototype for these cars were built in the 1990s to haul coal. They are hoppers, so they have hopper gates on the bottom, but they are also equipped with rotary couplers because rotary dumps have become increasingly popular at power plants, making these cars very versatile. Sized at plate F, these cars are huge. They are seen all over the country, especially in the famed Powder River Basin in Wyoming, an enormous coal producing area of the country.

These cars are part of Walthers Gold Line series, and so they come packed with all the goodies you'd expect. The aluminum paint on them shines like real aluminum. All the rivet details and warning signs and car info is all there. The detail parts are separately applied, including the etched-metal walkways on the ends of the cars. The car features a fully detailed underbody and interior. Walthers makes coal loads designed to fit these cars so you can model a loaded or an empty train.

These cars feature Proto-Max metal knuckle couplers. While they work well, they are huge, and I think they should be replaced with Kadee #58s or Sergent Engineering type F couplers. The cars also feature metal wheels mounted in plastic trucks. The wheels do not roll as well as they could, so if you want to model a unit train, it would be wise to lubricate all the wheelsets. The cars weigh in at 4.25 ounces, which is exactly what NMRA practice 20.1 says they should weigh. I don't know how much the Walthers coal load would affect the weight, but I suspect it would be minimal.

However, these cars do have one minor drawback. They are not packed well, and some parts fell off the cars I bought. Some cars were missing wheelsets, and most were missing some of the interior bracing. I was able to find all the wheelsets and all but one of the bracing pieces. I need to email Walthers about that, but in the past they have been good about supplying spare parts. Some of the bracing worked its way out of where they belong, but not out of the car, so they were bent. However, they are made of a soft, flexible plastic and were easy to put back in place. They were still slightly bent at first, but after a few days they straightened out. None of the cars were permanently damaged, they just required a little bit of work at first.

Overall, I think these cars were a great buy. I personally think Walthers asks too much for them, but it is not hard to find them for a lower price. They have been in production for a few years now and have been a very popular model so they are not hard to find anywhere. I think they will look great hauling coal to a power plant on my layout!

Manufacturer: Walthers Gold Line

Price: $119.98 (six-pack)

Available road names: Union Pacific (CMO reporting marks), NCUX, TILX