The Case for Nondescript Rolling Stock - Unboxing and Product Review of Tangent's HO 4427 Hopper BN!

The Case for Nondescript Rolling Stock - Unboxing and Product Review of Tangent's HO 4427 Hopper BN!
Pullman Standard’s “high side” 4427 cubic foot covered hoppers were built between 1966 and 1971. These cars replaced an earlier “low side” design.
Like most covered hoppers, these cars are designed to carry granular bulk commodities that have to be kept dry. Cars designed to carry grain often have trough hatches like the ones on the model, as opposed to the round hatches often seen on cars that carry other loads.
Before covered hoppers came into widespread use, railroads often hauled grain in boxcars fitted with special grain doors.
The PS-2 4427 hoppers have 13 ribs per side. Around 12000 of these cars were produced, and they could be found throughout North America.
The model represents a BN car repainted in the late 1980s with minimal markings. The Tangent model has some road and era specific details like Morton replacement crossover platforms and fiberglass replacement trough hatches.
As usual, Dan evaluates the model's packaging, prototype accuracy, paint & detail, and how well it operates and conforms to applicable standards.
If you're a fan of covered hopper cars, freight cars from recent decades, or just trains in general, be sure to check out this unboxing and product review!
#train #modeltrains #hoscale #scalemodels #trainvideo #hopper

[@John-bf4zt]

Agree with your assessment about this car and I think it’s a good one!! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

[@DanielCortopassi]

You're welcome. I'm glad you liked the review. Thanks for watching!

[@williamkolina3988]

BN green is one of the nicest colors in railroading.I have a BN train with all green cars I call it the green machine

[@DanielCortopassi]

I like BN green, too. It's a good color. Sounds like a cool train. Thanks for watching!

[@jnv4392]

Thanks! Great job!

[@DanielCortopassi]

Thank you so much! I appreciate it!

[@shipbuilding1000]

I remember how hard it was in the 1990’s to find generic reporting marks only rolling stock for modern-era fleets. Walthers and Accurail made several things, but outside of that it was down to custom-painting and decaling, boy have times changed.

[@DanielCortopassi]

It is nice to have more options for cars like this now. Maybe manufacturers were worried that people would pass over the plain cars in favor of something more interesting looking, but a lot of people seem to want cars like this too. Thanks for watching!

[@davidl.miller8168]

Dan, I agree with you 100 percent about the generic look of modern freight cars. I must admit though I loved the 60s & 70s in the color days! I love unit grain trains from that time. I built as many PTLX 4750 grain hoppers of private elevators using the Athearn 4740 car back in the day as possible. Herald King decals did a lot of these cars, but I did so many more with alphabet sets. It was so cool seeing a 70 - 100 car train of rainbow color hoppers mixed in with my Union Pacific equipment circa 1980. Happy Mothers day to all the Moms out there

[@DanielCortopassi]

I have some of the earlier-era colorful cars, probably not 100% accurate for my 1990s era but I'll use them anyway. Having some cars like this mixed in will help. I remember Herald King. I think I might have a set or two of their decals in my decal box somewhere. I'm sure those trains of yours looked really cool. Thanks for watching!

[@205004gs]

Really nice looking car Tangeant always has nice products. Great review and thanks for sharing and a shoutout to Lombard Hobby as well 👏👍

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you liked the review. I've shopped online at Lombard many times and have always been happy with the service. Thanks for watching!

[@Lehighrailfanproduction]

Dang it wobbly car! It almost was perfect! I really like BN rolling stock!

[@DanielCortopassi]

I know, right? This one was so close. Still a really nice car. Thanks for watching!

[@randallellison6421]

Nice review on a classic BN car!

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you liked the review. Thanks for watching!

[@davidwallace6877]

looks cool to me you all ways do good reviews

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you liked the review. Thanks for watching!

[@markhayes6407]

Plain Jane cars as I call them are standard on most railroads . Lot of them are lease units and they have minimal markings. Tangent always has quality rolling stock. They look great. I could use a couple myself.

[@DanielCortopassi]

I've been happy with the Tangent cars I've gotten so far. I'm glad you liked the review. Thanks for watching!

[@riogrande5761]

I remember a lot of plain jane freight cars in the late 80's and early 90's and at that time I was modeling that period. But I just couldn't bring myself to run trains without a caboose so I backdated to late caboose era. Tangent makes a nice model so I'm sure it will be a nice addition to the fleet.

[@DanielCortopassi]

I know what you mean about cabooses. I probably have too many for the 90s era, but I'll find reasons to use them anyway. It's hard to get excited about an EOT device. Thanks for watching!

[@riogrande5761]

@@DanielCortopassi Agree about EOT. Boooo!

[@PennCentral99]

Nice review, concise and to the point. Tangent has some good, quality products. Nothing wrong with a boring green hopper

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you liked the review. These are nice models. Thanks for watching!

[@northernillinoisrailfanpro819]

Looks like I’ll have to get myself some, good review

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you liked the review. Thanks for watching!

[@Trains-With-Shane]

Dang! I was really pulling for this one to score a perfect 100! Tangent seems to have put together a very good car for the price. They packed a lot of detail on that. And I totally agree on the "boring" cars. that green hopper looked like most of the stuff I saw rolling around here in the mid-late 90's. Even my beloved MKT cars were usually just solid colors with solid MKT and standard reporting marks on the side. No fancy logos or colors like some roads liked to run. I generally keep a bunch of Rail Boxes due to their ubiquity amongst trains back in my preferred era and even now.

[@DanielCortopassi]

I know, this one was so close. Still a really nice car. I've got a few RailBox boxcars, too, for the same reason. They seemed to be everywhere for a while, and I still see the newer ones. Thanks for watching!

[@Wolfe351]

I have a few Tangent cars now very nice, including a couple of these hoppers (Pricey but high quality) I plan on getting some more DRGW 50' boxcars when I finish paying the taxman....LOL

[@DanielCortopassi]

They are on the higher end, along with other cars with similar detail levels. Tangent has been pretty consistent with good quality, at least the models I've reviewed. I'm sure those DRGW cars will be awesome. Thanks for watching!

[@CharlieH65]

PRECISELY why I bought all three road numbers myself. Great review, Mr. Cortopassi! Boring + BN = Beautiful

[@DanielCortopassi]

I got the same three. I just reviewed the one, but they are all really nice. I'm glad you liked the review. Thanks for watching!

[@gacj2010]

Always a professional presentation

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you liked the video. Thanks for watching!

[@devernepersonal3636]

Another VERY Close to perfect one. Very nice.

[@DanielCortopassi]

Yes, so close. Really nice model regardless. Thanks for watching!

[@paulkirkmanMYTRAINS]

Nice car !!!! Tangent makes some great cars. Have you tried the 86 ft boxcars or the smaller airslide hopper cars. The big car was to much for me. Great review !!!

[@DanielCortopassi]

I've reviewed quite a few Tangent cars over the years, including some of the hoppers and one of the 86' boxcars. The boxcar scored well, but cars that big do look best on.broader curves. Thanks for watching!

[@lucgagnon5241]

Hey Dan. Liked the review. Tangent is Hi-Q stuff. I don't own many of their cars but I'm always delighted by the quality and reliability of their models. They should make engines !!! I recently bought a B&O bay window caboose from them. It is spectacular ! So many detail parts on it. And it's wearing a very nice and crisp paint job. I think it's the first of your reviews I see couplers height (and both of them) matching that close to NMRA standards. It easily deserve a 95%. Not only green but "Dark green" signal to my point of view. Thanks for sharing. You're doing great.

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you liked the review. Tangent does make really nice models. I'm sure if they did a locomotive it would be a good one. It's always a pleasant surprise when the coupler height is correct right out of the box (and these cars even have real Kadees!). Thanks for watching!

[@lucgagnon5241]

@@DanielCortopassi Hi again Dan. Car wobbling seems to happen on most cars... Tangent included. Hopefully it was easy for you to fix. Other than this issue, that car is really nicely done. Even the fact that it's painted all BN green, it features a lot more quality details to easily get over it. I just bought a Rapido Procor 3000 cu.ft. Aluminum covered hopper. It would be interesting to see you reviewing it. Very nice car. And it came out in one piece... Keep on your good work.

[@fwsauerteig]

I liked be that BN logo though.

[@DanielCortopassi]

I have one of the older Proto 2000 versions of these cars in BN green with the logo. I like that one too. It'll look good mixed in with these. Thanks for watching!

[@happyburger23]

the wobbly effect can be a neat thing if you're modelling a shortline with abysmal track quality

[@DanielCortopassi]

I have seen real cars that wobble. The issue I have with models doing it is because they're so small and light, they vibrate too fast. If they did it slowly like the real ones then it would be a cool effect. Thanks for watching!

[@jade-a7990]

almost perfect model...

[@DanielCortopassi]

So close... Really nice model regardless. Thanks for watching!

[@nyemt601]

Wouldn’t filing the bolster down to fix the body wobble, cause the couple height to be off after?

[@DanielCortopassi]

Not in this case, because I'm actually filing the stud that fits through the hole in the truck, not the part where the top of the truck touches the bottom of the car. It's common for cars with this particular bolster design to have the studs be just a little too long and they prevent the screw from clamping down fully on the truck, allowing it to wobble. Thanks for watching!

[@4everdc302]

Do like me some Tangent cars🚃👍🚂🇨🇦🇺🇲

[@DanielCortopassi]

I've liked all the ones I've had so far. Thanks for watching!