CN 5304 cu ft combination door boxcars
CN purchased roughly 740 52'8" combination door boxcars from NSC in 1972/73 to supply cars for lumber service. These cars supplanted and later replaced the sizable fleet of 40' double door boxcars used in this service. As the shippers switched to centerbeam flatcars carrying wrapped lumber these cars were put into general service. As delivered they had a green sliding door to denote lumber service. Later on as they were repainted the green doors got painted in the standard CN red #12. Some of the green door cars survived in original paint well into the 2000's. Most of these cars were retired by 2018 although a few likely survive in OCS service. For many years the only available car was a flat resin kit from Kaslo Shops Distributing. It was a nice kit however availability was often limited. Rapido Trains has announced a RTR version of these cars, and recently Kaslo has re-released their original kit (HK-03) as a 3D printed car....