With a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $69.95 each (which is $29.00 higher than the previous Red Caboose price of $40.95 for their closed door version and $27.00 higher than the $42.95 price for the previously released version with a pair if optional open doors), the latest run of the extremely popular closed door models is comprised of eight new paint schemes and nine reissued liveries that were previously produced by Red Caboose.

InterMountain Railway Co. 19458-02 Union Pacific Autorack TTGX 155415 with TTX Speed Line Logos

Union Pacific - Date: BLT- 7-79

Formerly Red Caboose Stock Number 19133 with Armour Yellow Paint

InterMountain 19458-01 TTGX 151848 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 19458-02 TTGX 155415 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 19458-03 TTGX 981162 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 19458-04 TTGX 981785 with TTX Speed Line Logos

The InterMountain Models Have Light Orange and Yellow Paint

InterMountain Railway Co. 19460-01 Grand Trunk Western Autorack GTW 504011

Grand Trunk Western - Date: BLT 09/78 RBLT 3-92

Formerly Red Caboose Stock Number 19143

InterMountain 19460-01 GTW 504011

InterMountain 19460-02 GTW 504270

InterMountain 19460-03 GTW 504283

InterMountain 19460-04 GTW 504287

InterMountain Railway Co. 19469-03 Providence & Worcester Railroad Autorack PW 104306

Providence & Worcester Railroad - Date: Certified 3-09

New Paint Scheme

InterMountain 19469-01 PW 100079

InterMountain 19469-02 PW 102608

InterMountain 19469-03 PW 104306

InterMountain 19469-04 PW 190062

InterMountain Railway Co. 19471-01 Southern Autorack TTGX 603785 with TTX Speed Line Logos

Southern - Date: COTS 5-90

Formerly Red Caboose Stock Number 19211

InterMountain 19471-01 TTGX 603785 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 19471-02 TTGX 941972 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 19471-03 TTGX 942202 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 19471-04 TTGX 942396 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain Railway Co. 19479-02 Western Pacific Autorack TTGX 913153 with Trailer Train Logos

Western Pacific - Date: Rack 11-79

Formerly Red Caboose Stock Number 19200

InterMountain 19479-01 TTGX 910865 with Trailer Train Logos

InterMountain 19479-02 TTGX 913153 with Trailer Train Logos

InterMountain 19479-03 TTGX 913514 with Trailer Train Logos

InterMountain 19479-04 TTGX 915212 with Trailer Train Logos

InterMountain Railway Co. 19481-02 Ferromex Autorack TTGX 705653 with Red TTX New Image Logos

Ferromex - Date: BLT 3-15

New Paint Scheme

InterMountain 19481-01 TTGX 705590 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain 19481-02 TTGX 705653 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain 19481-03 TTGX 706720 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain 19481-04 TTGX 707245 with Red TTX New Image Logos

Intermountain Railway Co. 194100-01 Burlington Northern Santa Fe Circle Cross Logo Autorack BNSF 300160

Burlington Northern Santa Fe with Circle Cross Logos - Date: BLT 11-74

New Paint Scheme

InterMountain 194100-01 BNSF 300160

InterMountain 194100-02 BNSF 300177

InterMountain 194100-03 BNSF 300203

InterMountain 194100-04 BNSF 300215

InterMountain Railway Co. 194101-04 Canadian National Nebraska Kansas Colorado Railway Autorack NKCR 9279

Canadian National Nebraska Kansas Colorado Railway - Date: BLT 7-17

New Paint Scheme

InterMountain 194101-01 NKCR 9222

InterMountain 194101-02 NKCR 9250

InterMountain 194101-03 NKCR 9258

InterMountain 194101-04 NKCR 9279

InterMountain 194101-05 NKCR 9286

InterMountain 194101-06 NKCR 9314

InterMountain Railway Co. 194102-03 Kansas City Southern Autorack TTGX 942845 with Red TTX New Image Logos

Kansas City Southern with Pair of KCS Logos - Date: BLT 3-14

New Paint Scheme

InterMountain 194102-01 TTGX 705114 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain 194102-02 TTGX 705158 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain 194102-03 TTGX 942845 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain 194102-04 TTGX 981790 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain Railway Co. 194103-03 TFM Autorack TTGX 987753 with TTX Speed Line Logos

Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM) - Date: BLT 10-99

Formerly Red Caboose Stock Number 19014

InterMountain 194103-01 TTGX 604079 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 194103-02 TTGX 987384 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 194103-03 TTGX 987753 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 194103-04 TTGX 995949 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain Railway Co. 194104-03 Conrail without "Quality" Autorack TTGX 603201 with TTX Speed Line Logos

Conrail without "Quality" Logos - Date: BLT 9-74

Formerly Red Caboose Stock Number 19237

InterMountain 194104-01 TTGX 157314 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 194104-02 TTGX 159560 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 194104-03 TTGX 603201 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 194104-04 TTGX 604132 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain Railway Co. 194105-04 Norfolk Southern Autorack TTGX 973881 with Red TTX New Image Logos

Norfolk Southern with Thoroughbred Logos - Date: BLT 8-13

New Paint Scheme

InterMountain 194105-01 TTGX 704294 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain 194105-02 TTGX 704327 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain 194105-03 TTGX 962038 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain 194105-04 TTGX 973881 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain Railway Co. 194106-01 Canadian Pacific CP Rail Autorack CPAA 541615

Canadian Pacific CP Rail - Date: BLT 11-89

Formerly Red Caboose Stock Number 19220

InterMountain 194106-01 CPAA 541615

InterMountain 194106-02 CPAA 543012

InterMountain 194106-03 CPAA 543046

InterMountain 194106-04 CPAA 556529

InterMountain Railway Co. 194107-03 BNSF Autorack TTGX 603026 with Red TTX New Image Logos

Burlington Northern Santa Fe with Orange BNSF New Image Logos - Date: BLT 12/74

Formerly Red Caboose Stock Number 19202

InterMountain 194107-01 TTGX 254903 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain 194107-02 TTGX 255891 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain 194107-03 TTGX 603026 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain 194107-04 TTGX 940296 with Red TTX New Image Logos

InterMountain Railway Co. 194108-03 CSX Patch Autorack TTGX 979842 with TTX Speed Line Logos

CSX Patch - Date: BLT 6-78 RBLT 2-95

New Paint Scheme

InterMountain 194108-01 TTGX 974685 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 194108-02 TTGX 979135 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 194108-03 TTGX 979842 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 194108-04 TTGX 993086 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain Railway Co. 194108-02 Union Pacific Building America Autorack TTGX 850621 with TTX Speed Line Logos

Union Pacific Build America - Date: BLT 5-73

Formerly Red Caboose 19270 with Armour Yellow Paint

InterMountain 194108-01 TTGX 158925 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 194108-02 TTGX 850621 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 194108-03 TTGX 971460 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 194108-04 TTGX 975352 with TTX Speed Line Logos

The InterMountain Models Have Light Orange and Yellow Paint

InterMountain Railway Co. Special Run Spring Creek Model Trains Rock Island Autorack ROCK 990034

Rock Island with White Roofs and The Rock Logos

New Paint Scheme

Now Sold Out Spring Creek Model Trains Special Run Cars

ROCK 999005, ROCK 990019, ROCK 990023,

ROCK 990028, ROCK 990034, and ROCK 990037

Priced at $90.00 Each, Fifty of Each Road Number Were Produced.

Resembling the former Red Caboose packaging, wrapped in clear plastic and nestled in between a pair of clear vacuum formed plastic car nests, with a rectangular piece of Styrofoam placed in between each autorack body end and the inner ends of the nests, the models are shipped in a cardboard window box.

InterMountain Railway Co. 19458-04 Autorack with End Doors Removed and Views of the Inner and Outer Door Faces

The autorack bodies are fitted with an injection molded plastic mid-deck and a pair of removable, but non-opening brass end doors that accurately simulate Thrall SealSafe Radial Doors®.

Although they have no hasp lock assemblies, per the prototype, the top of each door has a horizontal grab iron and a pair of vertical grab irons are located near the inner edge each door.

InterMountain Railway Co. 19458-04 Autorack without End Doors and 194107-04 with End Doors Installed

Adding a vehicle load to the InterMountain autorack cars has been greatly simplified by the addition of the factory installed mid-deck and door assemblies that as opposed to being permanently attached with glue, are firmly held in place by a brass inner bracket.

While InterMountain did not produce the additional set of user installed single end doors that were shipped with select Red Caboose models with a door option, the side plate extensions that are located at the top of each ladder, above the solid side panels still exist on the latest release.

With a door placed in between a ladder and the autorack body, a square pin that has been molded into the back side of each ladder retains an attached door in an open position on Red Caboose products with optional doors.

Red Caboose Autorack "A" End Open Door Installation Instructions Sheet

Manufactured in early and late style variations, rather than fabricate and attach eighteen individual anti-vandalism panels to the autorack body, a one piece see-through etched metal sheet with a non-perforated logo panel, or panels in the case of specific prototypes was designed for each car side.

Although the angled lower portions of the ten body side structural columns are raised and integrated into the flatcar and eight of the rectangular horizontal upper portions are a bit taller than the recessed roof edge, the vertical sections of the eight inner posts are painted directly onto the pair of metal sheets, which unlike the prototype, causes each anti-vandalism panel to appear depressed, rather than flush with these support uprights.

In order to avoid either bending the metal panels, or pushing them into the autorack body, the models should not be grasped by their sides.

InterMountain Railway Co. 194107-04 Autorack Anti-Vandalism Panels, Brake Handle, and Wire Brake Line Detail

Fitted with a factory painted metal underframe with air brake details and retention brackets that restrict the movement of the trucks and coupler drawbars, the flatcars have a factory painted wire brake rod and four separately applied stirrup steps.

A pair of grab irons is molded into each end of the flatcar bodies.

Not as robust as the Micro-Trains® Line autoracks are, somewhat delicate because of the added detail parts and the limited amount of support around the pair of metal panels, care must be exercised when handling the InterMountain models.

InterMountain Railway Co. 194107-04 Autorack Chassis with Air Brake Details and Micro-Trains® Trucks

With flawless paint applications, the autorack bodies, the flatcars, and the anti-vandalism panels are crisply printed, with the tiniest of lettering being completely legible.

While several of the newly released models are decorated in the same paint schemes as previous Red Caboose releases, rather than the customary overall car color of Armour (i.e., mustard) yellow, the InterMountain Union Pacific and Union and Pacific Building America autorack cars have light lemony yellow (i.e., faded TTX yellow?) colored flatcars and light pumpkin orange colored racks.

Although TTX had previously recommended that both the car body and the rack be painted TTX yellow, Union Pacific's request to use its corporate color (Armour Yellow) instead of the customary TTX yellow was approved by TTX.

Shortly thereafter, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Kansas City Southern railroads requested the use of their corporate colors.

Molded in plastic and factory painted silver, the edges of the simulated galvanized roof panels have rows of tiny rivet heads.

Fitted with free-rolling 33-inch chemically blackened metal low profile Intermountain wheel-sets and drawbar mounted Magne-Matic® knuckle coupler draft gear box covers that are attached with a black plastic pin, rather than a customary screw, each car has a pair of Micro-Trains® Line 1038 Barber Roller Bearing Trucks with long extension couplers and black trip pins.

Micro-Trains® 1038 Barber Roller Bearing Truck Installation on an InterMountain Railway Co. 194107-04 Autorack

The models have a manufacturer's suggested minimum operating radius of fifteen-inches.

When they were checked with a Micro-Trains® Line coupler height gauge, the talgo mounted couplers were found to be at the correct height.

Using an NMRA Standards Gauge, the wheel-sets were found to be properly gauged.

As the wheels have low-profile flanges, when they were run on Atlas Code 55 track, no tracking issues were noticed.

The 6.75-inch long cars weigh 1.60 ounces, which according to the National Model Railroad Association's NMRA RP-20.1 recommended practice guidelines for rolling-stock weight is very close to the NMRA suggested weight of 1.55 ounces.

Several Prototype TrinityRail Autorack Cars in Transit - TrinityRail Image

Established in 1917 as the Thrall Car Manufacturing Company, specializing in railroad freight car fabrication by the mid twentieth century, the privately held Chicago, Illinois based company was merged with Dallas, Texas based Trinity Industries on October 26, 2001 and the company was subsequently renamed Trinity Rail Group (TRG), which became the present-day TrinityRail, an industrial corporation that in addition to manufacturing railcars and the components for them, also provides field support, fleet management, leasing, and maintenance services.

Bi-level and tri-level autoracks with SealSafe® end doors and galvanized side screens are still produced by TrinityRail.

The continued popularity of full sized pickup trucks and SUVs has resulted in substantial increases in bi-level autorack use in North America, which makes the Intermountain Bi-Level Autorack cars must have models for contemporary train consists.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

Using rather generic looking tooling, the Athearn UPS trailer models are disappointing when they are compared to the Trainworx item number 42844 pups that were released in 2016.

Athearn 2293 N UPS Freight 20' Wedge Trailers and Dolly Set

The Athearn models have the following short comings:

1. Although they are printed on the back and front of the models, there are no road numbers on the body sides.

2. Except for the oversized rivets that are found along the four edges of the front and side panels, the body sides and end are perfectly smooth, lacking the vertical lines of rivets that are seen on the prototype trailers.

3. Not seen or visible on the prototype trailers, the models have large vertical lines of rivets on the rear roll up door sections.

4. Oversized, rather than being offset to the driver's side, the air and electrical connections interface box is cast into the lower center of the front of each trailer.

5. The three red clearance lights that are located over the rear door are round, rather than rectangular.

6. Though the tires have nice sidewall detail, the trailer wheels have five hole (i.e., as opposed to the prototype's two hand hold) rims that lack the silver trim that is seen along the outer edge of the prototypes.

7. A trailer dolly with a four (i.e., as opposed to a six) digit road number, painted light gray wheel rims with no silver edge trim and twelve lug nuts (i.e., as opposed to black or dark brown rims with a pair of hand holds), and a spare tire mounted underneath the frame, in between the mud flaps.

Prototype UPS Freight Pup Trailer and UPS Trailer Dolly 989423

With the exception of the two hand hold style rims that are seen on prototype UPS trailers (i.e., because the Trainworx replicas are fitted with ten hole style rims), none of the remaining discrepancies can be found on the Trainworx models.

While the contemporary paint scheme that Athearn elected to use on its UPS pup trailer release differs from the one that was seen on the Trainworx products, the lack of and/or poorly executed body detailing on the generic models are major issues that cannot be remedied by an end user.

Trainworx 42844 N UPS 20' Pup Trailers with Dollies

Although the Trainworx models have not been re-issued since the initial 2016 production run, given the lengthy list of short comings, I am unable to endorse the purchase of the new Athearn product.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

Along with third runs of the unlettered orange, white, and yellow variations, the latest model release includes eight new paint schemes: Santa Fe, Burlington Northern, Canadian National, Chicago North Western System, Conrail, Guilford Rail System, RJ Corman Derailment Services LLC, and Sperry Rail Service.

Atlas 60 000 052 1993 Ford Explorer SUV Unlettered Orange

Atlas 60 000 053 1993 Ford Explorer SUV Unlettered White

Atlas 60 000 054 1993 Ford Explorer SUV Unlettered Yellow

Atlas 60 000 134 1993 Ford Explorer SUV Santa Fe

Atlas 60 000 135 1993 Ford Explorer SUV Burlington Northern

Atlas 60 000 136 1993 Ford Explorer SUV Canadian National

Atlas 60 000 137 1993 Ford Explorer SUV Chicago North Western System

Atlas 60 000 138 1993 Ford Explorer SUV Conrail

Atlas 60 000 139 1993 Ford Explorer SUV Guilford Rail System

Atlas 60 000 140 1993 Ford Explorer SUV RJ Corman Derailment Services LLC

Atlas 60 000 141 1993 Ford Explorer SUV Sperry Rail Service

Priced $3.00 higher than the $29.95 MSRP for two unlettered blister card packed models, the lettered versions have an MSRP of $32.95 a pair.

Introduced in 2008, the only fully assembled and factory decorated model of a contemporary North American built SUV currently produced in N-Scale, the plastic Atlas 1993 Ford Explorers are nicely fabricated with a pair of exterior side view mirrors and a roof rack integrated into the body, a muffler and mounted spare tire with a silver painted rim molded into the chassis, a detailed interior with a simulated steering wheel, seats, and a cover over the aft storage area, free-rolling wheels with silver painted rims and simulated rubber tires, black painted moldings around the windows, black painted trim on the silver bumpers and the interior edges of the roof rack, separately applied head and tail light lenses, and a simulated rotary beacon on the roofs of most of the railway service vehicles.

Pair of Atlas 60 000 053 Unlettered White 1993 Ford Explorer SUVs in an N-Scale Diorama

With item stock numbers, colors and/or paint schemes, the online "Atlas All-Scales Archive of "N Master Rolling Stock" has a page that is dedicated to all of the N and HO Scale 1993 Ford Explorers that have been released thus far.

Eventually, I am hoping Atlas will rerun some or all of the eight metallic colored private owner Explorers from the first and second production runs.

Exquisitely detailed, the Atlas 1993 Ford Explorers are must have models for dioramas, modules, and/or train layouts depicting a contemporary post-1992 era.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

Free rolling and wobble free, with their glass smooth finish and very realistic looking appearance, the Eastern Seaboard Models wheel-sets added several grams of weight below the train car body, a preferential location for adding mass.

Eastern Seaboard Models 920200 N-Scale 36" Fine Scale Metal Wheel-Sets

Properly gauged when they were checked with an NMRA Standards Gauge, the wheel-sets have a .040" wheel thread width and a .540" axle length that works flawlessly with Micro-Trains® Line trucks.

Currently in the process of upgrading all of my Jacksonville Terminal Company NSC 53' Intermodal Well Cars with Eastern Seaboard Models wheel-sets, the 36" diameter wheels were the proper size for the Micro-Trains® 1036 100-Ton Barber Rolling Bearing trucks that the models were shipped with.

JTC 772013 NSC 17-Post Double Stack Well Car with Eastern Seaboard Models 920200 Wheel-Sets 

When they are run, the metal wheels are more prototypically audible and tend to remain cleaner than their plastic counterparts.

The upgrade wheel-sets reduce friction, which translates into an increase in the number of train cars that can be pulled up a grade by a single piece of motive power.

A huge improvement over the one-piece injection molded plastic ones that Micro-Trains® trucks are currently fitted with, presently available in twelve piece packages, I only wish the Eastern Seaboard Models wheel-sets were shipped in one-hundred set bulk packs.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

Following up on the July 2020 release of their first railcar, a National Steel Car (NSC, a Canadian rolling stock manufacturer based in Hamilton, Ontario) stand-alone 9-post fifty-three foot Class NWF13A 100-ton double stack container well car, Jacksonville Terminal Company (JTC) shipped their highly anticipated Class NWF13 17-post version to dealers in July 2021.

JTC 772001 NSC Class NWF13A 9-Post Double Stack Well Car TTX DTTX 680820

With a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $44.95 each, there were five individually plastic jewel boxed 9-post Class NWF13A models with prototype build dates of 2006 in the July 2020 release.

Item Number 772001 TTX DTTX 680820

Item Number 772002 TTX DTTX 680510

Item Number 772003 TTX DTTX 680725

Item Number 772004 TTX DTTX 680383

Item Number 772005 TTX DTTX 680538

JTC NSC Class NWF13A 9-Post Double Stack Well Car TTX Artwork

Priced at $44.95 for the singles and $88.95 for the two pack, in a departure from the previously run cars, there were four individually plastic jewel-boxed and one two pack of 17-post Class NWF13 models with prototype build dates ranging from 2002 to 2004 in the July 2021 release.

JTC 772013 NSC Class NWF13 17-Post Double Stack Well Car TTX DTTX 655117

Item Number 772013 TTX DTTX 655117 with three silver conspicuity stripes

Item Number 772017 TTX DTTX 659626 with eight yellow conspicuity stripes and DTTX 656443 with three yellow conspicuity stripes

Item Number 772020 TTX DTTX 680850 with three yellow conspicuity stripes

Item Number 772022 Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail) CP 527578

Item Number 772026 TTX DTTX 659408 with eight yellow conspicuity stripes

TC 772013 NSC Class NWF13 17-Post Double Stack Well Car TTX DTTX 655117 Artwork

JTC 772022 NSC Class NWF13 17-Post Double Stack Well Car Canadian Pacific Railway CP 527578 Artwork

Each car has a die-cast metal body with cast in sill walkways, factory painted chemically etched stainless steel platforms with integrated hand grabs, steps, and see-through walkways that are perforated clear through, without any partially blocked holes, an injection molded plastic brake wheel (black on the NWF13A and body colored on the NWF13), a separately applied body colored plastic air reservoir and piping, Micro-Trains® Line 1016 universal body mount medium shank Magne-Matic® knuckle couplers, and Micro-Trains® Line 1036 100-Ton Barber Roller Bearing trucks with one-piece injection molded plastic wheel sets.

JTC NSC Class NWF13A 9-Post Double Stack Well Car Body End Close Up

Empty, the 5.50-inch long cars weigh 0.8 of an ounce, which according to the National Model Railroad Association's NMRA RP-20.1 recommended practice guidelines for rolling-stock weight is 0.56 of an ounce lighter than NMRA suggested weight of 1.36 ounces.

Adding weighted containers to the cars will resolve the underweight issue.

When they were checked with a Micro-Trains® Line coupler height gauge, the body mounted couplers were found to be at the correct height.

To achieve the proper coupler height, a black plastic washer was placed under each truck.

Ingeniously retained without the use of glue, one no longer needs to worry about the etched metal detail parts falling off during routine handling.

JTC NSC Class NWF13A 9-Post Double Stack Well Car Etched Stainless Steel Platform Installation Diagram

Difficult to access because their heads are located underneath the captive etched metal end walkways, each coupler is fastened to the car body with a Phillips head screw.

In order to minimize the risk of irreparably damaging the stainless steel parts, great care must be exercised when prying the snug fitting platform components from the car body ends when any routine service work on the couplers or the mounting boxes is needed.

The flat gray paint that has been applied to the platform components provides a very realistic looking, lightly weathered appearance.

Easily remedied with the proper shade of paint and a fine paint brush, the hand grabs and stirrup steps should be the same color as the body.

Hardly noticeable, as the minor casting imperfections become more apparent when the cars are turned upside down, the die-cast metal bodies had a few rough and uneven areas.

Using an NMRA Standards Gauge, the wheel-sets were found to be properly gauged.

With low-profile flanges, the plastic wheels ran on Atlas Code 55 track without any tracking issues.

Given their price point and high quality detail, I was somewhat disappointed that the models were shipped with plastic Micro-Trains® wheel-sets and replaced them with .540" axle length, chemically blackened, precision machined Eastern Seaboard Models 920200 36" Fine Scale Metal Wheel-Sets.

With their .537" axle length, Tangent Scale Models 502 (12-Pack) or 503 (100-Pack) 36" All-Metal Precision Wheel-Sets could also be used to upgrade the Micro-Trains® trucks.

Eastern Seaboard Models 920200 N-Scale 36" Fine Scale Metal Wheel-Sets

JTC 772013 NSC 17-Post Double Stack Well Car with Eastern Seaboard Models 920200 Wheel-Sets 

Equipped with 100-ton trucks, the prototype NSC "Super Stack" intermodal cars are designed to accommodate four fully loaded twenty foot containers, or a forty to fifty-three foot long container in the well with an additional forty to fifty footer stacked on top.

The wells provide ample room for a forty-eight foot container with an attached refrigeration unit and the cars can be run singly, or in drawbar attached multi-unit sets.

As do the forty-eight foot intermodal containers produced by Deluxe Innovations, Micro-Trains®, and Walthers, the fifty-three footers manufactured by Atlas, Athearn, Deluxe Innovations, JTC, Kato, Micro-Trains®, and Scale Trains will readily fit into the wells of the JTC cars.

In order to facilitate the proper placement of twenty to forty-eight foot long containers in the lower position, the cars were designed with four oval shaped depressions in the well's forty-foot locations and four round depressions in the well's center support beam.

While the cars have a manufacturer's suggested minimum operating radius of eighteen inches, it was noted on the JTC web site that either loaded or empty, when pushed or pulled through fifteen inch radius curves and "S" switches with other brands of attached intermodal rolling stock, the models operated consistently.

Although some users have reportedly run these models on curves with radiuses as tight as thirteen inches, individual results will vary due to existing track conditions and/or the makeup of one's train consist.

Unforeseen issues with the clear plastic packaging nest design has resulted in some of the 17-Post cars arriving with damaged hand grabs and/or steps.

As was the case with the previously released 9-Post models, contacting JTC directly via email will facilitate their coming up with an expedient solution for this problem.

Crisply decorated, finely detailed, and exquisitely fabricated, the JTC NSC Double Stack Container Well Cars are welcome additions to a modern rolling-stock roster and are must have models for contemporary intermodal operations spanning the years 2002 to the present day.

Hoping to see the release of some JTC NSC Three-Unit Articulated Sets in the near future.

11/25/21 Article Update

Priced at $44.95 for the singles and $88.95 for the two pack, a second run of 17-post Class NWF13 models with prototype build dates ranging from 2002 to 2004 was shipped to dealers in November 2021.

JTC 772014 NSC Class NWF13 17-Post Double Stack Well Car TTX DTTX 655118

Item Number 772014 TTX DTTX 659479 with eight yellow conspicuity stripes and DTTX 655118 with three silver conspicuity stripes

Item Number 772018 TTX DTTX 656481 with three yellow conspicuity stripes

Item Number 772021 Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail) CP 527535

Item Number 772025 Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail) CP 527905

Item Number 772030 TTX DTTX 650681 with eight yellow conspicuity stripes

JTC 772021 NSC Class NWF13 17-Post Double Stack Well Car Canadian Pacific Railway CP 527535 Artwork

JTC 772030 NSC Class NWF13 17-Post Double Stack Well Car TTX DTTX 650681 Artwork

Given that the current variation of packaging nests fail to restrict in transit product movement, as was the case with some of the previously released first run 9 and 17-post cars, some of the second run 17-post models have arrived with brake wheel, coupler, hand grab, and/or step damage.

Reiterating what was previously mentioned in this review, contacting JTC directly via email will facilitate their deriving an expedient solution for the packaging issues.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

With their releases of articulated well car sets, intermodal containers, container handling vehicles, Volvo semi tractor cabs with a container and chassis, Yard Tractors with a container and chassis, and the UNITRAM freight depot sets, which can be used for either automobile, or intermodal terminal facilities, Kato USA markets the most complete intermodal operations system available in N-Scale.

Kato 31-631 Container Handler and 31-617 Volvo Tractor, Container Chassis, and 40 Foot Maersk Container

Kato 31-621 Yard Tractor, Container Chassis, and 40 Foot Cosco Container

Kato 23-142 UNITRAM Freight Depot Basic Set

Over the years, there have been multiple releases of the extremely popular Kato MAXI series intermodal well cars.

With item stock numbers, road names, and road numbers, the Kato USA website has two online pages that are dedicated to all of the N-Scale Gunderson MAXI-I and MAXI-IV sets that have been released thus far.

Comprised of item number 106-6175, a TTX with road number DTTX 724792, speed-line lettering logos, and navy blue CSX Intermodal containers, item number 106-6176, a TTX with road number DTTX 766519, modern red logos, and UMAX containers, item number 106-6177, a Burlington Northern Santa Fe with road number BNSF 253791, circular logos, and green HUB Group containers, item number 106-6178, a Burlington Northern Santa Fe with road number BNSF 253411, swoosh logos, and red HUB Group containers, and item numbers 106-6179 and 106-6180, Pacer Stacktrain units with road numbers BRAN 6020 and BRAN 6066 and Pacer Stacktrain containers, the latest run of Kato N-Scale Gunderson MAXI IV three-unit stack car sets began arriving on dealers shelves in August 2020.

Kato 106-6175 Gunderson MAXI-IV Double Stack Car 3-Unit Set TTX DTTX 724792 with CSX Containers

Kato 106-6176 Gunderson MAXI-IV Double Stack Car 3-Unit Set TTX DTTX 766519 with UMAX Containers

Kato 106-6177 Gunderson MAXI-IV Double Stack Car 3-Unit Set BNSF 253791 with HUB Group Containers

Kato 106-6178 Gunderson MAXI-IV Double Stack Car 3-Unit Set BNSF 253411 with HUB Group Containers

Kato 106-6180 Gunderson MAXI-IV Double Stack Car 3-Unit Set Pacer Stacktrain BRAN 6066 with Containers

Also re-released, comprised of item numbers 106-6194 and 106-6195, Burlington Northern Santa Fe units with road numbers BNSF 238615 and BNSF 238693, swoosh logos, and magenta ONE (Ocean Network Express) containers, item numbers 106-6196 and 106-6197, TTX units with road numbers DTTX 759324 and DTTX 759350, modern red logos, and light gray ONE (Ocean Network Express) containers, and item numbers 106-6198 and 106-6199, MAERSK units with road numbers MAEX 100029 and MAEX 100043 and MAERSK containers, the most recent run Gunderson MAXI-I five-unit sets made their debut in March (MAERSK) and May (BNSF and TTX) 2021.

Kato 106-6194 Gunderson MAXI-I Double Stack Car 5-Unit Set BNSF Swoosh 238615 with ONE Containers

Kato 106-6196 Gunderson MAXI-I Double Stack Car 5-Unit Set TTX DTTX 759324 with ONE Containers

Kato 106-6198 Gunderson MAXI-I Double Stack Car 5-Unit Set Maersk MAEX 100029 with Containers

The MSRP for one of the newest run MAXI-IV sets is $125.00, which is twelve percent higher than the previous MSRP of $110.00 a set.

With a $150.00 MSRP, the pricing on the MAXI-I sets remains unchanged.

Like their predecessors, the recently released models have crisply decorated heavier material steel compound plastic bodies, molded in color plastic brake wheels, hand-grabs, inner well bracing, steps, and walkways, Kato knuckle couplers with end user installed trip pins, and metal wheels that are fitted to steel axles.

Unlike the separately attached injection molded plastic hand-grabs with open see-through centers that are found on the N-Scale Atlas rebuilt intermodal well cars, the centers of the eight plastic hand-grabs found on the ends of the A and B end cars that are shipped with the Kato MAXI I and IV sets are partially filled.

With a flexible clear plastic cover placed over a pocketed gray colored Styrofoam car storage tray that does not retain each car as tightly (i.e., a positive attribute) as some of the earlier versions of packaging did, the sets are shipped in a green cardboard box with three window openings that partially reveal three of the individual units and six of the containers.

Bearing different window arrangements, the latest run of Kato MAXI-I and MAXI IV models are shipped in the same sized box.

Kato 106-6196 Gunderson MAXI-I Double Stack Car 5-Unit Set TTX DTTX 759324 with ONE Containers and Inner and Outer Packaging

One of the big advantages of containerized goods transport is that once they are filled, the contents is not handled again until a container reaches its final destination.

Due to many foreign roadway limitations, twenty and forty foot long shipping containers became the norm for international shipments using a combination of railways, ships, and trucks.

Physical size and cubic capacity are not the only differences between twenty foot and forty foot containers, as their cost, maximum load weight, and usage, also differ.

Shipping containers are designed to carry specific types of cargo based on factors such as weight distribution and weight to volume ratio.

When shipping heavy loads, all of the available space in a container may not be usable.

This is the main reason why twenty foot containers are more suitable for transporting dense commodity items and heavy cargo such as cement, liquids, machinery, metals, and sugar.

Better suited for consumer goods and furniture, with twice the cubic volume of twenty foot containers, forty foot containers do not have twice the maximum load weight capacity.

Contrary to popular belief, because they often require special equipment and handling for loading and typically move more slowly than forty foot containers do, a twenty foot container does not cost half of the price of a forty foot container.

Considerably less cost efficient for less-than-container load (LCL) shipments, in reality, a twenty foot container is roughly 75% of the cost of a forty foot container.

As railways typically require that twenty foot containers travel in pairs, many carriers have been phasing them out, or discouraging their customers from using them.

With load bearing points located on their ends, forty foot containers are the standard unit length.

While both container heights are eight foot wide, in contrast to standard (which are also called low-cube or LC) containers, which have a maximum height of eight foot six inches, high-cube (which are also called hi-cube or HC) models stand nine foot six inches tall.

To accommodate bigger or taller items, a shipper may choose a high cube container.

Although twenty foot long containers cannot be stacked upon a longer length container, with their excess length hanging equally over each end of the smaller container that they have been perched upon, longer length containers are designed with centrally located load bearing points that are positioned forty foot apart.

Eventually becoming the Marine and Rail Equipment Division (MRED) of FMC in 1973, FMC Corporation acquired the Gunderson Bros. Engineering Corporation in 1965.

A joint venture with Greenbrier saw the 1984 introduction of the five-unit Gunderson Twin-Stack® articulated well cars with bulkheads.

In 1985, Lake Oswego, Oregon based The Greenbrier Companies Inc. acquired the former Gunderson facility from FMC corporation and renamed the newly acquired division Gunderson, Inc.

While a forty-five foot long shipping container could be loaded on top of a forty footer that was placed in the well, designed to provide support for stacked containers, which at the time, lacked the rotating Inter-box Connectors (IBC's) that are currently used to secure the boxes when they were moved, stowed, or in transit, the bulkheads prevented the top loading of forty-eight and fifty-three footers.

Greenbrier Gunderson Twin-Stack® Promotional Images Courtesy of The Greenbrier Companies

The advent of forty-eight foot long domestic intermodal containers saw the need for a new articulated well car design that eliminated the problematic bulkheads.

In 1989, Greenbrier Gunderson introduced the five-unit MAXI-Stack® III, which could accommodate twenty to forty-eight foot long containers in their wells, with forty to fifty-three footers stacked on top.

Once they could be legally transported on the majority of US highways, fifty-three foot long containers became a standard for domestic North American cartage, which resulted in the development of the ubiquitous MAXI-Stack® IV.

Although roadway regulations vary by state, with previously established height and width limits that have for the most part remained in place (i.e., except for the domestic fifty-three foot long high cube containers which are nine foot six inches high and eight foot six inches wide), increases in domestic container load weight and size were derived from the common maximum legal length and fully loaded weight of fifty-three foot for semi-tractor trailers.

Due to the size and weight of the fully loaded containers that they were designed to carry, the MAXI-Stack® IV is confined to a three-unit length.

MAXI-Stack® IV Container Loading Examples Diagram Courtesy of The Greenbrier Companies

On a production hiatus throughout the 1990s, owing to a huge rise in international ISO container transportation and increased demands from railroads, with a large order initially placed by the BNSF Railway, the production of revised MAXI-Stack® I sets resumed in 2000.

According to an April 16, 2020 press release, due to the economic impacts of COVID-19, The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. had suspended the production of new railcars at its flagship Greenbrier Gunderson manufacturing facility in Portland, Oregon.

Run continuously for nearly twenty-five years, attributed to corporate cost cutting measures, weak customer demand, and waning intermodal rail loadings which were exacerbated by the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, during the previous week, Greenbrier Gunderson ended the production of its double stack car line.

The now defunct Deluxe Innovations previously released factory assembled N-Scale models of the Twin Stack®, MAXI-Stack® III, and MAXI-Stack® IV (i.e., an earlier production version) articulated well cars.

Deluxe Innovations Twin-Stack® TTX DTTX 63299 "A" End and "E" Mid Cars

Deluxe Innovations Twin-Stack® Santa Fe Econo-Stack SFLC 254003 "A"End Car

Deluxe Innovations MAXI-Stack® III American President Lines (APL) and Trailer Train "D" and "E" Mid Cars

Deluxe Innovations MAXI-Stack® IV TTX DTTX 726750 "A" End and "C" Mid Cars

To date, the Kato MAXI I is the only available ready-to-run N-Scale model of the now ubiquitous five-unit Greenbrier Gunderson well car sets.

Providing an optimum balance between tare weight, load capacity, and railcar slack action, designed for railroads that transport large numbers of international ISO containers that are used for overseas shipments, with a forty to fifty-three foot long container loaded on top, the wells on a MAXI-Stack® I can accommodate a forty footer, or a pair twenty footers.

MAXI-Stack® I Container Loading Examples Diagram Courtesy of The Greenbrier Companies

In some parts of North America, typically on the east coast, in more congested areas, double stack rail car operations have been restricted by infrastructure limitations and the clearances of bridges and tunnels.

Although the use of smaller wheel sizes lowers a railway car's carrying capacity, in order to reduce the vertical clearance needed for railway operation, in North America, modern tri-level and some bi-level autorack cars were fitted with twenty-eight inch wheels.

Compared to other types of rolling-stock that are primarily constructed out of steel, even when they are fully loaded, autorack cars have fairly light axle loads.

This is not the case with the Greenbrier Gunderson MAXI series cars, which for load bearing reasons (i.e., the bulk of the load weight is borne by the mid-car trucks and wheels) have trucks with two different load capacities, that are fitted with two different wheel sizes

Like the prototype car sets, the Kato models have thirty-six inch wheels on the coupler equipped 70-ton end car trucks and thirty-eight inch wheels on the 125-ton mid-car trucks.

Kato 800112 125-Ton MAXI-Stack® Mid-Car Truck without Coupler

When they were checked with a Micro-Trains® Line height gauge, the truck mounted Kato magnetic knuckle couplers were found to be at the correct height.

Using an NMRA Standards Gauge, the wheel-sets were found to be properly gauged.

As the wheels have low-profile flanges, when they were run on Atlas Code 55 track, no tracking issues were noticed.

Bearing the letters A through E, there is a specific order in which the MAXI-I car bodies must be assembled.

The A and B units are end cars and the C through E units are mid-cars

Starting with the A unit and ending with the B unit, the middle cars are attached in descending order (i.e., E, D, and C).

Kato Gunderson MAXI-I Double Stack Car Connection Order Diagram Courtesy Kato USA

Joined in the same manner and bearing the same lettering scheme as the MAXI-I cars, the MAXI-IV mid car has the letter C and the end cars bear the letters A and B.

Kato Gunderson MAXI-IV Double Stack Car Connection Order Diagram Courtesy Kato USA

Absent on the MAXI-IV cars, like the prototype, which has circular depressions on the inner faces of the well sides, there are twelve circular cut-outs molded into each side of the injection molded plastic interior support frames of the Kato MAXI-I wells.

Given that the weight of articulated car sets was never factored into the National Model Railroad Association's NMRA RP-20.1 recommended practice guidelines for rolling-stock weight, it is somewhat difficult to determine if the Kato car sets are too light, too heavy, or just right.

With an individual car body length of 4.1875 inches, a fully assembled length of 20.0 inches without the couplers, a weight of 2.2 ounces empty, and 4.4 ounces with a full complement of Kato forty foot containers, with a pair of trucks attached, each of the five units that a MAXI-I set is comprised of weighs 0.4 of an ounce empty and 1.0 ounce with a pair of factory supplied containers.

On an individual unit basis, loaded with a pair of forty-foot containers and fitted with a pair of trucks, each MAXI-I well is 0.15 of an once lighter than NMRA RP-20.1 recommended weight of 1.15 ounces.

With individual car body length of 5.125 inches, a fully assembled length of 15.25 inches without the couplers, a weight of 1.8 ounces empty, and 3.6 ounces with a full complement of Kato fifty-three foot containers, with a pair of trucks attached, each of the three units that a MAXI-IV set is comprised of weighs 0.6 of an ounce empty and 1.2 ounces with a pair of factory supplied containers.

On an individual unit basis, loaded with a pair of fifty-three foot containers and fitted with a pair of trucks, each MAXI-IV well is 0.10 of an once lighter than NMRA RP-20.1 recommended weight of 1.30 ounces.

Negligible in both cases, if the minor weight discrepancies are a major concern, end users can add some weight to the loaded containers.

Somewhat off, both models have plastic detail parts that are molded in color, rather than painted like the rest of the car body is.

Molded in silver plastic, with a thickness that varies from approximately 0.20 to 0.28 of an inch, the models' walkways are not see-through.

Despite the sets' continued popularity, no aftermarket etched metal hand-grabs and/or walkway detail kits are available for either of the Kato models.

As railroads consider multi-unit articulated well car sets like the Greenbrier Gunderson MAXI series models to be a single car, an entire consist shares the same road number.

Kato 23-507B 40 Foot Intermodal Container K-Line KLFU 988962

The latest run of MAXI-I sets were shipped with the following forty foot container liveries and serial/registration numbers:

Kato Item Number 106-6194 has ten (magenta) One (Ocean Network Express) ONEU 000014 containers

Kato Item Number 106-6195 has ten (magenta) One (Ocean Network Express) ONEU 000255 containers

Kato Item Number 106-6196 has ten (light gray) One (Ocean Network Express) ONEU 002277 containers

Kato Item Number 106-6197 has ten (light gray) One (Ocean Network Express) ONEU 002289 containers

Kato Item Number 106-6198 has ten Maersk MSKU 585 436 42G1 containers

Kato Item Number 106-6199 has ten Maersk MSKU 620 436 42G1 containers

Kato 800546 53 Foot Intermodal Container Pacer Stacktrain PACU 880360

The latest run of MAXI-IV sets were shipped with the following fifty-three foot container liveries and serial/registration numbers:

Kato Item Number 106-6175 has six CSX Intermodal CSXU 633827 containers

Kato Item Number 106-6176 has six UMAX UMXU 246222 containers

Kato Item Number 106-6177 has six (green) Hub Group UPHU 249466 containers

Kato Item Number 106-6178 has six (red) Hub Group HGIU 635664 containers

Kato Item Number 106-6179 has six Pacer Stacktrain PACU 885404 containers

Kato Item Number 106-6180 has six Pacer Stacktrain PACU 895418 containers

Firmly held in place by a factory installed magnet and metal plate when they are stacked or placed in a metal bodied well car, the Kato forty and fifty-three foot containers are completely interchangeable.

The MAXI-I comes with ten forty foot containers and the MAXI-IV is shipped with six fifty-three footers.

With their factory installed metal plate and magnet, both container lengths weigh 0.2 of an ounce.

Despite the installation of the injection molded plastic inner well bracing, the steel compound plastic that was used to fabricate the car bodies allows containers with magnets in their bottoms to remain in place during car operation.

In fact, a scene (i.e., time frame 1:18 to 1:20) in a 2012 Kato produced YouTube video shows a single MAXI-IV unit briefly held upside down, with a pair of fifty-three foot long containers still locked in place in the well.

Athearn (twenty and forty footers), Atlas (forty footers), Deluxe Innovations/Fox Valley (twenty and forty footers), Jacksonville Terminal Company (JTC twenty and forty footers), Rolland (twenty and forty footers), and Walthers (forty footers) containers will fit in a Kato MAXI-I well.

Deluxe Innovations (i.e., a bit snugly), Jacksonville Terminal Company (i.e., although the JTC pins do not line up with the rectangular retention slots that are located in the bottom of the well's inner brace casting), Micro-Trains® Line, and ScaleTrains fifty-three foot containers will fit into a Kato MAXI-IV well.

Although the pins on Atlas fifty-three footers will line up with the rectangular retention slots found in the Maxi-IV wells, the containers' raised door detail prevents them from being used without modifying the ends of the Kato models plastic inner brace casting.

A tad bit longer than the comparable Kato version, as is the case with the aforementioned Atlas fifty-three foot long products, while their pins line up with the slots, the Athearn CIMC fifty-three foot containers will not fit into the Maxi-IV wells without some end-user alterations.

While not as easy to set up as the Deluxe Innovations cars are, the same on both of the Kato MAXI sets, providing secure and reliable connections, four pins and a pair of lower supports retain adjoining units to a 125-ton truck.

Once you become familiar with Kato's unique design, linking and unlinking the individual cars becomes less troublesome.

Kato Gunderson MAXI Double Stack Car User Instructions Courtesy Kato USA

Along with the user instructions that are printed on the backs of the cardboard boxes that the sets are packed in, Kato has a instructional YouTube video that explains the entire connection process.

Unlike the very finely detailed Deluxe Innovations early version MAXI-IV sets, which were first shipped to dealers in February 2015, have end-user installed mud flaps for the A and B car platform ends, see-through etched stainless steel lift rings and walkways, and a twelve-inch to fourteen-inch (i.e., with the mud flaps attached) minimum operating radius, with their Atlas code 55 track friendly wheels, both of the Kato models negotiate eleven-inch radius curves, crossover tracks, and turnouts with ease.

Deluxe Innovations 350101 MAXI-Stack® IV TTX DTTX 723210

Per prototype railway practices, where lighter pieces of rolling-stock are typically placed toward the rear of a train consist, given their typically light weight, it would probably be prudent to place your empty well car models on the end of a train.

As is case with moves to and from train club layouts, and/or NTRAK, and/or T-TRAK gatherings, somewhat harder to assemble and disassemble when they are compared to their single unit counterparts, with their robust detailing (i.e., as opposed to many of the competitive intermodal well car models that are produced by other manufacturers), the Kato products are better suited for situations that require frequent handling.

While purists might bemoan the fact that Kato chose to use unpainted and somewhat off-color plastic detail parts and well interior support frames, end-car hand grabs with partially filled centers, and thick plastic walkways that are devoid of see-through holes, most buyers will find that the durably fabricated Kato models make excellent additions to an intermodal car fleet.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

The MSRP of $64.95 is the same as the pricing for the forth run cars that were announced in June 2015.

First run in 2003, like the previously released models, the fifth installment cars have finely decorated one-piece injection molded plastic bodies with integrated end door detailing and grab irons, no see-through body-side hole perforations, a die-cast metal chassis with integrated stirrup steps, separately applied, very flexible, molded in color plastic underbody brake line details, an end user installed black injection molded plastic diaphragm assembly, with a 70-ton roller-bearing truck that is held in place by a Phillips head screw, talgo truck mounted Accumate® operating knuckle couplers, and one-piece brown injection molded plastic wheel-sets.

Given that the weight of articulated car sets was never factored into the National Model Railroad Association's NMRA RP-20.1 recommended practice guidelines for rolling-stock weight, it is somewhat difficult to determine if the Atlas Auto Carrier sets are too light, too heavy, or just right.

Each car body is 5.375-inches long (i.e., approximately sixty-nine scale feet in length) and weighs 1.4 ounces, which is very close to the NMRA recommended practice guidelines for rolling-stock weight of 1.34 ounces per half.

As the weight of the diaphragm assembly and the pair of screws used for attachment to the car-bodies is unmeasurable with a conventional digital scale, they were not taken into account.

When they were checked with a Micro-Trains® Line coupler height gauge, the talgo mounted couplers were found to be at the correct height.

Somewhat odd, and likely a residual element from the original extended drawbar truck design from circa 2003, while the two-piece plastic Accumate® couplers have flexible integrated leaf style centering springs and the coupler components are held in place by a clip-on plastic retainer, an unutilized retention pin for a coiled metal centering spring is still cast into the pocket area of the extension..

Using an NMRA Standards Gauge, the wheel-sets were found to be properly gauged.

As the wheels have low-profile flanges, when they were run on Atlas Code 55 track, no tracking issues were noticed.

According to Atlas, the models have a minimum operating radius of 9.75-inches, which is achieved by the positioning of the end user installed center diaphragm assembly.

Atlas N Scale Auto Carrier Assembly Instructions

While the factory installed truck on the diaphragm unit is attached with a single screw, the car-body trucks are retained by injection molded plastic king pins.

Along with four additional reporting numbers for the Norfolk Southern cars, the latest run includes several new paint schemes: TTX with speed-line lettering logos and faded yellow paint, Norfolk Southern with Horse-Head logos, and TTX with modern red new image logos and faded yellow paint.

Atlas 50 005 179 Thrall Articulated Auto Carrier TTX (with speed-line lettering logos) BTTX 880176

Atlas 50 005 183 Thrall Articulated Auto Carrier Norfolk Southern (new road number) NS 110102

Atlas 50 005 187 Thrall Articulated Auto Carrier Norfolk Southern (with Horse-Head logos) NS 110143

Atlas 50 005 195 Thrall Articulated Auto Carrier TTX (with modern red new image logos) TOAX 880180

The newly introduced weathered yellow paint on the pair of TTX models is a very nice touch that should be well received by buyers.

With item stock numbers, road names, and road numbers, the online "Atlas All-Scales Archive" of "N Master Rolling Stock" has a page that is dedicated to all of the Thrall Articulated Auto Carriers that have been released thus far.

Originally designed and manufactured by the Chicago Heights, Illinois based Thrall Car Manufacturing Company, which was acquired by Dallas, Texas based Trinity Industries in 2001, Thrall produced articulated cars bear rectangular blue logos with "Thrall Car" in white letters.

Bearing extremely sharp printing, on the last vertical flat panel on each body side, a "Thrall Car" logo is visible towards the coupler end of the Atlas model car bodies.

Several Prototype Articulated and Stand-Alone Autorack Cars in Transit - TTX Company Image

Previously assigned to several different TTX flatcar classes that were fitted with bi-level autorack bodies, BBTX reporting marks were applied to one-hundred-forty foot long integral articulated bi-level autorack cars with end of car cushioning from July 2000 through January 2019.

From January 2017 through January 2019, TTX one-hundred-forty foot long articulated autorack cars for high profile vehicles were marked with TOAX reporting marks.

While they are nowhere near as commonly seen as the stand-alone models are, mixed with other styles of autorack cars from a range of manufacturers, prototype photos of TTX Company BTTX and TOAX Thrall/Trinity articulated racks that were recently viewed on the RR Pictures Archive website, reveal that as of 2021, these units remain in service.

In order to fully round out a contemporary train consist that includes a substantial number of autorack cars, the Atlas N-Scale Articulated Car Carriers are must have models.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

With an MSRP (i.e., unchanged from the first run pricing) of $32.95 for the forty-foot and $34.95 for the fifty-three-foot factory decorated models, the single unit cars are competitively priced.

Well worth the wait, like the immensely popular first release models, which were formally announced in November 2017, shipped in June 2019, and promptly sold out, the exquisitely fabricated die-cast metal bodied intermodal cars are fitted with a detailed air reservoir and piping, a black, injection molded plastic brake line on each end of the car body, an injection molded plastic brake wheel, body mounted Accumate® operating knuckle couplers that are held in place by a cover plate that is fastened down with a Phillips head screw, chemically etched see-through stainless steel walkways that are perforated clear through, without any partially blocked holes, and CNC milled chemically blackened metal wheels that are mounted to metal axles.

Unlike those that are found on the ends of the A and B end cars that are shipped with the N-Scale Kato MAXI I and IV sets, rather than being partially filled, all of the separately attached injection molded plastic hand-grabs on the Atlas well cars have open, see-through centers..

Empty, the forty foot models weigh 0.6 of an ounce, which according to the National Model Railroad Association's NMRA RP-20.1 recommended practice guidelines for rolling-stock weight is 0.62 of an ounce lighter than the suggested weight of 1.22 ounces for the 4.625-inch long car.

As is the case for the shorter length models, weighing 0.8 of an ounce, the 5.5625-inch long fifty-three foot versions are 0.57 of an ounce lighter than NMRA recommended weight of 1.37 ounces.

Adding weighted containers to the cars will resolve the underweight issues.

When they were checked with a Micro-Trains® Line coupler height gauge, the body mounted couplers were found to be at the correct height.

Using an NMRA Standards Gauge, the wheel-sets were found to be properly gauged.

As the wheels have low-profile flanges, when they were run on Atlas Code 55 track, no tracking issues were noticed.

According to Atlas, both body lengths have a minimum operating radius of 12.5-inches.

Along with some additional reporting numbers for the forty foot TTX with speed-line lettering logos, the forty foot TTX 1A with modern red new image logos and "Forward Thinking" text, the forty foot Northwestern Oklahoma Railroad (NOKL), the fifty-three foot St. Mary's Railway West (SMR), and the fifty-three foot TTX with modern red new image logos, the latest run includes several new paint schemes: a TTX with modern red new image logos and "Next Load Any Road" text forty footer and Florida East Coast (FEC yellow) and TTX (pink) with modern red new image logos and "On Track for a Cure" text fifty-three footers.

Atlas 50 005 286 40 Foot Rebuilt Well Car TTX Early Logo DTTX 59429 (Second Run)

Atlas 50 005 290 40 Foot Rebuilt Well Car TTX "Forward Thinking" 1A DTTX 59049 (Second Run)

Atlas 50 005 297 40 Foot Rebuilt Well Car Northwestern Oklahoma Railroad NOKL 210056 (Second Run)

Atlas 50 005 301 40 Foot Rebuilt Well Car TTX "Next Load Any Road" DTTX 459214 (New Paint Scheme)

Atlas 50 005 303 53 Foot Rebuilt Well Car TTX DTTX 470327 (Second Run)

Atlas 50 005 313 53 Foot Rebuilt Well Car St. Mary's Railway West 210439 (Second Run)

Atlas 50 005 314 53 Foot Rebuilt Well Car Florida East Coast FEC 71004 (New Paint Scheme)

Atlas 50 005 337 53 Foot Rebuilt Well Car TTX "On Track for a Cure" DTTX 475412 (New Paint Scheme)

Atlas 50 003 736 40 Foot Rebuilt Well Car TTX "Forward Thinking" 1B DTTX 455725 (First Run)

Atlas 50 003 948 53 Foot Rebuilt Well Car Florida East Coast FEC 71131 (First Run)

The forty foot TTX 1B with modern red new image logos and "Forward Thinking" text and the fifty-three foot Florida East Coast (FEC brown) schemes were not reissued.

With item stock numbers, road names, and road numbers, the online "Atlas All-Scales Archive" of "N Master Rolling Stock" has two pages that are dedicated to all of the forty foot and fifty-three foot rebuilt well cars that have been released thus far

Unlike the initial run of forty foot rebuilds that were fitted with mustard yellow hitch plates and the fifty-three foot models that were fitted with black colored ones, as was the case with the prototypes, which had the trailer hitches removed during the rebuild process, the TTX cars are no longer shipped with factory installed fifth-wheel trailer hitch plates.

Under the opaque white car nest, buyers of the second run TTX models will find a plastic bag with a pair of mustard yellow (or pink in the case of the "On Track for a Cure" model) colored plates.

The undersides of the aforementioned plates have a pair of small pins that fit into holes that are located in between a pair of square protrusions with indents that are found on each of end of the car body.

Top View of Atlas 40 Foot Rebuilt TTX Well Car with an Installed Fifth-Wheel Hitch Plate

Although the models are marketed as rebuilds, devoid of any simulated weld seams, their body sides are perfectly smooth.

The wells on the forty footers have ample room to accommodate twenty and forty foot Athearn, Atlas, Deluxe Innovations, Jacksonville Terminal Company (JTC), and Rolland brand containers.

Fifty-three foot Athearn, Atlas, Deluxe Innovations, Jacksonville Terminal Company (JTC), Micro-Trains® Line, and ScaleTrains containers will fit in the fifty-three foot rebuilds.

Able to accommodate the mounting pins that are found on the bottom corners of the Atlas and Jacksonville Terminal Company (JTC) forty and fifty-three foot containers, both styles of Atlas rebuilt cars have four holes in the bottom of their wells.

According to the "Historical Timeline 2000s" section of the "About TTX Our History" web page, the forty-eight to forty-foot cut down programs were initiated in 2003.

While many of the forty-eight foot stand-alone wells were previously operated in drawbar connected sets, the rebuilt units are now run individually.

As lengthened cars tended to lose some of their structural integrity, the majority of rebuilds were cut down units.

With a huge rise in international shipping (i.e., primarily from Asia) and forty-foot containers becoming an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standard, that are able to withstand harsh environments, are structurally sound, are stackable, and are suitable for marine, rail, and truck transport, TTX deemed it to be more cost effective to alter their existing forty-eight foot well cars, rather than continue to use them to transport shorter length containers, as the rolling-stock modifications reduced tare weight and train length.

Must have models for contemporary intermodal train consists spanning the years 2003 to the present day, mixed with other brands and styles of container stack cars, prototype photos that were recently viewed on the RR Pictures Archive website reveal that as of 2020, along with the Florida East Coast (FEC brown) and the St. Mary's Railway West (SMR) fifty-three footers, both lengths of the Northwestern Oklahoma Railroad (NOKL) and TTX rebuilt well cars remain in service.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

The TOFC flatcar bears JTTX reporting marks, the TTX designation for a special purpose flat with end of car cushioning.

Empty, the flat weighs an once, which according to the National Model Railroad Association's NMRA RP-20.1 recommended practice guidelines for rolling-stock weight is 0.55 of an once lighter than the suggested weight of 1.55 ounces for the 6.75-inch long model.

Fully loaded, the flatcar weighs 1.6 ounces, which is extremely close to the NMRA recommendation.

Using an NMRA Standards Gauge, the wheel-sets were found to be properly gauged.

As the flatcar's brown injection molded plastic wheels have low-profile flanges, when they were run on Atlas Code 55 track, no tracking issues were noticed.

Micro-Trains® Line 993 02 130 TTX Wreck Recovery Pack Pre-Production Artwork

Given that the extent of the damage to the metal body of recovered well car cannot be ascertained by simply viewing the artwork that was provided by Micro-Trains®, as seen in the review photo, the execution is very well done, with a deep bend in one side of one of the car's ends (i.e., the end of the car without the brake wheel on the side without any graffiti) and bent underside cross bracing.

Micro-Trains® Line 993 02 130 TTX Wreck Recovery Pack Components Unboxed

The pack contains a weathered eighty-nine foot flatcar and a factory damaged well car with weathering and graffiti.

Provided one masks off the graffiti, a greater degree of realism could be achieved by applying a flat clear coat finish over the factory applied semi gloss weathering.

Bearing an atypical load, this easily assembled wreck recovery model will work with any circa mid-1990s to early 2000s North American freight train consist.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

Specifically constructed to produce 747 jumbo jets, prior to the 1967 opening of Boeing's Everett, Washington assembly plant, which had been announced by the firm in 1966, after a five hundred twenty-five million dollar contract to build twenty-five 747-100s for Pan Am was won, 737 fabrication was partially relocated to Wichita, Kansas, because of space constraints and a shortage of skilled workers.

The First Wichita-Built  Boeing 737-100 in December 1966 - Boeing Company Photo

While the remainder were constructed on mobile jigs at Boeing Field (which is named for company founder William E. Boeing and is officially called King County International Airport), three of the first ten 737 fuselage units (i.e., numbers six, eight, and ten) were fabricated in Wichita.

The First Wichita-Built Boeing 737-100 on February 15,1967 - Boeing Company Photo

From the former Wichita/Tulsa division of Boeing Commercial Airplanes manufacturing facility that was acquired by Spirit AeroSystems in 2005, aircraft fuselage components have made their way to Boeing's production facility in Renton, Washington, where among other things, the wings for 737 airplanes are fabricated.

In a train consist that was headed by a 1,500 horse power Santa Fe EMD GP7 diesel locomotive, the first pair of 737 fuselage sections made their way west to Renton on fifty foot long flatcars in March 1967.

1967 Boeing Company Photo - Kansas Historical Society Collection

Since that time, wing sections and other oversized components for Boeing 707 through 777 series aircraft have been shipped by rail.

Containing subcontractor (e.g., Canadair Ltd., General Dynamics Corporation Convair Division, LTV Aerospace Corporation. and Northrop) produced aircraft subassemblies, Skybox cars with removable cowlings that were fitted over modified flatcars regularly plied the western rails between California and Washington throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

During this period of time, Burlington Northern, Great Northern, Santa Fe, and Southern Pacific flatcars loaded with airframe components were commonly seen bearing colorful hoods that were emblazoned with subcontractor names, and/or logos, and/or slogans.

While the flatcars that were previously utilized for Skybox service were owned by the TTX Company, or various railroads, in the present day, devoid of any corporate markings, Boeing Company owned rolling-stock bear reporting numbers that are preceded by the letters "TBCX".

Santa Fe Flatcar ATSF 90428 with "General Dynamics Convair Division" Hood

Santa Fe Flatcar ATSF 90431 with "Lockheed Aircraft Wing Assembly" Hood

 Southern Pacific Flatcar SP 598329 with "another Boeing 747 jetliner assembly from NORTHROP" Hood - Charles Lange Photo

Now defunct, both LBF Company and Hubert's Railroad Manufacturing Corp. (which acquired the assets of the latter firm) formerly sold HO and N-Scale models of Skybox cars that were used to transport aircraft subassemblies throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Huberts N-Scale Skybox Car with Santa Fe Flatcar ATSF 90433 and "another Boeing 747 jetliner assembly from LTV Aerospace Corporation" Hood

Huberts N-Scale Skybox Car with Santa Fe Flatcar ATSF 90440 and "General Dynamics Convair Division" Hood

Huberts N-Scale Skybox Car with Burlington Northern Flatcar BN 614277 and "Lockheed Aircraft Wing Assembly" Hood

Huberts N-Scale Skybox Car with Great Northern Flatcar GN 60718 and "Lockheed Aircraft Wing Assembly" Hood

Huberts N-Scale Skybox Car with TTX Speed Line Logo Flatcar MTTX 980-53 and "Boeing" Hood

Huberts N-Scale Skybox Car with with Southern Pacific Flatcar SP 598324 and "Hydra-Cushion Sky Box For Aircraft Stabilizers" Hood

Announced on October 31, 2024 and utilizing the former LBC/Hubert’s tooling, with several new paint schemes, multiple road numbers, metal wheelsets, body mounted knuckle couplers, and an MSRP of $42.95 each, InterMountain Railway Co. began taking reservations on its Skybox for aerospace loads cars.

InterMountain 6700001 Santa Fe with "Lockheed Aircraft Wing Assembly" Hood (Artwork)

InterMountain 6700001-01 ATSF 90430

InterMountain 6700001-02 ATSF 90432

InterMountain 6700001-03 ATSF 90435

InterMountain 6700001-04 ATSF 90437

Date: April 1966 and Assigned Service to Burbank California

InterMountain 6700002 Burlington Northern Santa Fe with Unmarked Hood (Artwork)

InterMountain 6700002-01 BNSF 800404

InterMountain 6700002-02 BNSF 800405

InterMountain 6700002-03 BNSF 800505

InterMountain 6700002-04 BNSF 800510

Date: 1996+

InterMountain 6700003 Great Northern with "Another Boeing 747 Jetliner Assembly From Canadair Ltd." Hood (Artwork)

InterMountain 6700003-01 Great Northern 161033

InterMountain 6700003-02 Great Northern 161089

InterMountain 6700003-03 Great Northern 161101

InterMountain 6700003-04 Great Northern 161191

Date: 1968+

InterMountain 6700004 NASA Railroad with Data Hood (Artwork)

InterMountain 6700004-01 NLAX 172

InterMountain 6700004-02 NLAX 173

InterMountain 6700004-03 NLAX 174

InterMountain 6700004-04 NLAX 175

Date: 2005+

InterMountain 6700005 Southern Pacific with "Hydra-Cushion Sky Box For Aircraft Stabilizers" Hood (Artwork)

InterMountain 6700005-01 SP 598320

InterMountain 6700005-02 SP 598324

InterMountain 6700005-03 SP 598332

InterMountain 6700005-04 SP 598337

Date: July 1964

InterMountain 6700006 Trailer Train with "Another S-3A Sub Assembly For Lockheed California Company" Hood (Artwork)

InterMountain 6700006-01 JTTX 470741 with Trailer Train Logos

InterMountain 6700006-02 JTTX 470743 with Trailer Train Logos

InterMountain 6700006-03 JTTX 470748 with Trailer Train Logos

InterMountain 6700006-04 JTTX 470749 with Trailer Train Logos

Date: September 1967

InterMountain 6700007 TTX with Speed Line Logos and Unmarked Hood (Artwork)

InterMountain 6700007-01 MTTX 97646 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 6700007-02 MTTX 98026 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 6700007-03 MTTX 98093 with TTX Speed Line Logos

InterMountain 6700007-04 MTTX 98115 with TTX Speed Line Logos

Date: November 1992

InterMountain 6700008 ex-Missouri Pacific with "Union Pacific Building America" Hood (Artwork)

InterMountain 6700008-01 MP 818098

InterMountain 6700008-02 MP 818107

InterMountain 6700008-03 MP 818119

InterMountain 6700008-04 MP 818122

Date: November 1996+

Designed for tunnel clearance, Skybox cars have beveled top sections that run along the upper portions of their cowling sides.

Once the hood has been removed from a Skybox car, the jigs, which are mounted to steel pallets that have been seated on the flatcar body are revealed.

With Hood Removed, Aircraft Vertical Stabilizer Assembly is Loaded Into a Southern Pacific Skybox Car

Serving as both an alignment and assembly platforms, in transit, the protective rigging fixtures secure any attached aircraft fuselage components.

Once the aircraft components have reached their final destination, a gantry crane is used to remove the Skybox car cowlings and the assembly/transport jigs, with their attached parts.

Signal Light Productions Boeing Blog Photo of Boeing Facility Gantry Crane

Currently, Skybox well cars with removable or retractable hoods are used to transport exceptionally tall loads such as vertical stabilizer assemblies.

Although the single-aisle narrow-body fuselages for the 737 series airliners that are shipped to Renton arrive in one-piece, too large to travel on a flatcar as a single assembly, the components for the twin-aisle, wide-body 747, 767, and 777 aircraft that are assembled at Boeing's Everett plant arrive in several sections that travel by rail in specially designed Skybox cars, or, for those that have been sent on a ship by overseas subcontractors, moved in oversized intermodal containers that resemble several corrugated dry boxes that have been welded together.

BNSF EMD GP38-2 Locomotives 2080 and 2361 with Oversized Containers Headed For Boeing's Everett Plant

Oversized Aircraft Component Containers Headed For Boeing's Everett Plant

Boeing has purchased some of its newest Skybox cars from West Seneca, New York based Ebenezer Railcar Services, Inc. and Pueblo West, Colorado based Liberty Railway Services Inc.

Liberty Railway Services Inc., Aircraft Component Skybox Car Boeing TBCX 777024

The ability to transport large single-piece fuselages by rail has required a lot of engineering.

With the introduction of Boeing's Next Generation series 737-700, 737-800, and 737-900 models, rail shipments of single-piece fuselages commenced in 1996.

Prior to Boeing moving the production of horizontal and vertical stabilizers from Wichita to China, BNSF fuselage trains formerly carried idler flatcars that were fitted with short, tapered roof component boxes for transporting nose and tail cones and/or aircraft tail surfaces.

TTMX 80857 Idler Flatcar with Aircraft Component Box

Highly evolved since the rail shipments of fuselage sections commenced in the 1960s, along with the eighty-nine foot long load bearing and idler flatcars that are presently used to haul single-piece fuselages, modern consists typically include several aircraft component Skybox cars that are commonly used to carry the airplane fight decks that are manufactured by Spirit AeroSystems.

In order to prevent water damage and metal corrosion while in transit, prior to being loaded onto flatcars, all of the fuselage openings are sealed with specially designed and individually numbered plastic plugs, plastic film, and tape.

737 Fuselage Attached to BNSF 800134 Flatcar with Anti-Corrosive Primer, Plastic Film, and Tape Applied

Previously assigned for each customer order, unique hull numbers are applied to each fuselage.

Clad in green colored anti-corrosive primer, the fuselages are attached to the eight-nine foot load bearing flatcars at several points that are located close to where the landing gear struts will eventually be mounted.

Each load bearing flat is fitted with a collapsible grip fixtures box that is used for shipping various aircraft mounting components back to Wichita for reuse.

Empty BNSF 80133 Fuselage Flatcar with Erected Grip Fixtures Box - Christopher Palmieri Photo

Bearing BNSF markings, Micro-Trains Line released several sets of N-Scale models that depict a typical 1996 to 2006 era fuselage train flatcar configuration.

Stock Number 993 01 560 BNSF Fuselage Transportation 4-Pack Set - July 2017 Release

Stock Number 993 01 561 BNSF Fuselage Transportation 2-Pack Set - December 2017 Release

Stock Number 993 01 562 BNSF Fuselage Transportation 2-Pack Set - December 2017 Release

Stock Number 993 01 563 BNSF Fuselage Transportation 2-Pack Set - December 2017 Release

Micro-Trains Line 993 01 560 BNSF Fuselage Transportation 4-Pack Set

Bearing MTTX markings and deck printing, Micro-Trains Line released several sets of N-Scale models with enhanced decal sets and laser cut collapsed grip fixtures boxes that depict a typical contemporary fuselage train flatcar configuration.

Stock Number 993 01 781 TTX Fuselage Transportation 2-Pack Set - March 2019 Release

Stock Number 993 01 782 TTX Fuselage Transportation 2-Pack Set - March 2019 Release

Stock Number 993 01 783 TTX Fuselage Transportation 2-Pack Set - March 2019 Release

Micro-Trains Line BNSF Fuselage Transportation Sets Pre-Production Artwork

A must read for anyone looking to upgrade their Micro-Trains Line BNSF Fuselage Transportation set is a "Best Of" thread on The Railwire titled Detailing the Micro-Trains BNSF Fuselage Set.

Assembled Micro-Trains BNSF Fuselage Transportation Set with Modified Idler Flat Deck and Added Decals

Previously moved exclusively in special consists, Boeing fuselage shipments on the BNSF presently travel in general merchandise trains.

Owing to the their size, weight, and high value, followed by autorack, intermodal, and other types of rolling-stock, airliner airframes must travel at or near (i.e., in some of the trains that include Skybox cars loaded with aircraft components) the head end of a train, directly behind the locomotives.

With transit time frames of around twelve days, the BNSF transports Boeing shipments in high priority "Z" symbol train consists.

Ben Ringnalda Photo of Cascade Tunnel Eastern Portal and Deck Bridge

Traveling from Kansas along the BNSF Hi-Line (a moniker derived from its northernmost geographical location in the United States) on the former mainline of the Great Northern Railway, typical routing takes the consist through the 7.8 mile (12.55 km) long Cascade Tunnel (which is approximately sixty-five miles east of Everett) and the cities of Wichita, Newton, Lincoln, Laurel (on Montana Rail Link trackage), Missoula (on Montana Rail Link trackage), Sand Point, Spokane, Wenatchee, and Seattle/Renton.

BNSF GE ES44AC 5719 and 5580 Locomotives Leading Fuselage Train Through Larkspur, Colorado

While the maximum number can be as high as six, pulled by several turbo charged, 4,400 horse power GE Dash 9-44CW or GE Evolution Series ES44AC locomotives, BNSF trains normally transport three or four fuselages at a time. .

Increasing the number of fuselages per train inevitably raises the risks for shipment damage and or the total loss of the load, as was the case in July 2014, when a BNSF train derailment near Rivulet, Montana resulted in the loss of six 737 fuselages, when three flatcars loaded with airframes careened down a steep embankment and landed in the Clark Fork River.

Boeing 737 Fuselages on Embankment and in Clark Fork River Following July 2014 BNSF Train Derailment

Although the route is inspected annually, impacts from rocks and wind-blown foliage can still occur while a train is in transit

In order to protect the precious cargo from tree limbs, contemporary load bearing flatcars are fitted with sturdy metal brush guards, which also minimizes the possibility of incurring ice damage when a tunnel portal is entered.

The fuselage shipment is monitored by several high definition cameras that are strategically placed on the brush guards.

Fuselage Flatcar Brush Guard with "Do Not Hump This Car Coupling Speed Not To Exceed 4 MPH" Placards

After an inbound fuselage train has arrived from Wichita and been shunted, in a consist called the "Renton Rocket", 2,000 horse power BNSF EMD GP 38-2 diesels move any loaded Coil cars, Skybox cars and fuselage bearing flatcars to Boeing's final assembly facility, where the locomotives are used to move rolling-stock within the huge complex.

The "Renton Rocket" Travels Down Houser Way S In Downtown Renton, Washington In 2019

The "Renton Rocket" Travels Down Houser Way S In Downtown Renton, Washington on 07-28-15

Although you may recall a time when trolley cars once plied the streets of many major US cities, the residents of downtown Renton, Washington have grown accustomed to the Renton Rocket's transit down three blocks of Houser Way S as it works its way to the Boeing plant.

BNSF GP-38-2 2347, Coil Cars. and Fuselage Bearing Flatcar in Downtown Renton, Washington on 07-28-15

With twenty-eight deliveries made per month, in January 2006, Boeing and BNSF commemorated the 5.000th 737 fuselage shipment.

By 2013, the addition of fourteen more dedicated railcars saw shipments rise to more than thirty-five per month.

On February 14, 2018, Spirit AeroSystems announced the previous day's shipment of the 10,000th Wichita-built fuselage, a fourth generation 737 Max 8 that was ordered by Southwest Airlines.

A Southwest Airlines 737 Max 8 Became the 10,000th Wichita-Built Fuselage - Spirit AeroSystems Photo

Designed to handle the one hundred forty-three foot long 737-10, the railway transport system that is currently in place will support the future aircraft production increases that are expected to take place in Wichita.

Last Update: November 02, 2024 - InterMountain Railway Co. N-Scale Skybox Aerospace Load Cars announcement.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

Rather than provide a lengthy (and frankly quite boring) explanation of the entire packing process, a better approach was take some photos of what was entailed in packaging a few customer orders.

While they may be appropriate for certain detail and/or repair parts and sectional track shipments, lacking rigidity, poly bubble mailer envelopes do not afford the protection needed to ship plastic jewel-boxed N-Scale locomotives and rolling-stock.

Prior to packing, each model and its factory packaging must be carefully checked to verify condition and grading.

In order to prevent in transit damage to the model(s) and factory packaging, products that were not, or are not factory shrink-wrapped are rolled in a piece of tissue paper.

Orders for one to three cars are typically packed in a cardboard shipping box and secured with Biodegradable or Styrofoam packing peanuts.

Orders for four or more cars are typically wrapped in plastic bubble-pack material.

The plastic bubble-packed group of cars is now placed inside a cardboard box.

If any space remains between the plastic bubble-packed models and the sides of the cardboard shipping box, Biodegradable or Styrofoam packing peanuts are used to fill the voids.

Cardboard shipping boxes are typically completely sealed in plastic packing tape in order to minimize in transit impact damage and to provide a measure of water resistance.

The extra care that is taken in packaging greatly increases the odds that your shipment will survive any rough handling during transit.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

Commencing in January 1863, heading east, the Central Pacific Railroad Company began laying track from Sacramento, California, while eighteen months later, in July 1865, the Union Pacific Railroad headed west, from Council Bluffs, Iowa, which is near Omaha, Nebraska.

Despite unforeseen delays brought on by Civil War reconstruction efforts and fierce and sometimes unproductive competition between the pair of railway companies, the east and westbound tracks were eventually joined at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory.

To acknowledge the significant American achievement, lead by Central Pacific's No. 60 "Jupiter" and the Union Pacific's No. 119, two trans of dignitaries were dispatched to Promontory Summit to commemorate the railway's completion.

Symbolizing the linking of America's East and West by rail, the aforementioned pair of 4-4-0 steam locomotives were posed and photographed nose-to-nose during the May 10, 1869 event.

Andrew Joseph Russell (1830-1902) stereoviw image of the Promontory Summit, Utah Territory celebration that was taken after the driving of the ceremonial last spike.

Central Pacific Chief Engineer (center left) Samuel Skerry Montague (1830-1883) is seen shaking hands with Union Pacific Chief Engineer (center right) Grenville Mellen Dodge (1831-1916).

Following speeches and the presentation of commemorative spikes to the Central Pacific's remaining three "Big Four" (a moniker that was bestowed upon the four businessmen, philanthropists and railroad tycoons who established the Central Pacific Railroad) associates, Collis Potter Huntington (1821–1900), Mark Hopkins (1813–1878), and Charles Crocker (1822–1888) who were not in attendance, with a silver spike maul, business tycoon, industrialist, politician, Stanford University founder, "Big Four" member, and the President of the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads, Amasa Leland Stanford (1824-1893) tapped a 17.6-karat gold ceremonial "Last Spike" into a pre-bored hole in a polished ceremonial California laurel wood tie.

Upon the event's conclusion, the symbolic gold spike and the laurel wood tie were removed and replaced with a standard iron spike and an ordinary wood tie..

"The Last Spike" - An 1881 Painting by Thomas Hill (1829–1908) - California State Railroad Museum

Currently part of the Stanford Family Collection at Stanford University's Cantor Arts Center, the "Last Spike" was donated to the Stanford Museum in 1898.

Engraved on four sides and bearing the date May 8, 1869 (which if not for unforeseen inclement weather and a labor dispute, was to have been the actual celebration day), the 14.03 troy once ceremonial spike was cast in 73% copper-alloyed-gold.

Retained by San Francisco contractor and financier David Hewes (1822-1915) family until 2005, fabricated at the same time as the first, a second spike (which is often referred to as the "Lost Spike") bears the actual date of the event, May 10, 1869..

Responsible for donating and ordering the gold "Last Spike" from San Francisco's William T. Garrett Foundry and facilitating Western Union's transmission of the silver maul's taps, which were heard coast-to-coast in the form of clicks, Hewes (Leland Stanford’s brother-in-law) was an ardent supporter of the construction and completion of America's First Transcontinental Railroad.

Both Thomas Hill's 1881 painting "The Last Spike" and the Hewes family spike are currently exhibited at Sacramento's California State Railroad Museum.

David Hewes (1822-1915) Family "Lost Spike" - California State Railroad Museum

While the event at Promontory Summit marked the completion of the first 1,912-mile long transcontinental railroad line, until one was established through the connection of the Kansas Pacific and Denver Pacific railways at Strasburg, Colorado in August 1870, merely linking Omaha to Sacramento did not create a continuous rail network that would connect America's Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

As passengers were required to disembark trains and cross over by boat in between Council Bluffs, Iowa and Omaha, Nebraska, direct coast-to-coast travel on the original transcontinental railway line would not become a reality until The American Bridge Company of Chicago completed its construction of the $2,000,000 wrought and cast iron Omaha Bridge, the Union Pacific's first one across the Missouri River on March 27, 1872.

The American Bridge Company Omaha Bridge Pages 22 - 23 - 1874. The Railroad Gazette, New York Google Books 

Following the city's devastating 1906 earthquake, the commemorative last laurel tie was lost in the fires that consumed San Francisco.

Built by New York's Schenectady Locomotive Works in September 1868 and returned to revenue service following the Golden Spike Ceremony, the prototype Central Pacific No. 60 Jupiter 4-4-0 steam locomotive was scrapped in 1909.

1979 O'Connor Engineering Replica of Central Pacific 60 Jupiter - Golden Spike National Historical Park Utah

Constructed by Patterson, New Jersey's Rodgers Locomotive and Machine Works in 1890 and returned to freight service following the Golden Spike Ceremony, the prototype Union Pacific No. 119 4-4-0 steam locomotive was scrapped in 1903, long before it and the Central Pacific No. 60 Jupiter's historical significance were recognized.

1979 O'Connor Engineering Replica of Union Pacific 119 - Golden Spike National Historical Park Utah 

Avoiding curves and grades, while shortening the route by 43 miles, mainline trains no longer climbed Promontory Summit once the Lucin Cutoff (which crosses the Great Salt Lake in between Ogden and Lucin) was constructed in 1904.

Bypassed by the aforementioned track relocation, begun with a ceremonial "undriving" of the Last Iron Spike (which replaced the ceremonial golden spike), the old summit rails were removed in 1942 and recycled as part of the American war effort.

Union Pacific 119 and Central Pacific 60 4-4-0 Steam Locomotive Replicas - Golden Spike National Historical Park Utah

Years later, with renewed public interest, first staged in 1948, there have been several reenactments of the original spike driving ceremony.

In order to preserve the area surrounding Promontory Summit in its natural 1869 state, Golden Spike National Historical Park Utah was established by the United States Congress in 1957.

Central Pacific 60 and Union Pacific 119 Replicas at a Driving of the Last Spike Reenactment Celebration May 2019 - Golden Spike National Historical Park Utah

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

Micro-Trains Line BNSF Fuselage Transportation Sets Pre-Production Artwork

A first and second production run model is depicted at the top of the image.

With factory printed deck details, enhanced decal sets, and laser cut collapsed grip fixtures boxes, depicting a different, contemporary prototype, unlike the first run BNSF lettered sets, the pair of 89 foot flatcars in the new releases will bear MTTX markings and have no aircraft component box mounted on the idler car.

Along with the white door, window, nose cone mount, and wing root mount coverings, the revised decal sheet will include additional yellow covering tape striping, several blacked out cockpit windows, black stabilizer and tail cone mount coverings, a nose gear covering, several sets of hull numbers, and brush guard lettering.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

The first such models to incorporate clear bodies, at the time, an extremely difficult project to produce, production challanges limited the original run of cars to ninety sets.

Since 2000, Micro-Trains® has produced numerous special run, clear bodied cars for the N Scale Collector (e.g., the "Money Cars" and the Gold and Silver "Bullion Cars".

While casting the clear plastic body shells was probably not an issue, the intricate painting and pad printing was extremely challenging.

Very difficult to see in the photo, the clear side of each car has a very fine mesh like look, with additional data, logos, and reporting numbers pad printed over the simulated screening.

For the original run of cars, the factory rejection rate must have been quite high.

Micro-Trains® Line's current printing process has likely resolved some of the issues that were encountered during the production run of the earlier models.

Although there are probably a number of investor/collectors who are not happy campers right now, factoring in the included car loads and increased labor and production costs that have accrued since 2000 (i.e., when the $95.00 N Scale Collector Impact Cars Sets were first released), along with there no longer being a two model purchase requirement (which might be cost prohibitive for some buyers), Micro-Trains® Line's $109.95 MSRP (i.e., $49.95 for the stock number 020 00 157 UP model and $59.95 for the stock number 031 00 490 SP model, which equals a ±15% increase in MSRP) for the pair of re-released models appears to be a genuine bargain.

Looking forward to comparing the latest runs of these very unique pieces of rolling-stock to the cars that were packaged in the original special run release.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

Compiled by Neville C. Wilson, when relevant, additional information is added to any material that has already been referenced.

Also available online are " Micro-Trains: The "Standard by Choice" of Model Railroaders Around the World!", which documents the history of Micro-Trains® and "Micro-Trains: Early Kadee Production Trivia".

Notes:

Parts and packaging materials were regularly produced and assembled in batch runs, which resulted in the appearance of numerous product permutations for slower moving items.

Bearing this in mind, the listed dates of implementation for model components, plastic jewel-boxes, paper insert labels, and factory pricing should only be used as a general guideline.

MSRP is an acronym for "Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price".

Micro-Trains® Plastic Jewel Boxes

• Jewel box lids without any embossed company name - November 1972
• Jewel box lids with an embossed Kadee® Micro-Trains® company name - July 1981
• Jewel box lids with an embossed Micro-Trains® company name and a blank rectangle (the result of the milling out of the word Kadee®) above the company's moniker - March 1991
• Short run of jewel box lids with an embossed, rectangular Micro-Trains® Line logo with a pair of injection molding holes in the jewel box bottoms - September 2001 - Mid-2002
• Reappearance of jewel box lids with an embossed Micro-Trains® company name, the word Kadee® milled out, and no holes present in the jewel box bottoms - Mid-2002 - February 2008
• Embossed, rectangular Micro-Trains® Line logo on jewel box lids with a pair of injection molding holes present in jewel box bottoms - March 2008

Micro-Trains® Paper Insert Labels

• Kadee® Micro-Trains® paper inserts with black, blue, and green printing, and a factory printed MSRP - November 1972
• Kadee® Micro-Trains® paper inserts with black printing and a factory printed MSRP - May 1975
• Kadee® Micro-Trains® paper inserts with black printing and no factory printed MSRP - May 1977
• Micro-Trains® Line paper inserts with black (and red with Car Information printed on the undersides by the mid-1990s) printing - October 1990
• Full color printed paper inserts are packed with series car releases (e.g., Ringling Bros.and Barnum Bailey Billboard, Meat, Brewery, and Nestle) - July 2009

Note: Magne-Matic® knuckle coupler equipped models were packaged with a white paper insert label, while Rapido coupler equipped models (circa 1971 - 1977) were packed with yellow paper inserts.

Micro-Trains® Factory Pricing

• Product description and MSRP factory printed in blue (and very rarely black) on both ends of paper insert labels - November 1972
• Product description and MSRP factory printed in black on one end of paper insert labels - May 1975
• Product description with no MSRP factory printed in black on one end of paper insert labels - May 1977
• Small, square, white, self adhesive price tags bearing the Kadee® name are affixed to shrink-wrapped sets and the front left side of jewel box bottoms ( Note: on occasion, white Kadee® price tags can be found on jewel box lids, or the undersides of jewel box bottoms) - June 1981
• Large, rectangular, yellow, self adhesive price tags bearing the Micro-Trains® name are affixed to shrink-wrapped sets, plastic, hinged lid (aka "tackle box") boxed sets, and the front left side of jewel box bottoms ( Note: tags are often found secured to both the jewel box lids and the jewel box bottoms) - August 1990
• Small, square, yellow, self adhesive price tags bearing the Micro-Trains® name are affixed to the front left side of jewel box bottoms ( Note: in the early 1990s, a very small batch of these labels lacked the traditional, red, Micro-Trains® name) - March 1991
• No retail pricing on forty model releases - June 2000
• Barcode and MSRP are factory printed on the bottom of paper insert labels - October 2000

Note: While the majority of the barcoded models have MSRPs, a few instances of barcoded insert labels without retail pricing have been observed.

Micro-Trains® Factory Shrink Wrapping

While plastic jewel-boxed models packaged in sets that were originally released by Kadee® Micro-Trains® and Micro-Trains® Line had factory applied plastic shrink-wrapping, for various reasons, only dealers and end-users shrink-wrapped individually boxed products.

Micro-Trains® Stock Numbers

• Freight cars bearing five digit factory stock numbers are introduced to the market in November 1972.
• With the exceptions of the all of lettered 50000 series 34 Foot Wood Sheathed Slant Side Cupola Cabooses that were released in 1975, three of the eight lettered 46000 series 50 Foot Fishbelly Gondolas that were released in 1975, one of the four 43000 series lettered 40 Foot Double Sheathed Wood 1-1/2 Door Boxcars that were released in 1975, five of the nine lettered 42000 series 40 Foot Double Sheathed Wood Single Door Boxcars that were released in 1975, all of the 38000 series 50 Foot Plug Door Boxcars (without roofwalks) that were released in 1975, four of the twelve 35000 series lettered 40 Foot Despatch Stockcars that were released in 1974, one of the four lettered 29000 series 40 Foot Double Sheathed Wood Outside Braced 1-1/2 Door Boxcars that were released in 1975, two of the eleven lettered 23000 series 40 Foot Steel Double Door Boxcars that were released in 1973 and 1974, five of the eight lettered 22000 series 40 Foot Combo Plug and Sliding Door Boxcars released between 1973 and 1975, six of the nine lettered 21000 series 40 Foot Single Plug Door Boxcars that were released in 1973 and 1974, three of the twenty-seven lettered 40 Foot Single Sliding Door Boxcars that were released between 1972 and 1975, and all of the unlettered, and unlettered with dimensional data model releases from 1972 and 1975, five digit stock numbers for early production November 1972 - December 1975 releases with factory fitted Magne-Matic® knuckle couplers end in "1" through "9".
• While the factory stock numbers for most of the Rapido coupler equipped freight cars produced from 1972 - 1977 typically end in "1" for five digit stock numbers, or "-1" in the case of a few extremely early six digit stock number releases, stock numbers for some of the plastic shrink-wrapped sets and models from these sets bear stock numbers ending in "3" or "-3".
• While most post 1977 five digit factory stock numbers end in zero, stock numbers for plastic shrink-wrapped sets and some of the models from these sets bear stock numbers ending in "2".
• The factory stock numbers for blister carded car kits end with the number "9".
• While most post 1990 five digit factory stock numbers end in zero, series models, sets, and some individual releases (often bearing different reporting numbers for products released over a very short period of time) have stock numbers ending in "-1", "/1", "-2", "/2", "/3", or "1" through "9".
• With the exception of two Kadee® Micro-Trains® 10-pack releases bearing stock numbers 380-10/1 (which was released in September 1986) and 380-10/2 (which was released in July 1987), 19000 series Bonus Pack sets of leftover models were periodically released in the year directly preceding and the years following the establishment of Micro-Trains® Line.
• The first six digit factory stock number (100010) is introduced in March 1996.
• Eight digit factory stock numbers are introduced in January 2005.
• While most of the later production (post 1996) six and eight digit stock numbers end in zero, select models (typically those bearing different reporting numbers or factory supplied loads) end in ".1" through ".5" (for six digit stock number products) and "1" through "9" (for eight digit stock number products, "Runner Packs", "Series" cars, and individual "Tabletop Set" items).
• Although the eight digit stock numbers for "Runner Packs" retain the ubiquitous digits "00" in the center, typically, the stock numbers for the individual products that are packaged within these sets bear center digits ranging from "51" through "58".

Micro-Trains® Chassis and Steps

• Turned upside down, with the brake wheel facing right, Kadee® Micro-Trains® and Micro-Trains® Line models (except for cabooses, which are listed below) that are fitted with a chemically blackened cast metal chassis are properly assembled when the smaller of the two cylindrical shaped appendages (i.e., canister like shapes, the larger one represents an auxiliary air reservoir and the smaller one a brake cylinder) that are cast into the bottom of the metal frame appear above the pair of long, horizontal center lines that run between the two trucks. The three or four links of chain that have been cast next to the small cylinder should face the right side (the brake wheel end) of the car.
• Turned upside down, with the offset cupola positioned toward your left and the long roof section facing right, Kadee® Micro-Trains® and Micro-Trains® Line wood sheathed caboose models that are fitted with a chemically blackened cast metal chassis are properly assembled when the smaller of two cylindrical shaped appendages (i.e., canister like shapes, the larger one represents an auxiliary air reservoir and the smaller one a brake cylinder) that are cast into the bottom of the metal frame appear below the pair of long, horizontal lines that run between the two trucks. The four links of chain that have been cast next to the small cylinder should face the left side (the cupola end) of the car.
• Turned upside down, with the offset cupola positioned toward your left and the long roof section facing right, Micro-Trains® Line steel cabooses are properly assembled when the square box and the smaller of two cylindrical shaped appendages (i.e., canister like shapes, the larger one represents an auxiliary air reservoir and the smaller one a brake cylinder) that are cast into the bottom of the frame appear above the pair of long, horizontal lines that run between the two trucks. The four links of chain that have been cast next to the small cylinder should face the right side (the long roof end) of the car.
• Injection molded plastic stirrup step moldings are properly attached to Kadee® Micro-Trains® and Micro-Trains® Line cars with cast metal chassis with pins when the half-round notches (half circle shaped cutouts that are positioned on one edge of each stirrup step molding) face outward (i.e., toward the couplers).

Notes: Never factory installed on any production rolling-stock, beginning in the late 1960s (as stock number MT-1040) and into the 1980s (as stock number 1024), Kadee® Quality Products marketed blister carded packages of factory assembled blackened cast zinc-alloy forty foot boxcar under-frames with Magne-Matic® knuckle couplers (stock number MT-5 which were introduced in 1968 for the MT-1040 under-frames and stock number 1025 for the 1024 under-frames) and draft gear that were fastened to the chassis by a pair of steel screws.

As noted in the "Turn of the Century Tooling" section, for some models, old tooling has been replaced and the newer parts differ from those that are found on earlier production releases.

Micro-Trains® Door Variations

• On occasion, the wrong style of sliding-door was inadvertently factory installed on 40 Foot Standard Steel Boxcar bodies.
• In some cases, these door variations can impact the value of a particular Kadee® Micro-Trains® model.
• Collectors often use the abbreviation "NR" (or n/r) when they are referring to narrow rib ("Youngstown") doors, while the abbreviation "WR" (or w/r) is used to designate wide rib ("Superior") doors.
• Narrow rib doors have fourteen horizontal ribs, while wide rib doors exhibit six ribs.

Micro-Trains® Truck Variations

• Likely designed to simplify final product assembly, factory fitted with either Magne-Matic® knuckle or Rapido style couplers and a pair of mounting ears (as opposed to the customary king pin holes), the extremely fragile, Clip-On-Truck made a very short appearance in the marketplace from September 1974 to October 1975.
• With all of the marketed models packaged with white paper insert labels bearing black, blue, and green printing and MSRPs, along with a pair of extremely rare 40 Foot Double-Sheathed Wood Single Door Boxcars (stock number 42080 Union Pacific bearing road number 100104 and stock number 42551 Hills Brothers Coffee bearing road number 161), the only other Kadee® Micro-Trains® freight cars fitted with factory installed Clip-On-Trucks were 50 Foot Steel Single Door Boxcars bearing stock numbers 31000 (unlettered light brown paint with dimensional data), 31118 (Missouri Pacific with road numbers 352253 and 352278), 31139 (Pittsburgh & Lake Erie with road numbers 23025 and 23029), 31170 (Northern Pacific with road number 31468). 31463 (Delaware & Hudson with road number 22169), and 31487 (Chesapeake & Ohio with road numbers 21422 and 21427), 50 Foot Steel Single Plug Boxcars bearing stock numbers 32000 (unlettered light brown paint and unlettered light brown paint with dimensional data), 32076 (Santa Fe with road numbers 6119 and 6169), 32144 (Frisco with road number 12074), 32166 (Seaboard Coast Line with road numbers 492964 and 492966), 32499 (Nickel Plate Road with road number 85496), and 32507 (Burlington Refrigerator Express with road number 79577), 50 Foot Steel Combo Plug and Sliding Door Boxcars bearing stock numbers 33000 (unlettered light brown paint with dimensional data), 33089 (Union Pacific with road number 170509). 33121 (Cotton Belt with road number 48075), and 33451 (Western Maryland with road numbers 35001 and 35007), and 50 Foot Steel Double Door Boxcars bearing stock numbers 34000 (unlettered light brown paint and unlettered light brown paint with dimensional data), 34033 (Norfolk & Western with road number 285228), 34091 (Southern Pacific with road number 202519), 34105 (Denver & Rio Grande Western with road number 63555), 34151 (Baltimore & Ohio with road number 471310), and 34472 (Pennsylvania with road number 32156).
• Later re-releases of the aforementioned 50 Foot Boxcars (i.e., leftover stock that required final assembly and the printing of new insert labels) had white paper insert labels bearing black label printing, "Formally" stock number text, new stock numbers ending in zero, no MSRP, and factory installed, "standard" king pin mounted trucks.
• Produced around the same time frame as their Magne-Matic® knuckle coupler equipped counterparts, with the exception (to my knowledge that is) of the aforementioned pair of 40 Foot Wood Boxcars, the 50 Foot Boxcar models that were previously listed as having factory installed Clip-on-Trucks were also marketed with Rapido couplers.
• Shipped with the same paper insert labels as cars fitted with king pin mounted trucks, short of scrutinizing a model's chassis prior to purchase, the manufacturer's packaging materials provide no insight into whether or not Clip-On-Trucks were factory installed.

• While a few other models are listed in various collector guides as having factory installed Clip-On-Trucks, only the previously listed Kadee® Micro-Trains® 50 Foot Steel Boxcars and 40 Foot Wood Boxcars are deemed to be legitimate factory produced models.
• With the exception of extended length models (i.e., those with medium and long drawbars) and Rapido coupler equipped versions, the undersides of pre-Micro-Trains® Line production (circa pre-1991) Archbar, Bettendorf, and Roller-Bearing freight car trucks were embossed with the Kadee® name.
• Contemporary production (circa post-1991) Micro-Trains® Line trucks have the Micro-Trains® name embossed on their undersides, or the coupler box cover.
• Although they were no longer factory installed on post 1977 car releases, the production of individually blister carded stock number 1500 Rapido coupler equipped Bettendorf truck sets continued well into 2000.

Notes: Never factory installed on any production rolling-stock, Kadee® N Gauge (i.e., not a typo, as early production Kadee® Quality Products blister cards actually had the word "gauge" rather than "scale" printed on them) stock number MT-1000 Bettendorf trucks had Celcon® plastic frames and pointy ended axles, blackened cast zinc-alloy wheels (which have the propensity to corrode over time) with a centered hole and rib detail cast on the back side, and screwed to the truck frame with a steel screw, a draft box mounted MT-5 Magne-Matic® knuckle coupler, which was introduced in 1968...

Rather than the contemporary, rectangular shaped trip pins that most of us are familiar with, early production (i.e., circa 1972 - 1974) Magne-Matic® knuckle coupler equipped Kadee® Quality Products Micro-Trains® Bettendorf trucks were fitted with round trip pins that were fabricated out of wire.

Micro-Trains® Wheel Variations

• Starting in November 1972, standard and special-run models are fitted with three piece (i.e., a blackened cast zinc-alloy axle with a pair of Celcon® plastic wheels with a pointed axle end on the front and rib detail on the back) rib-backed deep-flanged wheel-sets.

• Beginning in September 1987, with the rib backed wheel-set molds either irreparably damaged, or simply worn out, regular and special-run models are fitted with black (except for some of the more contemporary releases that were fitted with brown, green, red, silver, and yellow wheel sets), one piece smooth-backed deep-flanged Delrin® plastic wheel-sets.
• Along with a factory installed set of smooth-backed deep-flanged wheel-sets, an optional set of buyer installed, one piece smooth-backed low profile Delrin® wheel-sets are packaged with regular production model releases in July 2002.
• Shipped without any optional, buyer installed smooth-backed deep-flanged wheel-sets, regular production model releases are fitted with factory installed smooth-backed low profile wheel-sets in September 2005.
• Along with a factory installed set of smooth-backed low profile wheel-sets, an optional set of buyer installed, smooth-backed deep-flanged wheel-sets is packaged with regular production model releases from October 2005 to December 2006.
• Along with a factory installed set of smooth-backed deep-flanged wheel-sets, an optional set of buyer installed, smooth-backed low profile wheel-sets is packaged with regular production model releases from January 2006 to July 2007.
• Effective August 2007, low profile wheel-sets are no longer packaged with, or factory installed on regular production model releases.
• Effective March 2010, all Micro-Trains® Line N-Scale rolling-stock releases are fitted with new, "Standard", 33-inch Delrin® wheel-sets that look more prototypical, are closer to the NMRA RP-25 contour, and are compatible with code 55 track products.

• Although they would not initially be fitted to any of the firm's factory released models, on July 1, 2017, Micro-Trains® Line introduced its new, 33-inch wheel-sets with chemically blackened metal wheels, plastic axles, and relief details on both sides of each wheel.

• Harking back to the original 1960s era Kadee® design, the metal wheeled wheel-sets that are currently manufactured by Micro-Trains® Line are comprised of blackened die-cast zinc-alloy wheels that are mounted on pointy ended Celcon® plastic axles.

Notes: Never factory installed on any production rolling-stock, introduced in 1968, Kadee® marketed its stock number MT-1057 ribbed back wheel-sets, which were comprised of blackened cast zinc-alloy wheels (which have the propensity to corrode over time) with a centered hole and rib detail cast on the back side that were pressed onto a pointy ended Celcon® plastic axle.

Model train operators have bestowed the moniker "pizza cutter" upon the ubiquitous, extremely sharp edged, deep flanged one-piece injection molded plastic Micro-Trains® wheel-set design.

Ribbed-backed wheel sets have slightly deeper flanges than the aforementioned, classic, deep flanged one-piece injection molded plastic design.

Turn of the Century Tooling

As original tooling was replaced, significant changes to the Micro-Trains® Line 40 foot and 50 foot boxcars were made.

Door stops were flattened, now attached to square pegs located on the sides of the cast metal portion of the chassis, plastic stirrup step castings are no longer attached via top mounted pins, no longer exhibiting tapered edges, roofwalks became thicker, and detailed, injection molded plastic underbody subframes that are attached to a new, chemically blackened cast metal chassis were created.

In many cases, these contemporary parts were not designed to fit earlier production releases.

Exhibiting a flattened top, rather than the ubiquitous, mushroom like dome top, a slightly different kingpin design has also emerged.

Micro-Trains® Line covered hoppers with separate snap in hatches that were no longer hinged, yet still removable, appeared in 2016.

Boxcars with body mounted couplers and lower riding underframes began appearing In January 2019.  By 2020, many of the Micro-Trains® Line boxcar body styles were retrofitted with new chassis.

With changes also appearing on other Micro-Trains® Line bodystyles, there will be more on this topic in the near future.

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The first such models to incorporate clear bodies, at the time, an extremely difficult project to produce, production challanges limited the original run of cars to ninety sets.

Since 2000, Micro-Trains® has produced numerous special run, clear bodied cars for the N Scale Collector (e.g., the "Money Cars" and the Gold and Silver "Bullion Cars".

While casting the clear plastic body shells was probably not an issue, the intricate painting and pad printing was extremely challenging.

Very difficult to see in the photo, the clear side of each car has a very fine mesh like look, with additional data, logos, and reporting numbers pad printed over the simulated screening.

For the original run of cars, the factory rejection rate must have been quite high.

Micro-Trains® Line's current printing process has likely resolved some of the issues that were encountered during the production run of the earlier models.

Interestingly enough, originally sold by the N Scale Collector for $95.00 a set, with an MSRP of $49.95 for the Union Pacific car (i.e., the more intricately printed model of the pair), the retail price for this single model has pretty much remained the same as it was in 2000.

Nearly twenty years since this model was first released, I am looking forward to comparing the latest run of this very unique piece of rolling-stock to the original special run release.

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Called the Progressive Era by historians, the period of time spanning the 1890s to the 1920s saw widespread activism and political reform that was aimed at dealing with the ever growing economic disparities and social inequalities that resulted from the rapid industrialization and urbanization of the United States.

Part of an impending Progressive Movement, unionization was focused on dealing with the poor working conditions that resulted from unregulated corporations, large businesses, and trusts, along with the unchecked actions of ruthless capitalists or industrialists (aka "robber barons") who corrupted legislators, engaged in unethical business practices, and exploited natural resources and workers.

Undated Portrait of George Mortimer Pullman

Established as the Pullman Palace Car Company by industrialist George Mortimer Pullman (1831 - 1897) in 1863, the Pullman Company (a parent company whose name was later shortened to Pullman Inc., in 1927) fabricated and operated a fleet of luxury railway sleeper cars bearing the Pullman name on most of the overnight passenger trains that operated in the United States

In response to the declining revenues that resulted from the "Panic of 1893" (a disastrous United States economic depression that ended in 1897), Pullman laid off or reduced the wages of workers employed at the Pullman Company, South Side Chicago, Illinois manufacturing plant.

Undated Photo of an Early Pullman Truss Rod Sleeping Car

Although, by 1894, Pullman had been manufacturing its cars at a loss, in order to hire back workers to rectify the downturn in business that was attributed to the effects of the economic depression, this information was never conveyed to company employees.

While George Pullman resided in a mansion, most of the aforementioned workers were required to reside in company owned housing (which according to one's position within the company differed in monthly rental cost, location, and size) in the four-thousand acre town of Pullman, Illinois, where they paid above market rates for rent (which included the utilities) and company store goods, which were never reduced.

Constructed in 1876 and Demolished in 1922 the Pullman Mansion Once Stood at 1729 South Prairie Avenue

Not yet unionized, many of the disenfranchised Pullman factory workers were eventually induced to join the American Railway Union (ARU) of unskilled railway workers, which had been established by Eugene V. Debs (1855 - 1926), in 1893.

Supported by, but not started by the ARU, Pullman Company employees initiated a wildcat strike on May 11, 1894.

Refusing to acknowledge the ARU and unmoved by his embattled workers' plight, George Pullman refused to converse with the strikers.

Tensions escalated when Pullman declined to arbitrate the unilateral wage cuts and Debs declared an ARU member boycott of any train that included a Pullman car on June 26, 1894.

Political Cartoon Depicting Pullman Squeezing His Workers with Low Wages and High Rent

Although Debs' action was summarily criticized by Samuel Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), the Railroad Brotherhoods labor unions, and the press, rather than service a Pullman owned car, some 125,000 workers from twenty-nine railway lines walked off their jobs four days later.

Affected railroads coordinated their efforts and hired scabs and strikebreakers to keep their trains moving.

Increased hostilities led to extensive property damage that exceeded eighty million dollars, sabotage, and violence, which compelled the US attorney General, Richard Olney to obtain a federal injunction on July 2, 1894 that barred union support for the strike and ordered strikers to cease their activities, or risk being fired.

Depiction of Burning Freight Cars in the Panhandle Railroad Yard, South of 50th Street on July 6, 1894

A Colorized Drawing by Charles Mente Which was Derived From Sketches by G. A. Coffin

While their was some concern over the legality of his actions, fearing a complete shut down of the national railway system (as most of the railways west of Detroit, Michigan had been affected by the strike and/or the boycott) and obstructions to US Mail delivery (which relied upon dependable railway mail car movements), President Glover Cleveland (1837 - 1908) ordered United States Marshals and Army troops to enforce the terms of the injunction.

Armed Marshals and Soldiers Posed with a 4-4-0 Steam Locomotive

Subsequent law enforcement actions and continued violence resulted in the deaths of thirty strikers and injuries to another fifty-seven.

The aftermath of the Pullman strike was a Pyrrhic victory for many of those involved. 

Portraits of US President Grover Cleveland (left) and Eugene V. Debs (right)

A reconciliatory effort that was unanimously approved by the United States Congress, six days after the conclusion of the Pullman strike, President Cleveland signed a bill making Labor Day an official federal holiday, which was recognized by thirty states in 1894.

Charged with obstructing the mail (a federal crime) and defying the provisions of the injunction, Debs and ten other ARU leaders were convicted on federal charges and sentenced to six months in prison.

American Railway Union Officers Rogers, Elliott, Keliher, Hogan, Burns, Goodwin, and, Debs

The ARU would eventually be disbanded after a short lived merger with the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth established the Social Democracy of America.

Although workers were rehired when Pullman's business improved toward the end of the depression, they had to renounce their union memberships, salaries were never raised, and company owned housing and company sold goods costs were never lowered.

Strike leaders were blacklisted.

With much of the blame placed upon the Pullman Company, a subsequent federal investigation into what caused the strike determined that the company's unwillingness to negotiate with its workers in a far manner was the primary reason for the conflict.

Largely discredited by the results of the strike and the boycott, it would be decades before labor movements regained their credibility and unions began reasserting themselves.

Gerald Farinas Photo of the Pullman Family Tomb in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery 

Interred in a lead-lined mahogany coffin that was covered in tar paper and asphalt, encased in a room-sized block of concrete, which was then buried under a layer of railway rail and several layers of concrete (out of his family's fear of the desecration of his grave site), George Pullman, who died of a heart attack on October 19, 1897, at the age of 66, was buried in a family plot in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery.

Deemed illegal by the Illinois Supreme Court in 1898, Pullman was forced to divest itself of its company town, which was subsequently annexed and incorporated into the City of Chicago.

Undated Photo of the Town of Pullman as Seen From the Arcade Building

In this day and age, it is difficult to imagine how the unheard grievances of disenfranchised railroad workers resulted in a bloody conflict between strikers, strikebreakers, the U.S. army, and the U.S. Marshals Service could have culminated in the statuary, now peaceful Labor Day holiday that is officially celebrated in all of the U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories to this day.

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When it came to hauling dry bulk goods such as agricultural commodities, cement, clay, dry chemicals, salt, or sand. many railroads and private owners selected the Pullman Standard PS-2 series covered hopper.

Utilized to transport dense and heavy granular products like cement, clay, potash, and sand, due to North American axle weight load limits, two (and later) three bay models were often chosen.

When it came to hauling much lighter commodities such as barley, corn, grain, malt, oats, soybeans, sugar, and wheat, these kinds of products would most commonly be transported in three or four bay covered hoppers.

Unlike two bay models, large four bay cars lend themselves to rapid load and discharge operations.

Pullman Standard PS-2CD 4427 Three Bay Covered Hopper Diagram

While there are a wide range of products covered by the PS-2 designation, it was Pullman's 4427 cubic foot capacity covered hopper that stood out as being the first of the larger capacity models to be manufactured in greater numbers.

Introduced as the PS-2CD (center discharge) in late 1963, the early production "low hip" design 4427 cubic foot capacity cars had low body sides, which concealed most of the hopper bay area.

The manufacturing of "high hip" design raised side 4427 models commenced in November 1966.

Visibly apparent are a few different body style variations.

With the latter style being the most popular choice, the top of the covered hoppers could be fitted with large trough style openings, or, a series of round ones.

With the latter position being most common, brake wheels could be positioned high up on the body end, or, low mounted.

Contemporary unit train operation is a common sight in North America.

Plying North America railways are unit trains consisting of long strings of agricultural commodity laden covered hopper cars, which are seen transporting barley, corn, flour, grain, malt, oats, soybeans, sugar, and wheat from the corn and wheat belt regions of the United States to various markets, mills, and ports.

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The Vert-A-Pac Car Model Railroader Magazine Article October 1971

Measuring 89' 4" long Vert-A-Pac automobile carriers transported thirty sub-compact cars in the same cubic space as conventional tri-level autoracks, which were designed to transport eighteen standard sized vehicles.

Cooperatively developed by ACF and the Southern Pacific Railroad to transport General Motors then upcoming Chevrolet Vega models from their points of manufacture to US distribution centers, the Vert-A-Pac rail car bodies were designed to transport thirty of the new sub-compact automobiles in a vertical, rather than a horizontal position.

Chevrolet Vegas Loaded in Southern Pacific and Frisco Vert-A-Pac Rail Cars

Parked on one of three spots that were located on ten bottom hinged doors, which doubled as ramps and numbered five per body side, each Vega was secured, then, in groups of three, were stood on end (i.e., nose down) within the Vert-A-Pac rail car once each door was lifted into a closed position with a forklift truck.

April 1971 Fortune Magazine Cover Page with Chevrolet Vegas Sitting Inside a Vert-A-Pac Rail Car

As issues related to fluids (e.g., battery, gasoline, oil, and windshield wiper) retention and potential transport damage to engines and transmissions had to be carefully considered, transporting automobiles nose down was no small engineering feat.

Closing Southern Pacific Vert-A-Pac Rail Car Door with Stac-Pac Containers Directly Behind Forklift Truck

Not only rostered by the Southern Pacific, Southern Railway, and Illinois Central (whose cars bore home road lettering and reporting marks), Vert-A-Pac bodied mineral red or yellow flatcars with TTX or TTVX reporting marks were utilized by the Baltimore & Ohio, Burlington Northern, Denver Rio Grande Western, Florida East Coast, Louisville & Nashville, Merchants Dispatch Transportation (leased to Penn Central), Milwaukee Road, Missouri Pacific, Rock Island, Seaboard Coast Line, and St. Louis San Francisco Railway (Frisco) railroads.

Missouri Pacific Vert-A-Pac Car Trailer Train TTVX 810259 at Unknown Location In December 1973

Purpose built, of the four-hundred-ten Vert-A-Pacs that entered service, most wound up having their flatcars reracked with conventional tri-level racks, and their bodies scrapped upon the conclusion of Vega production in 1977.

Quality Craft Models S-7 HO Scale Vert-A-Pac Car Kit Plans Sheet

Vert-A-Pac cars were first released in model form by Robert E. Weaver's Quality Craft Models as stock number S-7, a Craftsman Series HO Scale basswood kit.

Manufactured in 1996 by the Korean firm Ajin Precision Mfg., unpainted and custom decorated brass models were released by Overland Models Inc. as OMI-3010, OMI-3010.1 (Baltimore & Ohio), OMI-3010.2 (Burlington Northern), OMI-3010.3 (Florida East Coast), OMI-3010.4 (Illinois Central), OMI-3010.5 (Merchants Despatch MDT), OMI-3010.6 (Missouri Pacific), OMI-3010.7 (Rock Island), OMI-3010.8 (St. Louis Southwestern - Cotton Belt), OMI-3010.9 (Southern Pacific), OMI-3010.10 (Denver & Rio Grande Western - Brown), OMI 3010.11 (Denver & Rio Grande Western - Orange), OMI-3010.12 (Milwaukee Road), and OMI-3010.13 (Louisville & Nashville).

Produced in very small numbers, the custom painted and lettered versions offered by Overland are extremely rare.

ExactRail HO and N Scale FEC Trailer Train Vert-A-Pac Car Models

Exquisitely detailed, with operating knuckle couplers and metal wheels, the most recent run of Vert-A-Pac models were injection molded plastic N and HO Scale products that were released by ExactRail.

Eighteen N Scale versions were released in 2009 (Rio Grande EN-50500-1, EN-50500-2, and EN-50500-3 - Seaboard Coast Line EN-50501-1, EN-50501-2, and EN-50501-3 - Milwaukee Road EN-50502-1, EN-50503-2, and EN-50502-3 - Burlington Northern EN-50503-1, EN-50503-2, and EN-50503-3 - Florida East Coast EN-50504-1, EN-50504-2, and EN-50504-3 - Illinois Central EN-50505-1, EN-50505-2, and EN-50503).

Also released in 2009, ExactRail's first twenty-one HO Scale releases (Rio Grande EN-1201-1, EN-1201-2, and EN-1201-3 - Seaboard Coast Line EN-1202-1, EN-1202-2, and EN-1203-3 - Milwaukee Road EN-1203-1, EN-1203-2, and EN-1203-3 - Burlington Northern EN-1204-1, EN-1204-2, and EN-1204-3 - Florida East Coast EN-1205-1, EN-1205-2, and EN-1205-3 - Illinois Central EN-1206-1, EN-1206-2, and EN-1206-3 - Frisco EN-1212-1, EN-1212-2, and EN-1212-3) were followed by six more models in 2011 (Merchants Despatch EN-1214-1, EN-1214-2, and EN-1214-3 - Baltimore & Ohio EN-1216-1, EN-1216-2, and EN-1216-3).

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Initially patented on June 24, 1974, under United States Patent Number 3788237, the basic Schnabel Car design calls for a pair of multi-truck, multi-axle railway cars, with arms that extend over one side of each unit and jack mechanisms for raising and lowering a load that is positioned between them.

Once it has been attached to the set of individual end cars, the cargo then becomes an integral part of a single piece of rolling-stock.

Should a load not have integrated lift rings, a longitudinal support platform can be mounted between the car ends and the cargo is then secured to this skid.

As is the case with large, depressed center flatcars and the military railway artillery guns that were used in both World Wars, with or without the use of additional pairs of trucks/boogies, weight distribution across the rails is accomplished through the use of numerous axles.

In order to compensate for railway irregularities and/or to reposition a load to clear track-side obstructions such as highway crossing signals, railroad signals, and switch stands, while the arms are in a transit position, hydraulically operated jacks can be used to moderately shift the position of an attached load.

Once the cargo has been delivered, the now separated vehicles can be connected together and returned to their point of origin.

Run in dedicated train consists that are often comprised of idler cars, passenger or crew cars, and tool cars, Schnabel cars do not traverse the railways alone.

Manufactured by Krupp, for Combustion Engineering Inc., in 1982, with an empty car length of 231.667 feet, the world's second largest Schnabel Car (which is North American based) is Westinghouse's WECX 800 (formerly CEBX 800), which has a maximum loaded length of 345.00 feet, an empty weight of 370.45 tons, and an 889.63 ton weight load limit that is distributed across thirty-six axles that are fitted with 33 inch wheels.

Ironically, Krupp is the same firm that created the world's best known railway artillery gun, the K5 [E&91;, which was used by the German Wehrmacht (Defense Force) in World War II.

Prompted by the Westinghouse Electric Company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 2017 and the firm's acquisition by Brookfield Business Partners in 2018, Kasgro Rail Corporation acquired WECX 800 in late 2018.

Retaining its white trucks and still painted in the Kasgro's Red n' Ready livery, this Schnabel car bore the reporting number KRL 3600.

Final Revenue Trip of KRL 3600 in June 2020 – John W. Coke Shared Image

Final Revenue Trip of KRL 3600 in June 2020 – Karl Andraschko Image

KRL 3600 at SA Recycling in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 7, 2020 - Karl Andraschko Image

With its 28th revenue trip completed (i.e., fulfilling an Emmert International contract for the transportation of the 770-ton reactor pressure vessel from unit number one of Southern California Edison's San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station aka "SONGS" to Apex, Nevada for road transport on a 24 axle, 384 tire Goldhofer hydraulic platform trailer with two prime mover tractors leading and four heavy duty tractors pushing the load to the Energy Solutions disposal site in Clive Utah), destined for scrapping, KRL 3600 was photographed on a siding at Las Vegas Nevada’s SA Recycling on June 7, 2020.

Built by New Castle, Pennsylvania based Kasgro in 2012, the world's largest railcar (i.e., Schnabel or otherwise) was Westinghouse's WECX 801, which was derived from replicated drawings of its sister car, WECX 800 (ex CEBX 800).

With an empty weight of 399.60 tons and a weight load limit of 1017.90 tons that is distributed across thirty-six axles that are fitted with 38 inch wheels, to date, WECX 801 was the biggest car that has ever been constructed in North America.

Never used in revenue service, WECX 801 suffered a structural break down in 2014.

Completely rebuilt, by the summer of 2019, Kasgro had purchased the blue colored ex Westinghouse WECX 801.

Retaining its black trucks and repainted in Kasgro's Red n' Ready livery, this former Westinghouse Schnabel car emerged as KRL 3601.

Given the June 2020 scrapping of KRL 3600, last seen on the Kasgro headquarters lot and currently stricken from the company's fleet roster, KRL 3601 has presumably been scrapped.

Typically fabricated out of injection molded plastic (or handcrafted in brass, as was the case with the Overland Models HO and N Scale replicas), various manufacturers have marketed ready-to-run Schnabel car models that were based upon prototypes found in Germany, Japan, and the United States.

Eljin Locomotive Works 1002 N Scale CEBX 800 Schnabel Car Resin Kit Build Up

Micro Ace N Scale Japan National Railways Shiki 800 Schnabel Car From A8574 Set

Micro Ace N Scale Japan Railway Freight Shiki 810 Schnabel Car From A8575 Set

Minitrix 15226 N Scale German Federal Railroad (DB) type Uai 839 Schnabel Car

Minitrix 15248 N Scale German Federal Railroad (DB) type Uai 839 Schnabel Car

Overland Models OMI 3337-1 HO Scale Westinghouse Schnabel Car WECX 202

Overland Models OMI 160050001-1 N Scale Westinghouse Schnabel Car WECX 202

Overland Models OMI 160050001-2 N Scale Westinghouse Schnabel Car WECX 202

Trix 24019 HO Scale German Federal Railroad (DB) type Uai 838 Schnabel Car

Trix 24020 HO Scale German Federal Railroad (DB) type Uai 839 Schnabel Car

Trix 24338 HO Scale German Federal Railroad (DB) type Uai 838 Schnabel Car

Last Update: November 02, 2024 - KRL 3600 and KRL 3601 Schnabel Car Status.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

As offensive and defensive weapons, the development of railway guns became particularly attractive in Germany, which had access to a wide network of railway lines.

Manufactured by Krupp (of Essen, Germany), a total of twenty-eight K5 (E) Eisenbahnlafette (railway car gun-mount) 28 centimeter (Kanone) cannon, heavy railway guns were produced for use by the German Heer (Army) Wehrmacht (Defense Force), in World War II.

An extremely accurate 283 millimeter (11.1 inch) caliber, 21.539 meter (70 foot 8 inch) long rifled gun barrel that was attached to a non-traversing, fixed mount, provided the long range artillery piece fifty degrees of vertical elevation, but only one degree of horizontal traverse, which meant the entire ensemble had to be moved when lateral positioning was required.

Prepared well in advance of any operations that required firing off of the weapon's centered firing line, special curved sections of track, or a turntable needed to be constructed at predetermined sites.

Heavy artillery pieces that lobbed either 255 kilogram (562 pound) or 265 kilogram (547 pound) shells to a maximum range of 64 kilometers (forty miles), K5's were fairly long range guns, with fifteen rounds per hour firing rates.

Despite weighing 218 US Short Tons (435,999 pounds), having an overall length of 32 meters (104.99 foot), and a width of 3.05 meters (10 foot) in travel mode, through the use of a pair of six axle, twelve wheel trucks that provided maximum weight distribution, the K5 gun carriage design permitted it to be moved across the European continent's extensive commercial railway network, as-well-as purpose built military trackage.

While they were indeed mobile, one of the shortcomings of the K5 was that when they were deployed, a fairly large contingent of personnel and equipment was needed to move, operate and support each gun battery.

Comprised of a pair K5s, each railway artillery battery was supported by three trains.

With each train requiring a pair of locomotives, which included both steam and diesel propelled units, there was one consist for each railway gun and a third that was made up of freight, refrigerator, and passenger cars, which carried the shells, equipment, cordite, and large support crew that was needed during deployment.

Notwithstanding the aforementioned limitations, the K5 is considered by many to be the second World War's most formidable and successful railway artillery piece.

Although additional improvements (e.g., refinements to the gun barrel and lighter weight, rocket motor boosted ammunition that increased the gun's firing range, at the expense of slightly diminished pinpoint accuracy) to the K5 family line continued throughout its years of deployment, in the waning years of World War II, with rapid allied advances on the European continent, greater emphasis was placed on projects that would shift the control of Europe back in Germany's favor; state of the art and pioneering weaponry of the day, such as the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter/interceptor and fighter/bomber, the Fieseler V-1 flying bombs, and the Mittelwerk V-2 rockets.

Formerly residing at Maryland's, Aberdeen Proving Ground, one of only two remaining K5s that was constructed using components from a pair of German crew sabotaged guns (named Leopold and Robert by their German crews and called Anzio Express and Anzio Annie by Allied troops) that were discovered in Civitavecchia, Italy, on June 7, 1944, by American troops moving out upon the completion of the Anzio, Italy campaign (Operation Shingle, which was fought from January 22, 1944 - June 5, 1944) was relocated (along with other museum pieces, in order to comply with the Base Realignment and Closure law passed by the US Congress in 2005) by the US Army Ordnance Corps to its US Army Ordnance Training and Heritage Center at Fort Lee, Virginia, in 2010.

Northern France's Musée du Mar de l'Atlantique Batteríe Todt museum has the other surviving, and now restored, K5 on public display in Audinghen.

Typically fabricated out of resin, or injection molded plastic, ranging from 1:144 on up to 1:35 scale, numerous model manufacturers have produced kit-built and/or fully assembled replicas of the world famous Krupp K5.

Dragon Models 20153 1:144 Scale K5 Leopold in Winter Camouflage Paint Scheme

Hobbytrain H23600 1:160 N Scale K5 Leopold in Summer Camouflage Paint Scheme

Hobbytrain H23601 1:160 N Scale K5 in Wehrmacht Gray with Gun Barrel Rings

Hobbytrain H23602 1:160 N Scale K5 in Wehrmacht Gray with Gun Barrel Ring

Hobbytrain H23603 1:160 N Scale K5 Leopold in Winter Camouflage Paint Scheme

Rivarossi HR6186 1:87 HO Scale K5 Bruno in Winter Camouflage Paint Scheme

Rivarossi HR6187 1:87 HO Scale K5 in Wehrmacht Gray with Gun Barrel Rings

 View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

Some interesting, early Kadee Micro-Trains production trivia.

• With a retail price of $3.00 each (i.e., with the exception of green and white printed stock number 20018 and black and white printed stock number 20093, which retailed for $3.25 each and may have been the first American manufactured N-Scale models to bear a slight upcharge to cover the cost of the additional pad printing strikes), the first five (or seven if the production variations are taken into account) Kadee® Micro-Trains® models released in November 1972 were 40 Foot Standard Steel Single Sliding Door Boxcar stock numbers 20000 (Unlettered with light brown or Tuscan paint), 20018 (Grand Trunk Western with road number 516798 and two color printing), 20058 (Rock Island with road number 27653), 20089 (Union Pacific with road number 124239 and white or yellow printing), and 20093 (Southern Pacific with road number 105043 and two color printing).

• Careful planning and consideration, which resulted in the tooling of common roofs, roofwalks, and ends for its line of 20000 and 30000 series forty and fifty foot standard steel boxcars paid off handsomely for Kadee® Quality Products, as the firm was able to release in fairly rapid succession (i.e., spanning a little over two years, from November 1972 - January 1975) five different variations (i.e., single sliding door, double sliding door, plug door, double plug door, and combination plug and sliding door versions) of these extremely popular models.
• An industry first in N-Scale, beginning with the earliest production products, most of the pre-2000s Micro-Trains® models (i.e., boxcars with sliding doors, circa 1990s 20 and 40 foot containers, drop end gondola cars, and covered and open hopper cars), were fitted with operating doors, ends, or hatches.
• Priced at $1.80 a pair, Kadee® N Gauge (i.e., not a typo, as early production Kadee® Quality Products blister cards actually had the word "gauge" rather than "scale" printed on them) stock number MT-1000 Bettendorf trucks had Celcon® plastic frames and pointy ended axles, blackened cast zinc-alloy wheels (which have the propensity to corrode over time) with a centered hole and rib detail on the back side, and screwed to the truck frame with a steel screw, a draft box mounted MT-5 Magne-Matic® knuckle coupler, which was introduced in 1968.
• Harking back to the original 1960s era Kadee® design, Micro-Trains® Line wheel-sets manufactured in the present-day are comprised of blackened die-cast zinc-alloy wheels (with relief detail on both sides of each wheel) that are mounted on pointy ended Celcon® axles.
  
• Never factory installed on any Kadee® Micro Trains® production rolling-stock, the aforementioned MT-1000 trucks with Celcon® axles and blackened cast rib backed wheels (which were also marketed in blister carded packages of twelve assembled wheel-sets as stock number MT-1057) were supplanted by the commonly seen, screw-less plastic truck frame with blackened cast zinc-alloy axles and Celcon® wheels with a pointy axle end on the front side and rib detail on the back, which were introduced on 1972 release Kadee® "Blue Label" models.
• In addition to the faceted bushings and flat washers that are commonly found inside of packages of Micro-Trains® trucks, the sprue of parts that was packaged with early production blister carded MT-1000 trucks included flat headed bolster pins and snap-in retention covers (i.e., like the ones found on early production Rapido coupler equipped Bettendorf trucks and 50000 series caboose chassis with body mounted Rapido couplers) that were used to retain the coupler and spring in the.draft gear box.
• Rather than the contemporary, rectangular shaped trip pins that most of us are familiar with, early production (i.e., circa 1972 - 1974) Magne-Matic® knuckle coupler equipped Kadee® Quality Products Micro-Trains® Bettendorf trucks were fitted with round trip pins that were fabricated out of wire.
• Although they were never shipped with any production rolling-stock, way ahead of their time in-so-far as factory installed N-Scale body mounted draft gear was concerned, beginning in the late 1960s (as stock number MT-1040, which were initially priced at $1.50 each) and into the 1980s (as stock number 1024), Kadee® Quality Products marketed blister carded packages of blackened cast zinc-alloy forty foot boxcar under-frames with Magne-Matic® knuckle couplers (stock number MT-5 for the MT-1040 under-frames and stock number 1025 for the 1024 under-frames) that were fastened to the chassis by a pair of screws.

• Likely designed to simplify final product assembly, factory fitted with either Magne-Matic® knuckle or Rapido style couplers and a pair of mounting ears (as opposed to the customary king pin holes), the extremely fragile Clip-On-Truck made a very short appearance in the marketplace from September 1974 to October 1975.

Packaged with Kadee® Micro-Trains® paper inserts bearing black, blue, and green printing and a factory printed MSRP, the following September 1974 to October 1975 car releases were factory fitted with Clip-On-Trucks  12/74 Release 31000 50' Dimensional Data Boxcar, the 9/74 and 1/75 Release 31118 50' Missouri Pacific MP 352278 and MP 32253 Boxcars, the 10/74 and 1/75 Release 31139 50' Pittsburgh and Lake Erie P&LE 23029 and P&LE 23025 Boxcars, the 9/74 Release 31170 Northern Pacific NP 31468 Boxcar, the 10/74 Release 31463 50' Delaware and Hudson 22169 Boxcars, the 10/74 and 1/75 31487 Release 50' Chesapeake and Ohio C&O 21422 and C&O 21427 Boxcars, the 11/74 Release 32000 50' Dimensional Data Boxcar, the 11/74 and 4/75 32076 50' Santa Fe SFRB 6169 and SFRB 6119 Boxcars, the 11/74 Release 32144 50' Frisco SL-SF 12074 Boxcar, the 12/74 and 6/75 Release 32166 50' Seaboard Coast Line SCL 492964 and SCL 492966 Boxcars, the 11/74 Release 32499 50' Nickel Plate Road NKP 85496 Boxcar, the 12/74 Release 32507 50' Burlington Northern Refrigerator Express BREX 79577 Boxcar, the 1/75 Release 33000 50' Dimensional Data Boxcar, the 1/75 Release 33089 50' Union Pacific UP 170509 Boxcar, the 2/75 Release 33121 50' Cotton Belt SSW 48075 Boxcar, the 2/75 and 10/75 Release 33451 50' Western Maryland WM 35001 and WM 35007 Boxcars, the 6/74 Release 34000 50' Dimensional Data Boxcar, the 10/74 Release 34000 50' Undecorated Light Brown Boxcar, the 10/74 Release 34033 50' Norfolk and Western NW 285228 Boxcar, the 10/74 Release 34091 50' Southern Pacific SP 202519 Boxcar, the 10/74 Release 34105 50' Denver and Rio Grande Western D&RGW 63555 Boxcar, the 10/74 Release 34151 50' Baltimore and Ohio B&O 471310 Boxcar, the 10/74 Release 34472 50' Pennsylvania PRR 32156 Boxcar, the 1/75 Release 42000 40' Dimensional Data Wood Boxcar, the 2/75 and 6/75 Release 42080 40' Union Pacific UP 100100 and UP 100104 Wood Boxcars, and the 3/75 Release 42551 40' Hills Brothers Coffee HBCX 161 Wood Boxcar.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

 Image Courtesy of Micro-Trains® Line Co.                             Image Courtesy of Kadee® Quality Products

Both functional and realistic looking, the brothers' delayed-action Magne-Matic® HO-Scale couplers soon became the gold standard for model railroad coupling operations.

The Kadee® moniker was derived from the first letters of the brothers middle names.

Having successfully developed and begun manufacturing an N-Scale (which was a relatively new scale in the 1960s) version of their now legendary Magne-Matic® knuckle coupler system by the late 1960s, the gradual addition of trucks, underframes, and wheels culminated in the brothers introduction of their first Micro-Trains® freight car in November 1972.

Quoting a paragraph of text that was printed on the underside of a paper insert label from an early 1980s model release, Kadee Micro-Trains are the finest model railroad cars available.  Every car has the craftsmanship and detail you expect from the Kadee name.  Available with your choice of either Rapido-type couplers or the famous delayed-action Magne-Matic® couplers, the "Standard by choice" of model railroaders around the world., notwithstanding having the only functional N-Scale coupler system, even the earliest production Micro-Trains® rolling-stock had characteristics that no other manufacturers' product had, or in many cases, still do not have.

Along with the exquisitely cast brake-wheels and stirrup steps that were found on all Kadee® Micro-Trains® freight cars, thin and finely detailed injection molded plastic roofwalks and innovatively designed operating hopper bay doors, sliding boxcar doors, sliding stock car doors, and roof hatches were added features that were simply not found on competitive models.

In 1990, following thirty-five years of steady growth in Medford, Oregon, Kadee® Quality Products was physically divided into two separate business entities.

Kadee® (Dale's portion of the enterprise) continues to produce HO-Scale freight cars and HO through G Scale accessories from its White City, Oregon location.

Until shortly before his passing, Dale remained involved with Kadee® business operations.

Image Courtesy of Micro-Trains® Line Co.

 Newly incorporated in October 1990 as Micro-Trains® Line Co. (Keith's portion of the business), Z, Nn3, and N Scale products continued to be produced at the Medford plant until the firm was subsequently relocated in 1993 to its present location, a purpose-built 33,000 square foot plant in Talent, Oregon.

After retiring in 2000, Keith and his wife Coral sold their interest in Micro-Trains® Line to their immediate family in 2001.

Given how much offshoring has occurred in recent decades, it is worthy to note that to the present day, the majority of the Micro-Trains® Line products continue to be manufactured in the United States.

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Needing to move huge numbers of enlisted personnel to and from various bases and assignments, the government found itself lacking enough standard railway passenger cars to complete this daily task.

Manufactured along the lines of standard Association of American Railroads (AAR) fifty foot steel boxcars, with their Allied Full Cushion high-speed swing motion trucks, light-weight passenger car-like flat ends and doors, freight car-like floors, roofs, and sides, a row of windows, and a centered door along each body side, designed to utilize existing design elements, fixtures, manufacturing lines, materials, and production equipment, while balancing the nation's need for steel to construct tanks and ships, the assemblage of hybrid troop cars efficiently resolved the issue of railroad passenger equipment shortages.

Requisitioned by the U.S. Office of Defense Transportation, the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company produced 2,400 troop sleepers and 10 kitchen cars, while American Car & Foundry built 440 kitchen cars and 200 hospital cars.

Painted olive drab with "Pullman" lettered above the center door, though the troop sleepers were owned by the government, they were managed by Pullman, who staffed the cars with company employed porters.

Dependant upon car availability, a typical troop train consist was comprised of an assortment of coaches, troop sleepers for enlisted men, standard full-sized Pullmans for officers, and mid-consist kitchens, which were staffed by U.S. Army cooks and designed to feed approximately 250 men each.

In service through 1947, the U.S. Army Transportation Corps sold the bulk of its lightly used fleet of troop cars to railroad companies, who ended up converting some of their acquisitions into baggage cars, cabooses, express service boxcars, mail storage cars, or refrigerator cars.

Utilized as railroad Maintenance of Way (MOW) bunk cars, some of the military surplus troop sleepers retained their sleeper configurations.

Carrying USAX reporting marks and road numbers with a "G" prefix, three of the troop kitchens were converted at Fort Holabird, in Baltimore, Maryland, to railway guard cars, which were used to house security detachments assigned to watch over rail shipments of classified cargo (e.g., missiles, nuclear materials, and/or military ordnance).

Image Courtesy of Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association. W. Schneider

Released in August 2009, with its extra body side windows and conspicuously absent offset cupola, the N Scale Micro-Trains Line stock number 118 00 040 United States Army Railway Guard Car G-10 release is a "foobie" that could be modified to more accurately simulate the restored prototype, which resides at Campo, California's  Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association.

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Expanding into the automotive industry through its acquisition of St Louis based Carter Carburetor, ACF became further diversified through its purchases of Fageol Motors Co, the Hall-Scott Motor Car Company, and J. G. Brill Company.

Established as a tank car leasing company, Shippers Car Line was acquired by ACF in 1927.

During both World Wars, ACF manufactured a very diverse range of military products such as aircraft tail assemblies, ammunition, armor plating, artillery gun mounts, artillery shells, cloth shrinking machines and rollers, field kitchens, hospital cars. pack saddles, submarine chasers, tanks, and wooden tent pegs.

As the firm had become so diversified by 1954, the company name was changed to ACF Industries, Inc., which better reflected the corporation's varied interests.

The last passenger car to be produced by ACF was manufactured in 1959.

In 1985, ACF established Jackson Manufacturing, a fabrication, machining, and railcar parts supplier.

In order to produce hopper car outlets and components for the firm's pressure differential hopper cars, in 1988, ACF acquired an aluminum foundry called Corbitt Manufacturing.

A diversified steel casting foundry called Southwest Steel Casting, a manufacturer of construction, mining, and oil field products, who also supplied car body castings to ACF, was acquired by the latter firm in 1989.

In 1994, through the acquisition of the railcar component manufacturing and maintenance units of ACF, American Railcar Industries, Inc. (ARI) was established.

Located in Paragould, Arkansas, in 1995, ARI opened its first major railcar assembly plant.

In Marmaduke, Arkansas, ARI opened a second, tank car assembly facility in 1999.

In order to increase its alternative sources for couplers, heavy castings, and yokes, ARI acquired a one-third stake in ACF's Ohio Castings.

In 2006, the year that ARI went public on NASDAQ, further expanding its railcar sub assembly and small components production capabilities, the corporation purchased Custom Steel Inc.

With a joint venture axle and manufacturing facility in Paragould, Arkansas, 2009 saw the launch of Axis, LLC.

Railcar leasing operations focused on hopper and tank cars were established by ARI in 2011.

Further expansion of its railcar service capabilities saw ARI open a new repair facility in Brookhaven, Mississippi, in 2014.

ITE Management acquired ARI from Icahn Enterprises in December 2018.

On July 28, 2019, it was announced that The Greenbrier Companies, an American railcar lessor and manufacturer based in Lake Oswego, Oregon had finalized its acquisition of the ARI manufacturing operations.

In a move that included updated branding, on July 21, 2020, ARI announced that it had changed its name to American Industrial Transport (AITX).

Based in St. Charles Missouri and specializing in covered hoppers and tank cars, AITX is focused on railcar leasing, maintenance, and repair services.

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Almost half the size of previously common 1:48 O Scale models (which made their debut in the early 1900s), because of their operational characteristics, price, size, and ability to accommodate a wealth of details, sales of HO (i.e., "Half O") Scale products eventually overtook those of O in the 1960s.

Though the manufacture of 1:76 00 Scale trains (which also typically run on 16.5 mm spaced rails) predated that of HO by more than a decade, initially marketed as an alternative scale, the latter size gained widespread acceptance in North America and continental Europe.

As the overall interest in toy train models eventually waned, manufacturers still engaged in HO Scale train production began emphasizing realism and model railroading as a hobby.

While traditionally gauged OO remains dominant in the United Kingdom, 18.2 mm EM Gauge and 18.83 mm P4 Gauge fine-scale track standards were developed to accommodate the needs of modelers concerned with scale fidelity.

Although some OO scale products may be marketed as being useable for both OO and HO, they tend to be larger than the established proportions for North American and continental European HO models.

S Scale modelers often utilize readily available 16.5 mm wide track to represent Sn3½ scale three foot six inch narrow gauge lines.

in HO, commercially produced Z Scale (6.5 mm/0.256 inch) track products may be used when modeling 15 inch narrow gauge HOz (NMRA) and HOi (NEM) lines, while similarly manufactured N Scale (9 mm/0.354 inch) track is frequently used to model two foot six inch narrow gauge HOn30 (NMRA) or HOn2½ and HOe (NEM) railway systems.

How standard gauge Z, N, HO, and O Scale Model Train Locomotives Compare In Size

As is the case with prototype railways, HO scale manufacturers produce rail in different heights.

Expressed in thousandths of an inch, track "Code" refers to the measured height of the manufactured model rail.

Extremely popular and approximately 8.75 percent larger than the heaviest prototype Code 155 main line rail used by the Pennsylvania Railroad, Code 100 (i.e., 0.100-inches tall or about 8.7 scale inches high) track has been the industry standard for many years.

Typically designed for modelers seeking products that are closer to scale, manufacturers also produce track in Code 83 (0.083 inches tall, which represents 7.23 scale inch high main line 134 pound per yard rail) and Code 70 (0.070 inches tall, which represents 6.1 scale inch high main line 100 pound per yard rail).

There are several caveats to consider when adopting more scale-like rail:

1. Older HO Scale models may need to have their wheels and/or wheel-sets modified or replaced because of the height of the factory supplied wheel flanges, which will often hit the top of the simulated spike heads that secure the low profile rails to their ties or sleepers. Retrofitting rolling-stock with aftermarket low-profile wheel-sets is fairly easy, and can usually be done at moderate cost

2. Though the tolerances of wheels and wheel-sets should be checked before newly acquired models are initially run, closer attention must be paid to wheel gauge and flange heights whenever low-profile rail is utilized.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.

Referencing its track gauge of nine millimeters, the designation "N" is short for nine.

By 1964, long before the advent of operating knuckle couplers in N Scale, Arnold locomotives and rolling-stock came equipped with the now pervasive hook style Rapido coupler; which was made available to other manufacturing firms, further aiding a rather rapid expansion in model production.

Though it was possible to use a hands free approach to uncoupling early Rapido coupler equipped Kadee Micro-Trains models by utilizing an included pair of small magnets (which were packed with early production car releases), along with an electromagnet, or stationary magnet that was placed below or between the track rails, the short pin like protrusion that is commonly found on the bottom of Rapido couplers also made it possible to automatically uncouple Rapido style couplers with a track section that is fitted with an electromagnetically operated platform, which is positioned between the rails.

The aforementioned platform rises when the electromagnet is activated, which in turn, via the pins, pushes the couplers into a raised position, thereby uncoupling them.

While various knuckle coupler designs are now commonly used in North America and Australia, reliable and inexpensive to fabricate, Rapido couplers are still a universal standard in Europe.

Though a rail width of 9 mm remains constant for standard gauge (as opposed to narrow gauge) N Scale locomotives and rolling stock, depending upon the place of manufacture and/or the specific market that a model is targeted to be sold in, its size in proportion to its prototype (i.e., "scale") may be 1:148 (British), 1:150 (for Japanese 3 foot 6 inch /1,067 mm or 4 foot 6 inch / 1,372 mm gauge trains), or 1:160 (for North American, Japanese 1,435 mm high-speed trains, and European) scale.

HO Scale modelers often utilize readily available N Scale (9 mm/0.354 inch) track to model two foot six inch narrow gauge HOn30 (NMRA) or HOn2½ and HOe (NEM) lines.

In N, commercially manufactured Z-Scale (6.5 mm/0.256 inch) track products are frequently used when modeling three foot narrow gauge Nn3 railway systems.

How standard gauge Z, N, HO, and O Scale Model Train Locomotives Compare In Size

As is the case with prototype railways, N Scale manufacturers produce rail in different heights.

Expressed in thousandths of an inch, track "Code" refers to the measured height of manufactured model rail.

Extremely popular and approximately 50 percent larger than heaviest prototype Code 155 main line rail used by the Pennsylvania Railroad, Code 80 (0.080-inches tall or about 12 scale inches high) track has been the industry standard for many years.

Typically designed for modelers seeking products that are closer to scale, manufacturers also produce track in Code 70 (0.070 inches tall, which represents 11.2 scale inch high rail that is approximately 40 percent larger than heaviest prototype Code 155 main line rail used by the Pennsylvania Railroad), Code 55 (0.055 inches tall, which represents 8.8 scale inch high rail that is approximately 10 percent larger than heaviest prototype Code 155 main line rail used by the Pennsylvania Railroad), and Code 40 (0.040-inches tall, which represents 6.4 scale inch high main line 107 pound per yard rail).

There are several caveats to consider when adopting more scale-like rail:

1. Older N Scale models may need to have their wheels and/or wheel-sets modified or replaced because of the height of the factory supplied wheel flanges, which will often hit the top of the simulated spike heads that secure the low profile rails to their ties or sleepers. Retrofitting rolling-stock with aftermarket low-profile wheel-sets is fairly easy, and can usually be done at moderate cost

2. Though the tolerances of wheels and wheel-sets should be checked before newly acquired models are initially run, closer attention must be paid to wheel gauge and flange heights whenever low-profile rail is utilized.

3. With regards to North American style N Scale track, there is presently a somewhat limited range of prefabricated products available in anything other than Code 80.

Although 1:144 scale plastic model aircraft, armor, structures, and vehicles can be found on N Scale dioramas, layouts, and modules, these products are larger than any of the established proportions for British, European, Japanese, and North American N Scale railway models.

With a large global following that is second only to that of HO Scale, because of its diminutive size, N Scale is the most popular choice for railway models in Japan, where available space is typically limited.

Where space is not a major concern, it is the ability to model expansive scenes and large train consists that appeals to many N Scale modelers.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.