Athearn has announced new RTR 40 Ft Modernized Box Cars

PROTOTYPE AND BACKGROUND INFO:

Railroad boxcars are perhaps not only the best-recognized pieces of equipment ever put into service but also one of the most identifiable symbols of the industry itself. During the early years of the industry freight was hauled on simple flatcars or early gondolas. In Upstate New York was the burgeoning Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, the first chartered system in the United States which later became part of the New York Central, came up with the novel idea of covering its gondolas in 1833 since the railroad dealt with snow throughout much of the winter. The car’s development continued to improve over the years such as switching from basic wood construction with steel outsidebracing, within the same size specifications; 40 feet, a standard size employed by the American Association of Railroads (AAR). To better enhance crew safety, in 1968 the AAR legislated the removal of roof walks. The 40 foot boxcars needed to be “modernized” to adhere to the AAR mandate. This was to be completed by 1978 for cars in interchange service. Some of these cars had side and end ladders cut down, in some cases, modification included lowering the brakewheel. What made boxcars great, at least in the eyes of the railroads, was, their ability to haul about anything! Railroads thrive on redundancy to maximize efficiency.

MODEL FEATURES:

• Fully assembled and ready for your layout

• Underbody with brake system details

• Many of these schemes were frequently in lumber service. On the prototype, it was common to find these in strings of 4 or more within a lumber train.

• New 3-packs make modeling lumber service easy (total of 6 unique road #’s)

• Machined metal wheels

• Weighted for trouble free operation

• Wheels with RP25 contours operate on all popular brands of track

• Body mounted McHenry operating scale knuckle couplers

• Replacement parts available

• Minimum radius: 18”

PRIMED FOR GRIME MODELS FEATURE:

• Duplicated look and feel of “In Service” equipment; “Tattered and Torn” just like the real thing

• Faded base colors matched to the prototype

• Patches applied and shaped per road number matching each corresponding side to the prototype

• Perfect starting point for adding grime and rust

Order Due Date: May 31, 2019

Anticipated Delivery Date: May 2020