PROTOTYPE AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The unit train concept was pioneered by Ortner Freight Car Co. in 1960 as an effort to streamline bulk cargo unloading. Robert Ortner, developer of the rapid-discharge door system, targeted unloading a train of rapid discharge cars in 30 minutes to an hour. Previously this same task would take four hours or longer. Unit trains shuttle back and forth between mines and power plants eliminating dwell time in yards. The concept has become ubiquitous to the modern railroading scene. In more recent years many of these cars have been converted to sugar beet hauling service and had capacity extensions installed.

MODEL FEATURES:

• Removable load

• All 5 packs come with unique road numbers

• Separately applied brake wheel and wire grab irons on side ladders

• Accurately painted and printed for prototypical realism

• Newly-tooled, highly detailed, injection-molded body

• Body-mounted, McHenry scale double-shelf knuckle couplers

• Weighted for optimum performance

• Fully assembled and ready for your layout

• Machined metal wheels with RP25 contours operate on all popular brands of track

• Minimum radius: 18”

NEW FEATURES:

• All new tooling with increased fidelity

• Separately applied metal grabirons & end cages. No more molded railings!

• Detailed train brake line piping.

• Etched stainless steel brake wheel platform.

• Accurately scaled hopper door linkage with re-shaped weight for better see-through effect.

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