Micro-Trains - 452 00 091 - Trailer, 48 Foot, Box - Curtiss Candy - 23221

Specific Item Information: For many years, Nestle has utilized both freight cars and trucking fleets as moving billboards for their confectionery products. These colorful trailers can be see all over North America featuring candy products like the classic Baby Ruth® bar. option and rolling wheels.

Model Information: The trailers come with two styles of landing gear. The short landing gear is in elevated position when being hauled by tractors or carried on a flat car (supplied as separate part in the box). The longer extended landing gear is used when the trailer is standing alone (installed by default). The model features rolling wheels.

The model can be super-detailed by painting the inside of the wheels, brake and running lights, as well as the mud flats in order to bring out the Fruehauf name and star.

Prototype History: For the longest time, the 48-foot dry van was the de facto standard in trucking, owing largely to older regulations which limited the overall length of the vehicle to 75 feet. Overall length restrictions led to some ridiculously-skinny cabs. For example, Kenworth COE SlimLines were particularly notorious for flipping over forwards if you tried to stop without a trailer. Once the length laws went bye-bye in the late 1980s, the industry was quick to adopt the now-ubiquitous 53-foot vans - room for thirteen rows of pallets, plus a foot of leeway to make sure the doors could close easily.

Box vans are known as such for their rectilinear proportions. Their simple design makes them easy to manufacture and maintain.

Road Name History: The Curtiss Candy Company was founded in 1916 by Otto Schnering near Chicago, Illinois. Wanting a more "American-sounding" name (due to anti-German sentiment during World War I), Schnering named his company using his mother's maiden name.

Their first confectionery item was Kandy Kake, later refashioned in 1920 as the log-shaped Baby Ruth. Their second confectionery item was the chocolate-covered peanut butter crunch Butterfinger, which was introduced in 1926. In 1931, Curtiss marketed the brand by sponsoring famous air racer, John H. Livingston, in the Baby Ruth Aerobatic Team flying the air-racer Howard "Mike" at airshows, and sponsoring Livingston's Monocoupe racer in the 1934 MacRobertson Air Race. The Jolly Jack candy was included in army rations during World War II.

In 1964, Standard Brands purchased Curtiss Candy Company. Standard Brands merged with Nabisco in 1981. In 1990, RJR Nabisco sold the Curtiss brands to Nestlé. Ferrero acquired Nestlé USA's confectionery brands, including Baby Ruth, in 2018. Ferrero folded production of the acquired brands into the Ferrara Candy Company.

Brand/Importer Information: Micro-Trains is the brand name used by both Kadee Quality Products and Micro-Trains Line. For a history of the relationship between the brand and the two companies, please consult our Micro-Trains Collector's Guide.

Manufacturer Information: Kadee Quality Products originally got involved in N-Scale by producing a scaled-down version of their successful HO Magne-Matic knuckle coupler system. This coupler was superior to the ubiquitous 'Rapido' style coupler due to two primary factors: superior realistic appearance and the ability to automatically uncouple when stopped over a magnet embedded in a section of track. The success of these couplers in N-Scale quickly translated to the production of trucks, wheels and in 1972 a release of ready-to-run box cars.
In October 1990 Kadee separated in two companies, with the newly created Micro-Trains® Line Co. continuing the Z, Nn3, and N Scale product ranges, with Kadee retaining the HO range.