Roundhouse - 8409 - Gondola, 52 Foot, Thrall 2743 - Philadelphia Bethlehem & New England - 898

Model Information: This car was introduced by MDC Roundhouse in the late 1970's and was later acquired by Athearn in June of 2004. They have been marketed by both companies under various designations including "50 Foot Modern Gondola", "52 Foot Thrall Gondola" and "52 Foot Mill Gondola" as well as several other similar sounding names.

The early versions were released with Rapido couplers and later Athearn releases using McHenry couplers. The later MDC releases *might* have been shipped with some other kind of knuckle coupler. In the mid-1980's, as was true with many MDC releases, these cars came in kit form. Some of the newer releases come with loads.

Prototype History: Introduced by Thrall Car Manufacturing Co., in 1995, with its new interior height of 5' 6" (i.e., a 6" increase in height over the previous standard), the firm's contemporary design for a 52' 6" length 2743 cubic foot capacity gondola car took advantage of a (then) newly allowed increase in Gross Rail Loading (GRL) of 286,000 lbs, which was up from the previous limit of 263,000 lbs.

Acquired by Trinity Industries (now TrinityRail) in 2001, from 1995 to 1999, Thrall produced over 6,700 of the 2743 gondolas.

The manufacture of the 2743 design was resumed by Trinity in 2005.

Road Name History: The PBNE was completed in 1912 and operates 56 miles of track around Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was owned for most of its life by Bethlehem Steel and its diesels wear the same yellow and black paint scheme as the other lines owned by Bethlehem (such as the South Buffalo Railway.) Traffic was heavy, requiring 25 locomotives to serve the line into the early 90s. The 1991 diesel roster consisted of: five slugs, eight NW2’s, four SW7’s, four SW9’s, five SW1200’s and three SW900m’s. Except for one Alco and a quartet of Whitcombs, PBNE has only ever owned EMD switchers. At 56 miles, the line is a bit bigger than Vermont’s Green Mountain Railway and a bit smaller than Detroit & Toledo Shoreline. In 1995, the location of Bethlehem’s steel mill was redeveloped into the 1,600 acre Bethlehem Commerce Center. PBNE now carries intermodal traffic (12 trains per week), lumber, steel, plastics and farm products. Norfolk Southern has used PBNE’s Laubach Yard as a place to build Triple Crown RoadRailer trains.

Brand/Importer Information: MDC Roundhouse was founded in California in 1938 and relocated in 1993 to Carson City, Nevada due to statewide restrictions on painting. MDC Roundhouse was a producer of both RTR (Ready-to-Run) and kit versions of N Scale rolling stock as well as RTR locomotives. They entered the N scale market in 1979 with a Thrall Hi-Side Gondola and a Hi-Cube Single Door Box Car. MDC Roundhouse was purchased by Horizon Hobbies in June of 2004, when its owner since 1938 C. H. Menteer retired, and merged into their Athearn line.

Unlike many of their contemporaries which contracted with European firms to produce their products, MDC made their own toolings. They made several popular body styles and produced them for road names that many other vendors (even Micro-Trains) wouldn't touch. This made them popular with modelers. Also, their un-assembled "kits" permitted a lower price point so they were popular with "runners" as well as "modelers".

Of particular interest was the attention given to modern 50 foot steel boxcars. They made some attempt to accurately mold the differences into distinct models to represent each of the major prototype manufacturers products. They have distinct toolings not only for the different products from FMC, BFF and PS, but also multiple models for each of these manufacturers including "standard" vs "Youngstown" doors and "waffle" vs. "rib" sides. In total they produced 13 different versions of the 50 foot steel boxcar.