Kato USA - 800551 - Container, Intermodal, 40 Foot, Ribbed Side - APL Logistics

Road Name History: APL (formerly American President Line) offers a comprehensive suite of services extending from international freight forwarding to both origin and destination services, including freight consolidation, warehousing and distribution management. We employ innovative Information Technology (IT) to deliver maximum supply chain efficiency, visibility and control. APL Logistics is a Singapore-based global cargo transportation and logistics company. APL, along with its parent company CMA CGM, is the world's third-largest container transportation and shipping company, providing more than 80 weekly services. APL operates a container-ship fleet, including 153 container vessels.

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded in 1848. In 1912, Congress banned ships owned by railroads from using the Panama Canal, and so Pacific Mail was sold to W. R. Grace and Company, where it operated as a subsidiary from 1916 till 1925, when the company's trans-Pacific fleet was bought over by the Dollar Shipping Company for $5,625,000 in cash. In August of 1938, the United States Maritime Commission judged the company unsound and assumed control over it, appointing William Gibbs McAdoo to succeed R. Stanley Dollar and Joseph R. Sheehan as the new president of the line. The first item of business was an amendment to the corporate charter, renaming the line as "American President Lines". In 2009, APL moved to a new headquarters in Singapore. Previously, APL had been based in Oakland, California.

From Wikipedia

Brand/Importer Information: KATO U.S.A. was established in 1986, with the first U.S. locomotive model (the GP38-2, in N-Scale) released in 1987. Since that time, KATO has come to be known as one of the leading manufacturers of precision railroad products for the modeling community. KATO's parent company, Sekisui Kinzoku Co., Ltd., is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

In addition to producing ready-to-run HO and N scale models that are universally hailed for their high level of detail, craftsmanship and operation, KATO also manufactures UNITRACK. UNITRACK is the finest rail & roadbed modular track system available to modelers today. With the track and roadbed integrated into a single piece, UNITRACK features a nickel-silver rail and a realistic-looking roadbed. Patented UNIJOINERS allow sections to be snapped together quickly and securely, time after time if necessary.

The Kato U.S.A. office and warehouse facility is located in Schaumburg, Illinois, approximately 30 miles northwest of Chicago. All research & development of new North American products is performed here, in addition to the sales and distribution of merchandise to a vast network of wholesale representatives and retail dealers. Models requiring service sent in by hobbyists are usually attended to at this location as well. The manufacturing of all KATO products is performed in Japan.

Supporters of KATO should note that there is currently no showroom or operating exhibit of models at the Schaumburg facility. Furthermore, model parts are the only merchandise sold directly to consumers. (Please view the Parts Catalog of this website for more specific information.)