Micro-Trains - 38000 - Boxcar, 50 Foot, Steel, Plug Door - Claremont and Concord - 1776

Prototype History: The 50-foot boxcar made its first appearance in the 1930s and steadily grew in popularity over the years, which further improved redundancies by allowing for even more space within a given car. Today, the 50-footer remains the common boxcar size. After the second world war ended, and steel became once again readily available, steel became the go-to choice for construction of boxcars. Pullman Standard and ACF were some of the most prolific builders of these cars.

In the 1960s, the flush, "plug" style sliding door was introduced as an option that provides a larger door to ease loading and unloading of certain commodities. The tight-fitting doors are better insulated and allow a car's interior to be maintained at a more even temperature.

Road Name History: The Claremont & Concord was established in 1954 to take over a branch of the Boston & Maine and purchase the Claremont Railway. Today, the line serves Lebanon and Claremont, New Hampshire. In 1988, ownership passed from the Pinsley shortline group to some local investors. It appears they dropped the “&” in their name at that time. Customers and cargoes include:

• American Rock Salt: Rock salt
Beaudry Enterprises: Fertilizer Eagle Leaf Transload: Cement and rock salt Lafarge North America: Cement LaValley Building Supply: OSB, plywood and lumber Recycling Services: Scrap metal Twin State Sand & Gravel: Aggregate and rock salt

Long gone from the customer list was a paper mill in Claremont that required a spur with a comically sharp 90 degree turn on a steep grade that often required a pair of 44-tonners to muscle a single loaded boxcar back to the mainline. Between this and the line’s covered bridges and New Hampshire scenery, you could do worse than modeling the C&C.

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.