Micro-Trains - NSC 01-71 - Mixed Freight Consist, North America, Transition Era - Highpoint Thomasville & Denton - 4-Pack

Specific Item Information: Contains NSC 01-66, 01-67, 01-68, 01-69 and 01-70. Only 75 sets made. Steve Verderosa. Road Numbers: 406, 407, 408, 409, 110.

Prototype History: A mixed freight train is a train that hauls a variety of different freight cars or wagons. A mixed freight depends on the locale and industries. The train will be carrying cars to be brought to a yard where a local will bring them to the various industries. The location determines the industries, and the industries determine the cars.

Which cars are in which trains is determined by the waybills they are assigned - which is close to a totally random process. For example, through freights simply run from up staging to down staging and back, stopping long enough to trade out 30 percent of their cars and change from steam to motor (catenary) or vice-versa. Thus freights will have a variety of cars, changing each time they pass through a switching yard.

Road Name History: The HPT&D was born from the 1923 reorganization of the Carolina & Yadkin River Railway. The HPT&D ran 34 miles from High Point to High Rock, North Carolina. In 1960, the connecting Winston-Salem Southbound (which was jointly owned by Norfolk & Western and Atlantic Coast Line) bought the HPT&D which gradually faded into the status of “paper railroad.” HPT&D was finally merged into Winston-Salem Southbound in 2010, itself a “paper railroad” by that time.

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: Micro-Trains Line split off from Kadee Quality Products in 1990. 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.

Micro-Trains Line Co. split off from Kadee in 1990 to form a completely independent company. For this reason, products from this company can appear with labels from both enterprises. Due to the nature of production idiosyncrasies and various random factors, the rolling stock from Micro-Trains can have all sorts of interesting variations in both their packaging as well as the products themselves. When acquiring an MTL product it is very important to understand these important production variations that can greatly enhance (or decrease) the value of your purchase.

Please consult our Micro-Trains Collector's Guide