Eastern Seaboard Models - 224601 - Boxcar, 50 Foot, X65 - Conrail - 165317

Model Information: ESM Announced this tooling in early 2017 for a target release date of December 2017.

Prototype History: The X65 boxcar is one of the most recognizable exterior post boxcars of the late 1960's, built at the Penn Central Despatch Shops in East Rochester, NY. By this time, the vast majority of the Lehigh Valley was owned by PC and PRR before it, and using the company's own shops ensured some level of cost savings and higher quality. There were two series of cars built within a year or so of each other: The insulated series was numbered in the 7000's, and the 8000 series became class BL55E and X65 respectively under Conrail. This latter car design was also used by the Penn Central.

These 50' exterior-post boxcars were built from 1966 through 1969 by Despatch Shops Incorporated, a subsidiary of first the New York Central and then Penn Central. A number of cars also were built for the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie as well as the Lehigh Valley. Conrail inherited the New York Central, Penn Central and Lehigh Valley rosters in 1976. The cars remained active into the 1990s.

Road Name History: The Consolidated Rail Corporation, commonly known as Conrail (reporting mark CR), was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeast U.S. between 1976 and 1999. Conrail is a portmanteau of "consolidated" and "rail" from the name of the company.

The U.S. federal government created Conrail to take over the potentially profitable lines of multiple bankrupt carriers, including the Penn Central Transportation Company and Erie Lackawanna Railway. With the benefit of industry-wide regulatory requirements being reduced (via the 4R Act and the Staggers Act), Conrail began to turn a profit in the 1980s and was turned over to private investors in 1987. The two remaining Class I railroads in the East, CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), agreed in 1997 to split the system approximately equally, returning rail freight competition to the Northeast by essentially undoing the 1968 merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central Railroad that created Penn Central. Following Surface Transportation Board approval, CSX and NS took control in August 1998, and on June 1, 1999, began operating their portions of Conrail.

Brand/Importer Information: Eastern Seaboard Models was founded in 1987. They are a manufacturer of N scale reproductions of North American eastern railroad prototypes. The have both decorated other manufacturers' models as well as designed body styles of their own. They are located at PO Box 301, Waldwick, New Jersey 07463-0301 U.S.A.

Their 2016 lineup includes ready-to-run gondolas, well cars, hoppers, tank cars and boxcars. They also produce craftsman quality kits in their "Made in America" series. ESM products may be purchased directly from their website.