Aztec - SC2037-1 - Boxcar, 50 Foot, Steel, Plug Door, FMC - Galveston - 2001

Model Information: Originally designed by MDC Roundhouse. This tooling was acquired by Athearn in June of 2004 and re-released under the Athearn name.

Prototype History: Starting in the 1970s, the 50-foot exterior post boxcar is a ubiquitous piece of rolling stock. The car is a 70-ton Association of American Railroads (AAR) plate B car built by FMC. These cars were in heavy use by the BN and the WP.

The GBW added fifty 50' boxcars (GBW 7000-7049) and an additional three hundred 50' boxcars (GBW 1600-16299) in December 1979 and January 1980. These cars were built by FMC and painted in the familiar bright yellow paint scheme with black lettering and a red-and-white GREEN BAY ROUTE herald.

Road Name History: The GVSR opened in 1987 When Rail Switching Services partnering with Rail Management, leased the lines of the Galveston Wharves Railway from the city of Galveston, Texas. In 2005, the Genesee & Wyoming shortline group bought the 14 shortlines of Rail Management including the GVSR. Today, GVSR has 38 miles of track jammed into an area of just 50 acres. Traffic includes chemicals, food, animal feed and machinery. Early on, GVSR leased their reporting marks to the Greenbrier Companies for use on their Golden West Service fleet of freight cars. This was because there was a difference in the way the movement of an empty car was billed based on if the car belonged to a “private owner” whose reporting marks ended in X, or to a railroad whose reporting marks ended in any other letter (except Z or U which were reserved for highway trailers and containers respectively.)

Brand/Importer Information: Aztec Manufacturing is an aftermarket decorator originally based in San Mateo, CA, now in Carson City, NV.
Historically, Aztec was known for their excellent quality aftermarket decorations of other manufacturers' rolling stock. Aztec repainted models by many different manufacturers including Life-Like, Atlas and others.
In the recent years, Aztec's focus is on track cleaning cars DCC-Ready frames for locomotives and high quality pad-printed freight cars.
Following retirement of its owner, Aztec closed its business in 2018.