ScaleTrains - SXT38655 - Thrall 48' Steel Coil - Norfolk Southern - 169601

Specific Item Information: The all-new Rivet Counter™ N Scale Thrall Manufacturing 48’ Coil Steel Car is the definitive model of this unique freight car. True to the prototype, the car features railroad, road number, and era-specific™ features like detailed hoods; as-delivered or contemporary paint schemes; 4 positionable load dividers; 4 large unwrapped coil steel loads; a finely detailed body with dual trough design and center divider; plus 16 walkway side supports and simulated wood trough interior. Depending on the type of steel you’re hauling, the car can be used without hoods as well.

Model Information: Road Number Specific ScaleTrains

• All-new model
• Era: 1994 to Mid 2010s
• Series 92050 to 92099, built 10-11/94
• Fully-assembled
• Multiple road numbers
• Body with dual trough design and center divider, sixteen walkway side supports and simulated wood trough interior. Designed for the use of two hoods although, depending on the type of steel, the car can be run without hoods as well.
• Body has four wireform side grab irons and four wireform end grabirons
• 2 x Version 1 Hood: No corner reinforcement, long side handrail with grab irons, hood stacking brackets with outer extensions
• Each hood is constructed with up to 16 individual parts including six wireform handrails, four wireform grab irons, two hood stacking brackets, two hood top braces, and lifting bail
• Handbrake housing with finely detailed wheel and chain
• See-through photo-etched metal walkway
• Simulated wood interior floor using a hand applied wash
• Four (4) positionable load dividers
• Four (4) large unwrapped coil steel loads
• Factory-applied end handrails, hood guides, stanchions, load divider tracks, metal grab irons, coupler cut levers, and trainline hoses with silver gladhands
• Complete underbody brake system with over 15 separately applied parts including air reservoir, control valve, and retainer valve plus wireform plumbing and trainline pipe with brackets
• Body-mounted semi-scale standard Type E knuckle couplers – Micro-Trains® compatible
• ASF Ride Control trucks with finely rendered raised foundry data
• 36” machined metal wheels
• Operates on Code 55, 70 and 80 rail
• Printing and lettering legible even under magnification
• Weighted to Industry standards for reliable operation
• Minimum radius: 9 ¾”
• Recommended radius: 11”
• Clear jewel box packaging safely stores model

Prototype History: Strip or sheet steel has long been a major component in the manufacturing of many different products including pipes, tanks, household appliances - both large and small, industrial shelving, machinery, freight cars, and especially automobiles. Cold-rolled or hot-rolled, varying in width from less than an inch to ten feet, and ranging in thickness from 1/64th of an inch to 1/4th of an inch, the steel was originally cut into sheets in customer specified lengths. After World War II, winding the steel strip into a coil almost completely replaced the sheets. The steel coil with 3,000 to 5,000 feet of steel is much easier to handle and transport than a stack of steel sheets. Coils are also far more versatile than a sheet that may be too long for one usage or too short for another.
The biggest challenge for railroads and the automobile industry, the primary user of coiled steel, was how to transport it efficiently. In the 1960s, the Ford Motor Company, working with the Detroit Toledo & Ironton and the Chesapeake & Ohio railroads, came up with the design of the coil steel car. The original design was a heavy-duty frame with two 24-foot troughs covered by hoods made of thin steel. The troughs and movable load dividers prevented the coils from rolling side-to-side or sliding while the hoods protected the coils from the weather. Several freight car builders built coil steel cars, including Thrall Car Manufacturing which built these 48-foot, twin hood cars in the 1980s and 1990s. The first Thrall cars had a 100-ton capacity, but later versions were built to a 125-ton capacity. Wearing the protective hoods on, the car can carry coils up to 7 feet in diameter. They can carry coils up to 10 feet with the hoods removed. The flat-top hoods from the first designs have been replaced with a rounded top design that is both easier to manufacture and is stronger.

Road Name History: The Norfolk Southern Railway (reporting mark NS) is a Class I railroad in the United States; began in 1982 and 1990. With headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, the company operates 36,200 route miles in 22 eastern states, the District of Columbia, and has rights in Canada from Buffalo to Toronto and over the Albany to Montreal route. NS is responsible for maintaining 29,000 miles, with the remainder being operated under trackage rights from other parties responsible for maintenance. The common commodity hauled on the railroad is coal from mines in Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The railroad also offers the most intermodal network in eastern North America.

NS is a major transporter of domestic and export coal. The railroad's major sources of the mineral are located in: Pennsylvania's Cambria and Indiana counties, as well as the Monongahela Valley; West Virginia; and the Appalachia regions of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. In Pennsylvania, NS also receives coal through interchange with R.J. Corman Railroad/Pennsylvania Lines at Cresson, Pennsylvania, originating in the "Clearfield Cluster". NS's export of West Virginia bituminous coal, begins transport on portions of the well-engineered former Virginian Railway and the former N&W double-tracked line in Eastern Virginia to its Lambert's Point coal pier on Hampton Roads at Norfolk. Coal transported by NS is thus exported to steel mills and power plants around the world. The company is also a major transporter of auto parts and completed vehicles. It operates intermodal container and TOFC (trailer on flat car) trains, some in conjunction with other railroads. NS was the first railway to employ roadrailers, which are highway truck trailers with interchangeable wheel sets.

The Norfolk Southern Railway's parent Norfolk Southern Corporation is a Norfolk, Virginia-based parent company. Norfolk Southern Corporation was incorporated on July 23, 1980 in the Commonwealth of Virginia and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbols NSC. The primary business function of Norfolk Southern Corporation is the rail transportation of raw materials, intermediate products, and finished goods across the Southeast, East, and Midwest United States. The corporation further facilitates transport to the remainder of the United States through interchange with other rail carriers while also serving overseas transport needs by serving several Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports. As of October 1, 2014 Norfolk Southern Corporation's total public stock value was slightly over $34.5 billion.

Read more on Wikipedia.

Brand/Importer Information: ScaleTrains.com, Inc. is an upstart HO and N Scale model manufacturer that was founded by a team with more than 125 years of accumulated experience in the model railroad hobby and industry.

ScaleTrains is specifically focused on the tiny details in the printing and quality of the construction. The four friends who founded the company are all avid modelers themselves. Their factory is located in Tennessee. Unlike most other companies, they offer a range of different levels of complexity in their offerings so as to be able to provide products for both the budget-conscious collector as well as the detail-focused model enthusiast without compromising on quality for either.

They range covers the following, by increasing level of detailing:

1. Operator™ trains are built for modelers who enjoy running high-quality, realistic trains at an affordable price. Designed from builder’s drawings and photographs, Operator models have fewer factory-applied parts and simplified printing. For added versatility, super-detail parts are available separately.
2. The Rivet Counter™ line strives to create the most accurately detailed models imaginable. The real-world counterpart is meticulously researched to ensure prototype fidelity. Each model features numerous factory applied parts including roadname and road number specific details whenever possible.
3. Museum Quality™ models are historically accurate replicas of the most famous locomotives in North American railroading history. Exhaustive research and a commitment to perfection combine to create the ultimate scale model. Museum Quality trains establish new standards which make them just as legendary as the original.