Red Caboose - RN-17405-06 - Boxcar, 55 Foot, Thrall All-Door - Ashley Drew & Northern - 4733

Prototype History: Lumber has always been difficult to ship by rail. Box cars provide protection but are hard to load and unload. Flat cars eliminate those problems, but loads have to be tarped to protect them from the weather.

In 1967, Thrall took the best of both ideas and created a unique car that would solve these problems. The All-Door Box Car had no true sidewalls, but was equipped with four large doors which could be opened in pairs. This provided a 25' wide opening that made loading and unloading a breeze! And since it was a box car, the loads were completely enclosed for the entire trip. As the housing boom began in the 1970s, the cars became a common sight at lumber mills and yards across America.

Thrall Door boxcars arrived in Detroit in the early 70s. They were used to carry hardboard products to Ford plants in the Detroit area.

Road Name History: This 41 mile Arkansas shortline is familiar to most because of their numerous green and white boxcars. The line was finished in 1913 between Monticello and Crossett, Arkansas, specifically to serve the timber business. In 1963, Georgia Pacific (the forest products company) bought the AD&N and neighboring Fordyce & Princeton railroads. By 1990, the AD&N diesel fleet included 8 units (one switcher and 7 hood units.) Three of these were the relatively rare EMD GP28 model. In 1996, Georgia Pacific's purchase of another area shortline, the Arkansas & Louisiana Missouri, followed by a sudden shift in source material for their on line mill, diverted most of the traffic off the AD&N and onto other area lines. The Ashley Drew & Northern was abandoned that year after 83 years of service.

Brand/Importer Information: Originally Red Caboose was a manufacturer of HO and N Scale model railroading items. It was located in Mead, Colorado, and was founded in 1990 by Leon Fairbanks. Red Caboose manufactured highly accurate, well detailed N, HO, and O Scale freight cars and locomotives.

Red Caboose closed its doors in January of 2015. Red Caboose N Scale has been sold to Fox Valley Models and HO was sold to InterMountain Railway. Many of the Red Caboose toolings have seen re-releases from Fox Valley since the acquisition. We just wish they would clean up the underframes. Red Caboose always went light on the details where they thought people wouldn't look.

Manufacturer Information: While they were in business, Red Caboose split its production runs between the US and China. Which models were produced where was a function of which body style and which run. Furthermore, which Chinese company was used for production is something we would love to find out.