JC Timmer - 3226 - Boxcar, 40 Foot, Steel Combo Door - Canadian Pacific - 35444

Specific Item Information: The Road Number "80006" appears on both this model and the 50 foot double door boxcar produced by Minitrix at the same time.

Model Information: These cars were made by Roco under contract for AHM. Later the body style was produced for Con-Cor and JC Timmer. It features a distinctive combo door configuration along with standard 1st gen rolling stock features such as Rapido Couplers and nickel-silver plated wheelsets with deep flanges.

Prototype History: The plug-and-sliding-door or combo-door boxcar is a versatile car that can act as either a double door boxcar or a plug door boxcar. If you were loading 8' studs in the car, you would load the car just like any other double door boxcar. But if you are loading paper, you would seal the far doors with duct tape, load the car and close the slider. Seal the slider with duct tape, and then shut the plug door to seal the car.

The main reason all the large box cars today have mostly plug doors, is that large sliding doors just get too hard to move. Trying to open regular 8' sliding doors, unless the cars were fairly new, is quite challenging. After a sliding-door car was several years old, you'd see where the sliding door was getting all banged up from people using forklift blades to open and close the doors. Plug doors, however, run on wide runners and rollers, and are therefore easier to move. Also, since the doors are out away from the car side, there is no problem when a car side becomes bulged out due to wear and tear.

Road Name History: The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), formerly also known as CP Rail (reporting mark CP) between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railroad incorporated in 1881. The railroad is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (TSX: CP, NYSE: CP), which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.

Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, it owns approximately 23,000 kilometres (14,000 mi) of track all across Canada and into the United States, stretching from Montreal to Vancouver, and as far north as Edmonton. Its rail network also serves major cities in the United States, such as Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, and New York City.

The railway was originally built between Eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1881 and 1885 (connecting with Ottawa Valley and Georgian Bay area lines built earlier), fulfilling a promise extended to British Columbia when it entered Confederation in 1871. It was Canada's first transcontinental railway, but currently does not reach the Atlantic coast. Primarily a freight railway, the CPR was for decades the only practical means of long-distance passenger transport in most regions of Canada, and was instrumental in the settlement and development of Western Canada. The CP became one of the largest and most powerful companies in Canada, a position it held as late as 1975. Its primary passenger services were eliminated in 1986, after being assumed by Via Rail Canada in 1978. A beaver was chosen as the railway's logo because it is the national symbol of Canada and was seen as representing the hardworking character of the company.

The company acquired two American lines in 2009: the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad and the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad. The trackage of the ICE was at one time part of CP subsidiary Soo Line and predecessor line The Milwaukee Road. The combined DME/ICE system spanned North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa, as well as two short stretches into two other states, which included a line to Kansas City, Missouri, and a line to Chicago, Illinois, and regulatory approval to build a line into the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. It is publicly traded on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CP. Its U.S. headquarters are in Minneapolis.

After close of markets on November 17, 2015, CP announced an offer to purchase all outstanding shares of Norfolk Southern Railway, at a price in excess of the US$26 billion capitalization of the United States-based railway. If completed, this merger of the second and fourth oldest Class I railroads in North America would have formed the largest single railway company on that continent, reaching from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast to the Gulf Coast. The merger effort was abandoned by Canadian Pacific on April 11, 2016, after three offers were rejected by the Norfolk Southern board.

Read more on Wikipedia and on Canadian Pacific official website.

Brand/Importer Information: In 1978, JC Timmer, LTD of Canada contracted with Minitrix of Germany and Roco of Austria to build some Canadian Pacific cars especially for them. 7 cars were made: a Double Door Boxcar in silver, a Double Door Boxcar in red, a Quad Hopper in black, a Quad Hopper in red, a Tank Car in black, a Tank Car in red and a caboose in yellow. JC Timmer was based in Vancouver Canada. Although the contract was made with Trix of Germany, the actual cars were manufactured (as was much of the Minitrix line) in Austria by Roco.

Manufacturer Information: The company was founded in 1960 by Ing. Heinz Rössler and started with a plastic Minitanks series of military vehicles. After export to the USA became successful, the model line was expanded with model trains in HO scale and the smaller N scale. TT scale was also subsequently added to the product line. The model rail product line covers many European countries including Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands, and also the USA.

On July 15, 2005 ROCO Modellspielwaren GmbH was declared bankrupt. From July 25 the company continues as Modelleisenbahn GmbH, but still uses the Roco brand and associated logo. On October 1, 2007, distribution of the 'Minitank' product series was assigned to the German model car manufacturer Herpa.

Since February 2008 Modelleisenbahn also owns Fleischmann, which like Roco had gone bankrupt. The two companies continue as separate brands under Modelleisenbahn GmbH, while benefiting from economies of scale through joined development projects, marketing and procurement.

From Wikipedia