MRC - 7040 - Boxcar, 50 Foot, Steel, Plug Door - Baltimore & Ohio

Model Information: This body style was designed by Kato for MRC. However, since MRC used elements of previously designed Con-Cor owned toolings, Con-Cor was able to claim that they owned this derived model as well. The rights to the tooling were transferred to Con-Cor and MRC turned to Lima for a replacement tooling for this one. After acquiring the rights to the tooling, Con-Cor had Kato produce the first runs of this car with Con-Cor branding. Perhaps this was out of convenience or perhaps it was part of a legal settlement. Later on, Con-Cor brought the tooling back to the United States for continued production. Likely the tooling was later moved to China in the 1990s, but as of this writing, I am unsure if Con-Cor has produced any Chinese-made runs of this model.

Prototype History: The 50-foot boxcar made its first appearance in the 1930s and steadily grew in popularity over the years, which further improved redundancies by allowing for even more space within a given car. Today, the 50-footer remains the common boxcar size. After the second world war ended, and steel became once again readily available, steel became the go-to choice for construction of boxcars. Pullman Standard and ACF were some of the most prolific builders of these cars.

In the 1960s, the flush, "plug" style sliding door was introduced as an option that provides a larger door to ease loading and unloading of certain commodities. The tight-fitting doors are better insulated and allow a car's interior to be maintained at a more even temperature.

Road Name History: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (reporting marks B&O, BO) is one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal (which served New York City) and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which would have connected Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. At first this railroad was located entirely in the state of Maryland with an original line from the port of Baltimore west to Sandy Hook. At this point to continue westward, it had to cross into Virginia (now West Virginia) over the Potomac River, adjacent to the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. From there it passed through Virginia from Harpers Ferry to a point just west of the junction of Patterson Creek and the North Branch Potomac River where it crossed back into Maryland to reach Cumberland. From there it was extended to the Ohio River at Wheeling and a few years later also to Parkersburg, West Virginia.

It is now part of the CSX Transportation (CSX) network, and includes the oldest operational railroad bridge in the USA. The B&O also included the Leiper Railroad, the first permanent horse-drawn railroad in the U.S. In later years, B&O advertising carried the motto: "Linking 13 Great States with the Nation." Part of the B&O Railroad's immortality has come from being one of the four featured railroads on the U.S. version of the board game Monopoly, but it is the only railroad on the board which did not serve Atlantic City, New Jersey, directly.

When CSX established the B&O Railroad Museum as a separate entity from the corporation, some of the former B&O Mount Clare Shops in Baltimore, including the Mt. Clare roundhouse, were donated to the museum while the rest of the property was sold. The B&O Warehouse at the Camden Yards rail junction in Baltimore now dominates the view over the right-field wall at the Baltimore Orioles' current home, Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

At the end of 1970 B&O operated 5552 miles of road and 10449 miles of track, not including the Staten Island Rapid Transit (SIRT) or the Reading and its subsidiaries.

Read more on Wikipedia.

Brand/Importer Information: In the hobby industry, few companies have built as bold and dynamic a reputation for quality products and technical achievement as Model Rectifier Corporation (MRC). More than a half century ago, MRC began its march toward hobby product leadership by designing model railroad train controls with a level of realism and power previously unavailable. Today, MRC's technology-rich Tech 6 and Prodigy DCC lead a long list of MRC engineered train controls and sound systems respected and enjoyed by millions of model railroad hobbyist around the world.

Success with model railroads led us to carry our passion for hobby quality and technology into the development of other outstanding brands and categories. Today, MRC is the exclusive distributor for some of the world's most respected hobby products as well as the creators and manufacturers of prominent proprietary lines. While our brands and products are diverse, they all share a common bond. Each product we sell meets stringent quality standards and exceeds the highest customer expectation levels. Extraordinary in its depth and breadth, MRC product lines include some of the world's most recognized hobby brands and category leaders.