Deluxe Innovations - 210801 - Container Car, Articulated Well, Gunderson Maxi-Stack III - Santa Fe - 254255

Specific Item Information: The Maxi-Stack® III car is the mainstay of the United States domestic double-stack fleet. It provides a good balance between weight and capacity. It is a multi-unit articulated double-stack car that can handle containers from 20’ to 53’ long in the well and containers from 40’ to 57’ long in the top position.

Model Information: This product from Deluxe Innovations features 5-unit articulated double-stack well cars for container transportation.

Prototype History: Like its cousins, the Gunderson Maxi-Stack I and Maxi-Stack IV, the Maxi-Stack III is a multi-unit well car designed to carry two stacked intermodal shipping containers. While its base well is 48', it can accept larger containers such as 53' in the top position, making the car a versatile addition to a railroad's intermodal services. The Maxi-Stack III is a five-unit well car, like the Maxi-Stack I (five-unit 40' well car), but unlike the Maxi-Stack IV (three-unit 53' well car), giving each car a greater capacity even though the individual wells are a smaller size than the Maxi-Stack IV.

Road Name History: The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (reporting mark ATSF), often abbreviated as Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. Chartered in February 1859, the railroad reached the Kansas-Colorado border in 1873 and Pueblo, Colorado, in 1876. To create a demand for its services, the railroad set up real estate offices and sold farm land from the land grants that it was awarded by Congress. Despite the name, its main line never served Santa Fe, New Mexico, as the terrain was too difficult; the town ultimately was reached by a branch line from Lamy.

The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport, an enterprise that (at one time or another) included a tugboat fleet and an airline (the short-lived Santa Fe Skyway). Its bus line extended passenger transportation to areas not accessible by rail, and ferryboats on the San Francisco Bay allowed travelers to complete their westward journeys to the Pacific Ocean. The ATSF was the subject of a popular song, Harry Warren & Johnny Mercer's "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", written for the film, The Harvey Girls (1946).

The railroad officially ceased operations on December 31, 1996, when it merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad to form the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway.

Read more on Wikipedia.

Brand/Importer Information: DeLuxe Innovations is a "wholesale manufacturer" of model trains. We manufacture scale replica train models and sell them to hobby shops and distributors worldwide. 2013 marked the 20 year anniversary of DeLuxe Innovations brand trains. There are over 25 body styles in our product line and all of the cars in our single and multi-car packs have different road numbers. DeLuxe Innovations, Inc. is owned by Dave Ferrari, founder of Squeak N Products. We are located in Midland Park, New Jersey. When Dave purchased the business it was located in Burbank, California which would have been a bit of a long commute so the move to the East Coast was planned. Our first East Coast location was in Whippany, NJ along the Whippany River.

The business was started in 1993 by George Johnsen and Roberta Liebreich in Burbank, California. They had a philosophy that just wouldn't allow using a coal car as a "stand in" for a woodchip car, or printing any and all boxcar paint schemes on a PS-1. Starting with the release of the first ever etched metal parts for a ready to run car (1994's Twinstack's metal walkways) through the full dimension underframe and etched metal roofwalk (1996's 1944 AAR Boxcar) to the challenging RoadRailer system (2000), our products have been accurate to target the modeler or enthusiast.

You can also follow DeLuxe on Twitter