Bachmann - 15551 - Tank Car, Early, Wooden - Western & Atlantic - 138

Specific Item Information: From Bachmann's Old Timers line.

Prototype History: The earliest version of tank cars, or the "oil car" as it was known then, began to appear in the early 1860s during the Civil War. Essentially, a standard flatcar was employed with two or three vertical vats placed on top. Unfortunately, the design had several flaws; the most obvious was that it could not hold much product due to height and width issues. Additionally, leaking was again an issue. By the late 1860s, following the war, the first true tank cars began to take shape. In this particular case the early vertical vat-on-flat-car design was changed to a horizontal iron tank, which was then mounted to a traditional flat car. The design was roughly similar to what is now commonly in service today, featuring a top dome (with safety valve) to load the product as well as a discharge valve at the bottom. It allowed for much more product to be shipped via one car and quickly found widespread use.

Road Name History: The Western & Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia (W&A) is a historic, government-owned railroad which operates in the southeastern United States from Atlanta, Georgia to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

It was founded on December 21, 1836. The city of Atlanta was founded as the terminus of the W&A, with the terminus marked with the Atlanta Zero Mile Post. The line is still owned by the State of Georgia from Atlanta to CT Tower in Chattanooga; it is leased by CSX Transportation.

The W&A Subdivision is a railroad line leased by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Tennessee & Georgia. The line runs from Chattanooga, TN to Marietta, GA for a total of 119.1 miles. At its north end it continues south from the Chattanooga Subdivision of the Nashville Division and at its south end it continues south as the Atlanta Terminal Subdivision (Chart A).

This line, originally built to 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge, is famous because of the Andrews Raid (commonly referred to as the Great Locomotive Chase), which took place on the W&A during the American Civil War on the morning of April 12, 1862.

From Wikipedia

Brand/Importer Information: Bachmann Industries (Bachmann Brothers, Inc.) is a Bermuda registered Chinese owned company, globally headquartered in Hong Kong; specializing in model railroading.

Founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the home of its North American headquarters, Bachmann is today part of the Kader group, who model products are made at a Chinese Government joint-venture plant in Dongguan, China. Bachmann's brand is the largest seller, in terms of volume, of model trains in the world. Bachmann primarily specializes in entry level train sets, and premium offerings in many scales. The Spectrum line is the high quality, model railroad product line, offered in N, HO, Large Scale, On30, and Williams O gauge all aimed for the hobbyist market. Bachmann is the producer of the famous railroad village product line known as "Plasticville." The turnover for Bachmann model trains for the year ended 31 December 2006 was approximately $46.87 million, a slight increase of 3.36% as compared to 2005.