Aztec - MB2047-28 - Boxcar, 50 Foot, Evans 5277 - Fish Brewing Company - 98501

Series Information: Aztec’s Micro Brew Cars. This very popular series of N scale billboard style freight cars features the colorful logos of authentic micro breweries from across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
A total of 43 cars have been released between 1996 and 2006, using body styles from various manufacturers: 2 Boxcars from Atlas, 1 Boxcar from Life-Like, 1 Boxcar from MDC Roundhouse and 1 Covered Hopper from Atlas.
These cars are obviously fictitious; however their road letters correspond to the initials of the brewery followed by X, denoting a non-railroad owner, and the road number is the ZIP code of the brewery for U.S. ones.

Model Information: Life-Like worked with Sanda Kan to develop this tooling as part of Life-Like's push to move all production of rolling stock to China in the 1990s. As was common at the time, the ownership of the tooling was controlled by Sanda Kan which took advantage of this to manufacture this model for Industrial Rail as well as Life-Like. It has also been sold/decorated by Con-Cor, Bev-Bel and Eastern Seaboard Models, though I do not know if any of these other companies purchased the undecorated models from Life-Like or Sanda Kan directly.

Unlike many of the other Chinese models of this period, this one does not seem to be a direct copy of any of the earlier European made N Scale models. This series of boxcars models the modern, no-roofwalk 50' Evans high-cube prototype. It has been claimed that the model specifically targets the Penn Central X72 version of the Evans car.

Prototype History: With the Per Diem rules implemented by the US government to encourage railroads to purchase more boxcars, boxcar manufacturing roared into gear in the 1970s. Every major manufacturer cranked out 50 foot boxcars to satisfy the demand. Evans was no exception. Empowered by its acquisition of United States Railway Equipment (USRE), Evans-USRE boxcars became ubiquitous during the IPD boxcar boom of the 1970s. With modern upgrades such as box-corrugated, non-terminating ends, Stanray X-panel overhanging roof, and riveted car sides near the end posts, the Evans-USRE 5277 is a classic boxcar of the IPD era.

The former Evans railcar repair facility in Springfield OR is now owned/operated by Gunderson.

Road Name History: Fish Brewing Company is a brewery in Olympia, Washington, USA. Its products are distributed under the brands Fish Tale Ales, Leavenworth Beers and Spire Mountain Cider in the Pacific Northwest states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Brand/Importer Information: Aztec Manufacturing is an aftermarket decorator originally based in San Mateo, CA, now in Carson City, NV.
Historically, Aztec was known for their excellent quality aftermarket decorations of other manufacturers' rolling stock. Aztec repainted models by many different manufacturers including Life-Like, Atlas and others.
In the recent years, Aztec's focus is on track cleaning cars DCC-Ready frames for locomotives and high quality pad-printed freight cars.
Following retirement of its owner, Aztec closed its business in 2018.