Atlas - 6241-2 - Tank Car, Single Dome, Trinity 17,600 Gallon Corn Syrup - Cargill - 6656

Body Style Information: The 17,600 Gallon Corn Syrup Tank Car was built in large numbers by Trinity Industries between 1984 and 1998. They are commonly used in the transport of corn syrup, liquid sugar and molasses from processing facilities to bulk distribution centers. Over 7,000 cars were built and most remain in active service today.

Features: Three separate styles of manway / platform / ladder arrangements (used as appropriate per road name) Fine scale railings Separately applied brake rigging Separately applied manway “clamshell”-style cover (used when appropriate per road name) 100-Ton Roller Bearing Trucks Accurate painting and printing Full stand-alone brake system details Bottom outlet valve detail Stand-alone heater coil pipes Highly detailed body with prototypical jacket seams See-through top platform grating AccuMate® couplers

Prototype Information: The 17,600 Gallon Corn Syrup Tank Car was built in large numbers by Trinity Industries between 1984 and 1998. They are commonly used in the transport of corn syrup, liquid sugar and molasses from processing facilities to bulk distribution centers. Over 7,000 cars were built and most remain in active service today.

The cars followed a common bent-barrel tank design that helps the product drain and unload easier. These cars are jacketed and insulated, and have exterior coil pipes to heat the commodity to promote faster unloading. Midland food-grade butterfly unload valves and Midland exterior spring safety valves were common appliances used on these cars. The biggest variation in the car production was in the manway / top platform arrangement. Several arrangements were specified by large shippers; for example ADM, Cargill, Corn Products, GATX, MCP, and Staley to name a few.

These tank cars are commonly used to transport varying grades of Corn Syrup, Liquid Sugar, and Molasses from processing facilities to bulk distribution centers and other end-users throughout the US and Canada. They are a very common sight on today's railroads, and they have been for two decades. This initial release features three of the most common manway/top platform arrangements as specified by ADM, Cargill, and Corn Products (among others).

Road/Company Information: Cargill, Inc. is an American privately held global corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, a Minneapolis suburb. Founded in 1865, it is now the largest privately held corporation in the United States in terms of revenue. If it were a public company, it would rank, as of 2015, number 12 on the Fortune 500, behind McKesson and ahead of AT&T.

Some of Cargill's major businesses are trading, purchasing and distributing grain and other agricultural commodities, such as palm oil; trading in energy, steel and transport; the raising of livestock and production of feed; producing food ingredients such as starch and glucose syrup, vegetable oils and fats for application in processed foods and industrial use. Cargill also operates a large financial services arm, which manages financial risks in the commodity markets for the company. In 2003, it split off a portion of its financial operations into a hedge fund called Black River Asset Management, with about $10 billion of assets and liabilities. It owned 2/3 of the shares of The Mosaic Company (sold off in 2011), one of the world's leading producers and marketers of concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients.

Cargill declared revenues of $136.7 billion and earnings of $2.31 billion in the 2013 fiscal year. Employing over 140,000 employees in 66 countries, it is responsible for 25% of all United States grain exports. The company also supplies about 22% of the US domestic meat market, importing more product from Argentina than any other company and is the largest poultry producer in Thailand. All of the eggs used in McDonald's restaurants in the US pass through Cargill's plants. It is the only producer of Alberger process salt in the US, which is used in the fast-food and prepared food industries.

Cargill remains a family-owned business, as the descendants of the founder (from the Cargill and MacMillan families) own over 90% of the company.[8] As a result, most of its growth has been due to reinvestment of the company's own earnings rather than public financing. Gregory R. Page, who is not part of either the Cargill or MacMillan families, is the executive chairman of Cargill. He succeeded former CEO Warren Staley in mid-2007, as Staley reached Cargill's mandatory retirement age of 65, before he in turn was succeeded by Dave MacLennan.

From Wikipedia

Brand/Importer Information: In 1924 Stephan Schaffan, Sr. founded the Atlas Tool Company in Newark, New Jersey. In 1933 his son, Stephan Schaffan, Jr., came to work for his father at the age of sixteen. Steve Jr. built model airplanes as a hobby and frequented a local hobby shop. Being an enterprising young man, he would often ask the owner if there was anything he could do to earn some extra spending money. Tired of listening to his requests, the hobby-store owner threw some model railroad track parts his way and said, "Here, see if you can improve on this".

Atlas has made a ton of wonderful products throughout the years and we often get questions one whether we have run a certain road name on a particular model. It should be noted that Atlas locomotives and rolling stock are greatly appreciated for their superior operating and running characteristics. Atlas products are also well known for their outstanding collectability not only due to their superior prototypical workmanship, details and decoration, but because there are relatively so few of them made. Each and every production run has been carefully built to market demand, meaning almost every piece in any given run is sold out by Atlas on arrival or shortly thereafter, thus creating a built in collectors market.