Red Caboose - RN-17686-1 - Gondola, Steel Coil, Evans 48 Foot - Chicago & North Western - 3-Pack

Model Information: These models are both wonderful and awful at the same time. They have wonderful detail and printing, but the "RTR" versions are not.

They model an Evans 100-Ton Type-4 Steel Coil gondola car, and they do a pretty nice job. They show better underframe detailing than most Red Caboose models and the flexibility to run them with or without covers is nice, as long as you get the kit form.

Unfortunately if you get the Ready-To-Run (RTR) version, you don't get coils. And they are not truly Ready-to-Run because since they come with the covers glued to the Gondola, you are required to glue on the roof details or they will look wrong. Furthermore the roof details come on tiny sprues that need to be carefully cut apart. Then the attachment points where the details come away from the sprues need to be shaved. Then trying to glue these parts onto the coil covers is a feat worthy of neurosurgeon level dexterity or glue will get all over the covers.

Get the kit version if you can. You get the coils. You have to do the hardest part of the assembly job either way, and if you run them with the coils exposed, then you do not need to bother gluing the ding-dang roof details on the covers anyway.

Prototype History: The increased volume of coiled steel transportation gave rise to a new purpose-built freight car. Previously rolls of coiled-steel had generally traveled in specially equipped gondola cars. In the 1960s a lighter type of car emerged specifically for hauling coils of steel in an integral trough. The car type gained popularity and eventually over 17,000 cars were built. One common model was the 48 foot design from Evans.

The new commodity-specific coil-steel car were built with a 100-ton capacity using a trough frame and body. The early designs were refined during the 1960s and eventually Evans adopted a 48-foot length as standard. Production lasted well into the 1970s.

Road Name History: The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company (reporting mark CNW) was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the North Western. The railroad operated more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of track as of the turn of the 20th century, and over 12,000 miles (19,000 km) of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s.

Until 1972, when the company was sold to its employees, it was named the Chicago and North Western Railway. The C&NW became one of the longest railroads in the United States as a result of mergers with other railroads, such as the Chicago Great Western Railway, Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway and others.

By 1995, track sales and abandonment had reduced the total mileage back to about 5,000. The majority of the abandoned and sold lines were lightly trafficked branches in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Large line sales, such as those that resulted in the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad further helped reduce the railroad to a mainline core with several regional feeders and branches.

The company was purchased by Union Pacific Railroad (UP) in April 1995 and ceased to exist.

Brand/Importer Information: Originally Red Caboose was a manufacturer of HO and N Scale model railroading items. It was located in Mead, Colorado, and was founded in 1990 by Leon Fairbanks. Red Caboose manufactured highly accurate, well detailed N, HO, and O Scale freight cars and locomotives.

Red Caboose closed its doors in January of 2015. Red Caboose N Scale has been sold to Fox Valley Models and HO was sold to InterMountain Railway. Many of the Red Caboose toolings have seen re-releases from Fox Valley since the acquisition. We just wish they would clean up the underframes. Red Caboose always went light on the details where they thought people wouldn't look.

Manufacturer Information: While they were in business, Red Caboose split its production runs between the US and China. Which models were produced where was a function of which body style and which run. Furthermore, which Chinese company was used for production is something we would love to find out.