Athearn - 17300 - Container, 48 Foot - ITEL - 3-Pack

Prototype History: An intermodal container is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship to rail to truck – without unloading and reloading their cargo. Intermodal containers are primarily used to store and transport materials and products efficiently and securely in the global containerized intermodal freight transport system, but smaller numbers are in regional use as well. These containers are known under a number of names, such as simply container, cargo or freight container, ISO container, shipping, sea or ocean container, container van or (Conex) box, sea or c can.

The 48-foot (14.63 m) shipping container is a High Cube container in that it is 9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) tall on the exterior. It is 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) wide which makes it 6 inches (15 cm) wider than ISO-standard containers. This size was introduced by container shipping company APL in 1986, and is used domestically in North America on road and rail, and may be transported on deck by ship. This size being 8 feet (2.44 m) longer and 6 inches (15 cm) wider has 29% more volume capacity than the standard 40-ft High Cube, yet the cost to move it by truck or rail are almost the same.

From Wikipedia

Road Name History: Itel Corporation is a diversified transportation and logistics company. Its principal business operations are divided between the following subsidiaries: Anixter Distribution and ANTEC are leading U.S. suppliers of wiring system products for voice, data, and video communications as well as for the transmission of electrical power; Itel Container is the world's largest intermodal container lessor; and Itel Rail Corp. is a leading lessor and manager of railcars in the United States and a manager of several shortline railroads and rail car maintenance facilities. Anticipating growth potential in data networking and cable industry, Itel shifted primary emphasis to its Anixter and ANTEC units in the early 1990s. The company also made minority investments in other enterprises ranging from energy to real estate.

Itel was founded in 1967 by San Francisco businessmen Peter Redfield and Gary Friedman, primarily as a leasing company for computer systems. With $72,000 of their own capital, the partners raised $10 million in equity from Fireman's Fund Insurance Company. They hired a staff of aggressive young businesspersons to develop innovative, intricate, and often risky financial mechanisms. Itel set industry records by achieving $1 billion in revenues in its first 12 years.

Brand/Importer Information: Athearn's history began in 1938, when its founder-to-be, Irvin Athearn, started an elaborate O scale layout in his mother's house. After placing an ad selling the layout, and receiving much response to it, Irv decided that selling model railroads would be a good living. He sold train products out of his mother's house through most of the 1940s. After becoming a full-time retailer in 1946, Irv opened a separate facility in Hawthorne, California in 1948, and that same year he branched into HO scale models for the first time.

Athearn acquired the Globe Models product line and improved upon it, introducing a comprehensive array of locomotive, passenger and freight car models. Improvements included all-wheel drive and electrical contact. One innovation was the "Hi-Fi" drive mechanism, employing small rubber bands to transfer motion from the motor spindle to the axles. Another was the double-ended ring magnet motor, which permitted easy connection to all-wheel-drive assemblies. Athearn was also able to incorporate flywheels into double-ended drives.

The company produced a model of the Boston & Maine P4 class Pacific steam locomotive which incorporated a cast zinc alloy base and thermoplastic resin superstructure. It had a worm drive and all power pickup was through the bipolar trucks that carried the tender. This item was discontinued after the Wilson motor was no longer available, and was not redesigned for a more technologically advanced motor.

Athearn's car fleet included shorter-than-scale interpretations of passenger cars of Southern Pacific and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad prototypes. The company also offered a variety of scale-length freight cars with sprung and equalized trucks. The cars could be obtained in simple kit form, or ready-to-run in windowed display boxes. The comprehensive scope of the product line contributed to the popularity of HO as a model railroad scale, due to the ready availability of items and their low cost.

Irv Athearn died in 1991. New owners took control in 1994, but continued to follow Athearn's commitment to high-quality products at reasonable prices. Athearn was bought in 2004 by Horizon Hobby. Athearn was then moved from its facility in Compton to a new facility in Carson, California. In mid-2009, all remaining US production was moved to China and warehousing moved to parent Horizon Hobby. Sales and product development was relocated to a smaller facility in Long Beach, California.

Read more on Wikipedia and Athearn website.