Full Throttle - FT-3404-1 - Open Hopper, 2-Bay, Offset, Woodchip - Union Pacific - 2-Pack

Specific Item Information: Road Numbers: UP 70223 & 70226

Model Information: Once considered trash, woodchips morphed into a valuable commodity during the 20th Century. Their use as pulp in paper production, bedding and fill in farm and ranch, mulches for gardening, playground surfacing, forest fire prevention, and not least as an alternate fuel source, propelled them into being a profitable industry. And of course, railroads would be responsible for transporting this modern bounty. What vehicles better than hopper cars to transport it? The lighter weight to volume of woodchips compared to coal or gravel allowed for larger capacity cars, and to achieve this, all manner of hopper extensions were conceived. From wood planking and braced plywood to welded steel and even scrap parts from old or wrecked cars were utilized to increase capacities.

Road Name History: The Union Pacific Railroad (reporting mark UP) is a freight hauling railroad that operates 8,500 locomotives over 32,100 route-miles in 23 states west of Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Union Pacific Railroad network is the largest in the United States and employs 42,600 people. It is also one of the world's largest transportation companies.

Union Pacific Railroad is the principal operating company of Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP); both are headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Over the years Union Pacific Corporation has grown by acquiring other railroads, notably the Missouri Pacific, Chicago & North Western, Western Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, and the Southern Pacific (including the Denver & Rio Grande Western).

Union Pacific Corporation's main competitor is the BNSF Railway, the nation's second largest freight railroad, which also primarily services the Continental U.S. west of the Mississippi River. Together, the two railroads have a duopoly on all transcontinental freight rail lines in the U.S.

Read more on Wikipedia and on Union Pacific official website.

Brand/Importer Information: Greetings, I'm Will, a Fine Arts graduate of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania who grew up in the Delaware Valley. I worked for 30 years with the Pennsylvania German Folklife Society. For ten years I had a permanent booth, each month showing my "PA Dutch" wares, at the country's largest under-roof Antique Market in Atlanta, GA. When Mom and Dad started to have health issues, I was forced to give up the nomadic life, but during my travels I came to love Z Scale Model Railroading, as I could easily take small layouts with me to the motels and play with my trains in the evenings!
Now that Mom and Dad are gone, and after many years of providing care for my "Pappy" in Florida, I find myself a homebody in the "Sunshine State" with a neat little business, supplying interested Z hobbyists with rolling stock and unique quality products!