Micro-Trains - 552 00 000 - Passenger Car, Lightweight, Pullman, Coach, 52-Seat - Undecorated

Prototype History: With their large windows and comfortable reclining seats, these coaches allowed passengers on shorter distance trips to recline and watch the countryside roll past. The 52 seat car was used for the commuter and shorter distance intercity travelers, say for instance from Reno to Sacramento. The P-S 52 seat car is a Plan 7600 car built for Lot 6856 for the C&O. Some were sold to SAL & C&NW (then to SP & CB&Q). The NKP coaches, also designed by the AMC were Plan 7600-A - they, like the 10-6s that were built at the same time, had an extra row of corrugations and their electrical systems were different (as were the lighting systems).

Road Name History: Although they may be molded in color, unpainted and unlettered, undecorated products are marketed to modelers who seek to custom decorate their models for private roads and/or road and/or company names that were not commercially produced by any of the major manufacturers.

Undecorated models are frequently also unassembled or only partially assembled and required modelers to be comfortable with glue, paint and sometimes solder in order to prepare their models for display. Materials for these models can vary but often include plastic, pewter and resin. Models may or may not come with decals or other decorations such as plastic signage, railings and ladders to enhance the appearance of the final product.

Brand/Importer Information: Micro-Trains Line split off from Kadee Quality Products in 1990. Kadee Quality Products originally got involved in N-Scale by producing a scaled-down version of their successful HO Magne-Matic knuckle coupler system. This coupler was superior to the ubiquitous 'Rapido' style coupler due to two primary factors: superior realistic appearance and the ability to automatically uncouple when stopped over a magnet embedded in a section of track. The success of these couplers in N-Scale quickly translated to the production of trucks, wheels and in 1972 a release of ready-to-run box cars.

Micro-Trains Line Co. split off from Kadee in 1990 to form a completely independent company. For this reason, products from this company can appear with labels from both enterprises. Due to the nature of production idiosyncrasies and various random factors, the rolling stock from Micro-Trains can have all sorts of interesting variations in both their packaging as well as the products themselves. When acquiring an MTL product it is very important to understand these important production variations that can greatly enhance (or decrease) the value of your purchase.