Athearn - 3873 - Boxcar, 50 Foot, NACC Insulated - Grand Union Food Markets - 7007

Model Information: MODEL FEATURES:
- Three road numbers
- Etched metal stirrup steps
- Fully-assembled and ready-to-run out of the box
- Accurately painted and printed
- Highly detailed, injection molded body
- Detailed, molded underframe
- Weighted for trouble free operation
- N-scale 70 ton trucks with machined 33" metal wheels operate on all popular brands of track
- Body mounted McHenry operating scale knuckle couplers
- Clear plastic jewel box for convenient storage
- Minimum radius: 9"

Prototype History: The 50’ NACC boxcar was designed and built by the North American Car Corporation (NACC) in the early 1960s. The car was an insulated boxcar equipped with a plug-door. Insulated cars are used to carry various commodities that are temperature sensitive. The plug door offers better sealing of the car to maintain temperature and better protection from weather, theft, and other possible damages.

North American Car built the 50600-50624 series in 1965, and the 50625-50674 in May, 1966 for lease to the Rio Grande. These exterior post cars were assembled by North American using Stanray roofs and ends, Keystone cushioned underframes, 10 foot Superior plug doors, and either Euipco or Evans load divider bulkheads and side fillers. The 50600-50624 had Morton perforated running boards but the 50625-50674 were built without roof walks and full-height side ladders which were to be banned beginning January 1, 1967. Both series used Wabcopac truck mounted brake cylinders and the livery was modified to delete the silver paint below the black stripe. The 50638 was assigned for loading on the New York Central (which was shown in the picture) These cars were returned to North American by 1972 and were replaced by more modern reefers with the same numbers.

Road Name History: Grand Union Supermarkets, later known as Grand Union Family Markets and often referred to simply as Grand Union, was the name of a chain of grocery stores that did business primarily in the northeastern United States but also operated stores in other areas of the country including the midwestern and southeastern states, as well as internationally in the Caribbean and Canada. The company was originally founded and headquartered in Scranton, Pennsylvania, eventually moving to Brooklyn, New York in the early 20th century. Grand Union moved again to Elmwood Park, New Jersey and finally to Wayne, New Jersey before the original company was forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2001 and sold to C&S Wholesale Grocers.

After C&S bought Grand Union it down-scaled most of its operations and exited its primary marketplace, choosing to keep only a number of stores in upstate New York and New England open. The chain was sold to Tops Friendly Markets in 2012, and in 2013 Tops rebranded the remaining stores with their logo and the Grand Union name ceased to exist.

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.