The Freight Yard - 2403F - Tank Car, Single Dome, 50 Foot - Valvoline - 13017

Specific Item Information: MDC Roundhouse model decorated by The Freight Yard.
This road number was produced as special issue in small quantities, according to the former The Freight Yard website.
We are unsure about the letter on the stock number.

Model Information: This is a fairly nice quality tank car from MDC Roundhouse. It likely first appeared in the late 1980s. It appears to model a general service tank car and the road names and paint schemes seem to suggest this is what MDC had in mind. The Roundhouse models were available in both kit and RTR packaging. It doesn't have a ton of detail. Most versions were released with Rapido Couplers so it therefore qualifies as a late 1st generation model. Nevertheless, once the couplers are swapped out, it will look just fine on even the most modern of layouts due to the high print quality and molding on this model. Like all other N Scale toolings made by MDC Roundhouse, this one was acquired by Athearn in 2006. Eastern Seaboard Models has also sold these in custom paint schemes.

Prototype History: Larger, 50' Tank cars replaced their smaller predecessors in the late 1960s and 1970s. The Richmond Tank Car Company was one of several manufacturers to produce these general purpose railcars. They generally had about 20,000 gallon capacity and were used to transport many different commodities.

Road Name History: Valvoline Inc. is an American manufacturer and distributor of Valvoline-brand automotive oil, additives, and lubricants. It also owns the Valvoline Instant Oil Change and Valvoline Express Care chains of car repair centers.
Dr. John Ellis, the inventor of a petroleum lubricant for steam engines, founded Valvoline on September 6, 1866, in Binghamton, New York, as the "Continuous Oil Refining Company". In 1868, Ellis renamed his Binghamton Cylinder Oil to the more memorable Valvoline.
In 1949, Ashland Inc. purchased the Freedom-Valvoline Company. Valvoline completed an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on September 22, 2016, ahead of Ashland spinning off Valvoline as an independent company on May 5, 2017. On August 1, 2022, Saudi Aramco announced the acquisition of Valvoline's lubricant unit.

Brand/Importer Information: The Freight Yard was a hobby shop that did custom decoration and special runs of other manufacturers' N Scale products. It sold its custom products under several brands or collections: Premiere Editions, by The Freight Yard and Dreams Design.
It was located in Anaheim, California and then moved to 2006 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Established in the late 1980s, it stopped business under this name by the end of the 2000s.
The Freight Yard was owned and operated by Darren J. Cohen. Darren is now operating North Valley Trains.
The Freight Yard / Premiere Editions runs are usually available in series of two to twelve different numbers (suffixed A to M, with I not used).
The first two digits of the stock number correspond to the release year (9x being 199x, and 2x being 200x).