Athearn - 3885 - Gondola, 50 Foot, Thrall Hi-Side - Southwestern - 3-Pack

Specific Item Information: Road Numbers: SEPX #103103/103517/103555

Model Information: This is one of the body styles acquired by Athearn from MDC in June of 2004 and re-run under the Athearn Brand. A significant re-release was done by Athearn in 2019.

Prototype History: Thrall was a recognizable freight car manufacturing company in the 1960s to 1980s. Their designs still carry on today. The company focused on building specialized freight cars including high side gondolas, and rotary-dump gondolas for coal. In the 1980s, Thrall acquired five competing railcar manufacturers and became the largest such manufacturer of these cars in the United States.

In the 1960s, coal haulage shifted from open hopper cars to high-sided gondolas. Using a gondola, the railroads are able to haul a larger amount of coal per car since gondolas do not include the equipment needed for unloading. However, since these cars do not have hatches for unloading the products shipped in them, railroads must use rotary car dumpers (mechanisms that hold a car against a short section of track as the car and track are slowly rotated upside down to empty the car) or other means to empty them.

Road Name History: The SW was launched by what would become the Western Group family of shortlines in 1990 with two groups of unconnected lines. The first ran from Shattuck, Oklahoma through Perryton, Spearman and Morse, Texas a distance of 102 miles. The line west of Spearman was later abandoned with the rest following in 2006.

In New Mexico, the SW began with a route between Deming, Whitewater, Tyrone, Fiero and Santa Rita. The New Mexico total was just 37 miles at that time with the copper industry providing most of the traffic.

In 1994, Santa Fe sold them another 27 miles from Whitewater to Peruhill. In 2001, BNSF sold to SW the entire Deming Subdivision from Deming to the BNSF mainline at Rincon, 60 miles to the east. All of these lines with the exception of the line to Tyrone, New Mexico are ex-Santa Fe (the Tyrone line is ex-SP.) BNSF has trackage rights between Rincon and Deming to move coal to a power plant in Cochise, Arizona.

In 2004, SW expanded again by leasing 182 miles of line from Clovis south to Carlsbad, New Mexico from BNSF. The deal includes two clusters of branchlines running generally east from Carlsbad. Traffic on this line includes potash and nuclear waste. In 2016, BNSF canceled the lease citing concerns over SW accidents on the line.

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.