Athearn - 12578 - Gondola, NSC, 6400cf - DEA - 11388

Model Information: Starting in 2006, National Steel Car began construction of these giant 6,400 cu ft capacity gondolas. These exquisite Athearn Genesis models capture all of the details and variations of their prototypes. Our state- of-the-art tooling replicates the mumerous build variations as well as multiple top chord and end variations. Separate details include full brake rigging, grab irons and etched crossover platforms. Add the definitive NSC 6400 gondolas to your modern roster with these all-new Athearn Genesis cars.

Road Name History: DEA AG is an international oil and gas company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. It is a subsidiary of L1 Energy. As of 2014, DEA owns stakes in about 190 oil and gas licenses in 14 countries. The company also operates natural gas underground storage facilities in Germany. DEA is a derivation from Deutsche Erdöl-Aktiengesellschaft, the original name of the company.

DEA was formerly a subsidiary of RWE, which put DEA for sale in 2013. Wintershall, a consortium of KKR & Co. and Kufpec, and an investment company L1 Energy of Mikhail Fridman made their bids.[1] In March 2014 it was announced that DEA would be bought by L1 Energy for €5.1 billion. On August 22, 2014 Germany's economy ministry approved the sales to Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman and his co-investors.

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.