Micro-Trains - 025 00 246 - Boxcar, 50 Foot, PS 5077 - GE Capital Rail Services - 31

Specific Item Information: Pullman-Standard built over one million freight cars and decorated several over the years commemorating various milestones. This 50’ boxcar with Barber Roller Bearing trucks commemorates the 1,000,000th Pullman-Standard Boxcar built. Founded in the late 1860s, Pullman-Standard became the nation’s largest manufacturer of freight and passenger cars by the 1930s and continued to produce freight cars until 1968.

Model Information: This model was first produced by Kadee in February of 1981. It is a model of a 50 Foot Steel Rib-Side Single Sliding Door Boxcar. Specifically, this Micro-Trains body style models the FMC 50' 5077 Single Sliding Door prototype. It is also used by Micro-Trains to model Pullman Standard 50' boxcars. Hence on some releases, this car is labeled as a Pullman Standard and in other cases it is labeled as an FMC boxcar, and it also is frequently labeled as a '50' Rib Side Box Car[sic]' with no mention of prototype whatsoever. It appears to be closest to the FMC 5077 boxcar prototype (from the 1970s) in any event. These models can appear with any one of multiple different sliding door types. The doors for this model are operating ones (cool!).

Prototype History: Pullman Standard built 4,301 5077 cubic foot plate B box cars with sliding doors between October 1972 and August 1979 for seven original customers. In addition, Pullman supplied a total of 300 superstructure kits (car bodies and doors - Berwick Forge and Fabricating supplied the underframes) to Golden Tye at Pickens, South Carolina for assembly during 1975-76 for the National Railway Utilization Company (NRUC).

Road Name History: GE Capital Rail Services, also known as GE Railcar, or GE Railcar Services Corporation was a business unit of GE Capital, a division of General Electric. It is a distinct business unit from General Electric's railway locomotive manufacturer.
GE Rail Services offers leases and manages railcars (railway wagons) for the North American market; its product range includes all types of common freight wagon including box, flat, covered and uncovered hopper (gondola), and tank wagons. The company also manages service and repair of wagons.
In 1997, ACF (reporting marks: ACFX) reached leasing agreement with GE Capital Railcar for 35000 of its 46000 railcars, mostly on 16 year leases with optional purchase agreements.

In 2015 GE Capital announced the sale of its tank car and services business to Marmon Holdings, and the remainder of the business (other wagons, locos) to First Union Rail.

From Wikipedia

Brand/Importer Information: Micro-Trains is the brand name used by both Kadee Quality Products and Micro-Trains Line. For a history of the relationship between the brand and the two companies, please consult our Micro-Trains Collector's Guide.

Manufacturer 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.

Please consult our Micro-Trains Collector's Guide