Micro-Trains - 030 44 320 - Boxcar, 50 Foot, Steel, Double Door - Cedar Rapids & Iowa City - 8008

Specific Item Information: This ex-Oregon & Northwestern incentive per diem boxcar with Barber Roller Bearing trucks was later obtained by Cedar Rapids & Iowa City. The CIC, also known as the CRANDIC, this Class III railway was formed in 1904 and has around 60 miles of track within Iowa. It serves a number of large industrial and agricultural companies.

Series Information: Series launched in April of 2024.

Model Information: Introduced in May of 1983, Micro-Trains has produced 57 different versions of this car through March of 2016, making it about 1% (or slightly above average) of their production. The car represents a fairly common prototype: 50 foot, double-door, exterior post box car. Like most sliding door models produced by Micro-Trains, the doors on this model do open.

Prototype History: The 50-foot boxcar made its first appearance in the 1930s and steadily grew in popularity over the years, which further improved redundancies by allowing for even more space within a given car. Today, the 50-footer remains the common boxcar size. After the second world war ended, and steel became once again readily available, steel became the go-to choice for construction of boxcars. Pullman Standard and ACF were some of the most prolific builders of these cars.

Double Doors were frequently an option for most of the major North American railcar manufacturers in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. These cars were slightly more expensive to produce and maintain, but for many applications allowed faster loading and unloading times.

Road Name History: This line is popularly known as the Crandic. That’s “CR-and-IC”. This line was originally an electric interurban line between its namesake cities in Iowa. Like many interurban lines especially in Iowa, the Crandic did have significant freight traffic.

In 1953 passenger service was discontinued and the trolley wire de-energized. Diesels took over the freight service. In 1980, Crandic snapped up a connecting 6 mile branch from the bankrupt Rock Island. The following year, they bought a connecting 21 mile branch from the Milwaukee Road. This brought the Crandic up to its current size, 60 miles of mainline and 40 track miles of yards, spurs and sidings.

Until 2004, Crandic ran a through freight daily in addition to the many local freights. However they decided to concentrate on the locals and arranged with Iowa Interstate to handle the through freight. In June of 2008, a severe flood caused the collapse of Crandic’s bridge over the Cedar River. That bridge has been rebuilt. Alliant Energy owns the railroad today.

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