Key Features
- Fully assembled and ready for your layout
- All new super-detailed model
- Etched metal walkways
- Separately applied brake piping and trainline hoses
- Delicate cross-bracing on the floor
- Separately applied wire grab irons
- Fine ladder detail
- Weighted for optimal performance
- Prototypically correct 33" and 38 machined metal wheels
- Equipped with McHenry lower shelf knuckle couplers
Overview
Since the early days of intermodal transport the railroads and freight car builders have been looking for more efficient methods of transporting trailers and containers. One of the greatest innovations in intermodal transportation came in the late 1970s with the development of the double stack container car by ACF Industries and Southern Pacific Railroad. From that point onward the container was king and the railroads and car builders searched for more efficient methods of transporting containers. In a revolutionary step from the early stack car designs, Gunderson introduced their Maxi-Stack 5-unit articulated well car in 1988. Evolved from their previous 5-unit Twin-Stack design, the Maxi-Stack (also called Maxi-Stack I or Maxi-I) boasted a lower tare weight (accomplished in part by the elimination of the bulkheads of the Twin-Stack), greater capacity, and greater versatility in regard to container lengths and widths that could be carried.
Initial production of these cars lasted from May of 1988 through May of 1990 with approximately 270 cars built for Southern Pacific, Chicago Heights Terminal & Transfer, Trailer Train, Maersk, and the Rail-Bridge Corporation. Despite their design advances these cars were quickly overshadowed by newer and even larger designs, and it appeared that the final chapter on the Maxi-Stack design had been written
