From initial research, through design, announcements and opening preorders, entering production and last mile delivery -- there is a lot that goes into our process. Today we invite you to take a look behind the scenes at the first steps.  

Working with multiple contacts, we meticulously gather photos and drawings, along with field measurements (when possible). These resources aid in accurate CAD, art work, paint samples, and any other pieces of information we can find that will be used to ensure the most historically correct product can be produced.

Once this information has been gathered, the real fun (and longest part of our process) starts!

We begin by taking a different approach than most of the industry, by basing our designs on systems rather than specific individual cars. Past examples of these systems include our GA, PCF, ACF and homebuilt cars programmes.

Part of this system has kept us focused on fifty-foot boxcars, for now. This allows us to produce most, if not all the variations of cars within a builder's given family of boxcars.

A tradeoff of utilizing the system approach is a longer time to market for new products that are not based on an existing system due to the requirement of prioritizing designs and tooling for each specific component early on rather than when getting to the version of a car that requires a specific set of details.

The MAJOR benefit though, is realized as we come out of the initial release cycle, allowing for newer versions of these cars to go through the process significantly faster thanks to the hard work done up front.