Rocket Train Booster Car - Ready to Run -- Union Pacific® #50023

Did you know, some of our journeys to space begin with a much more grounded form of transportation? Add a truly unique operation to your layout today with the WalthersMainline HO Scale NASA Solid Rocket Booster Train. First introduced with the Space Shuttle program in 1981, NASA's rocket train was used to transport the solid rocket boosters from Morton Thiokol in Utah to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The train features heavy-duty, 4-truck flatcars that carry rocket components under protective hoods. Some of the cars that carry the SRB propellant have refrigeration units to keep the temperature constant. The train also includes spacer and clearance cars between the flatcars carrying the SRB components. While the original train was retired in 2011 with the retirement of the Space Shuttle, it was re-introduced in 2020 with the start of the Artemis lunar program, delivering the SRB components for the Space Launch System rocket.
 
Features of the 66' Rocket Booster Flatcar include:

• Newly tooled protective hood
• Newly tooled refrigeration unit with flexible piping on specified cars
• Heavy die-cast metal body for improved tracking and performance
• Correct 36" RP-25 metal wheels
• Minimum radius: 24"
• Available in both prototypical and special commemorative schemes celebrating NASA and the historic Artemis moon missions
• Proto MAX(TM) metal knuckle couplers