Model Railroading In General

[chuff_n_puff]

I am just curious. I am a model railroader and retired. My dad worked for the railroad his entire life. Maybe I just didn't get to town enough, but we were the first ones to have TV in our backwoods community, but I have never seen any real life trains and box cars with all that advertising on them!. Was there ever a John Deere, Segram 7, Crown Royal, Dale Earnhardt, Harley Davidson, etc. trains, box cars and cabooses? You can get these model trains and cars with everything from shirts to applebutter  advertised on them. Just thought I'd ask. If this has been going on all this time, downtown, could some one let me know?

[the Bach-man]

Dear Chuff,
Actually, yes and no...
All the cars you mention are fanciful, but back in the early 1900's there were many billboard reefers with wonderful graphics. These were ultimately banned by the government as the products inside rarely matched the advertising outside.
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[brad]

That's why they were discontinued? I always wondered, I thought perhaps it was the cost of painting elaborate paint schemes.  I'm a sucka for those reefers, about 1/5 of my rolling stock is made up of them. It breaks up the monotony of box car red I don't think they were as common up here, north of 49.

brad

[Ken]

 Brad

   Not sure how common Billboard reefers were in Canada, do know
that Schlitz billboard reefers made it to Sandon B.C. in 1897.
  Delivery for the local Schlitz agent there.

   Ken
     GWN

 

[Atlantic Central]

Billboard cars, very popular in the 1920's, where outlawed in 1933, so there are very few people around who would remember ever seeing one in person.

The ruling came from Federal courts under anti trust laws. The court basicly said the railroads, or car leasing companies could not lease the outsie of the car as advertising one company while still using the car to carry any and everyone elses products.

So if you see a rail car today that has the name of a private company, that company owns or leases the car for their own use. They cannot just pay to have their name on the side.

There are some types of cars that are very specialized for carring specific products. sometimes the special nature of these cars is not apparent for the outside. Railroads are often reluctant to invest in such equipment unless the volume of traffic is very high. Coil cars for the steel industry are one example of the railroads suppling specialized cars, but in general companies with limited traffic volumes must invest in their own special equipment. That is the predominate

I have yet to understand why anyone wants those cars with the sports teams, product names, etc, on them. But, to each their own.

Sheldon

[LD303]

 

you mean there arent really any blues clues and dick tracy boxes out there???   ohh man!! and ive been spending hours down at the yard looking for them!!   

i got some of those pretty, brightly painted boxes in some lot buys from ebay....they were pretty good cars and in good condition, so off they went to the paint shop......i still have a few sitting on the shelf waiting for me to make a bigger layout  lol   i never really understood why they would paint them in those colors anyway...like the nfl cars.....might look good sitting on a display shelf, but sure wont fit in with any correctly painted rolling stock.

[GlennW]

Some model mfr's like Bachmann or LL make deals with Deere, Caterpillar, etc to do special run trainsets for them. MTL has a special run program, but you must order at least 300-500 cars. Many clubs & the NMRA get a profit when they are sold for $20+ per car. Some of the paint schemes appeal to non model railroaders. I'm not surprised with all the Colts stuff produced after the Super Bowl.

Actually, Mantua started a set  of Super Bowl winners going back to SB 1 & the Packers. The next year, they added the new super bowl logo to the car from the winning team. 

Nobody forces you to buy all the fantasy sets. A lot of people buy them, making a market for them.

[r.cprmier]

A good source of these billboard cars were from Athearn, and Accuscale, as far as fairly easy assembly goes.  In the old days, varney, Silver Streak, Roundhouse, Ulrich (Yipes...does this date me??), and even Mantua, had what was for their day, some good billboard reefer kits. 

If you feel adventurous, I believe that Red Caboose, Intermountain kits (Probably no longer produced as kits) had some pretty neat graphics also.
If you get to the shows, do case the tables.  You could find some pretty neat cars still around.

RIch

[r0bert]

real reefer

[brad]

Thanks Ken,

I have several cars from intermountain and red caboose, all built as kits when they were available. I also have a handfull each from Atlas and Branchline Blueprint, the Set of 4 Kraft cars are a big hit when they make the odd appearance at shows. Then there's the 10 or so Accurail ones I take to run on the club layout as they travel better than the more detailed cars and I can't always gaurantee that it will only be me handling them.... some guys have 5 thumbs and I hate rebuilding cars

I imagine something like the Heinz pickle cars wouldn't have fallen under the anti-trust laws as they were for a specific cargo? Neat looking cars.

brad