I recently dug out a couple of models and gave them to a friend who collects O Gauge models. These were two Great Northern 50 foot gondolas (in red) and a four wheel Santa Fe caboose. These were from the series made by Roco in Austria for Atlas, I think in the 1970s.
These were in plain white boxes with clear windows in the front. The shape of the window was odd, and I think it was shaped to allow the Atlas logo to "overlap" the window, But why were these boxes plain white? The contents were identified by rubber stamping on the ends.
Did Roco sell these after Atlas stopped selling them?
Were they sold by the big distributors like AHM?
Peter
cute black boy names
philo426
The boxes on my cars are exactly like those illustrated, but have no printing of any kind and were white except for the rubber stamping on the ends. The clear window is the same shape as illustrated, but of course the Atlas brand is not printed on the box, making that end of the window look odd. The only "printing" was large rubber stamp letters (much larger than those on the Atlas printed box) giving an item number and description. Both GN gondolas had the word "Great" in Great Northern misspelled as "Greath". This led me to thinking that the rubber stamp had been prepared in Austria by someone unfamiliar with English.
philo426 cute black boy names
I see you have one of the early boxcars with the mirror image logo with the "dot"over the "C"...
Yes when I bought it I started to laugh at the mistake, especially since they were made in Austria which has a reputation for Teutonic exactitude.
Atlas O scale started around 1969-70 and the early ready to run cars (and engines) came in a well decorated box with a clear side - a little like the more recent Atlas O boxes, but not blue. After Atlas stopped making the O scale stuff, I was able to buy quite a few undecorated car kits from...I think it was called "Standard Model Supply" via mail order (pre-internet 1980s). Same Atlas cars (ore cars, boxcar, plugdoor box, stockcar, gondola, extended vision caboose, and bobber caboose) but as kits. Standard had an ad in Model Railroader every month. These car kits always came in a plain white box with just I think a label on one end. I don't know if the hobby shop / vendor bought up all the Atlas stock, or bought the molds from Roco and made the parts themselves, or what. I think c. 1984 they cost around $10-12 except for bobbers and ore cars which were maybe $7-8).
I didn't dig the cheesy plastic trucks so I put on a set of Lionel sprung diecast units,very cool now!
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