MR 25th Anniversary Box Car

[dandreas]

All,
I was just curious if anyone knows anything about a Model Railroader 25th Silver Anniversary HO box car. I have one that I picked up at a flea market many years ago but I can't seem to find out any information about it. It's made by Mantua and mainly I was just wandering if it was a similar arrangement to the Athearn cars of recent years. You can check out a photo of it at http://www.tower55.com/Auctions/mr25thanniv.jpg Thanks,
Doug A.

[CNJ831]

Doug - The MR 25th Anniversary car was the first of MR's now long-running anniversary series. As with all the early cars, the Mantua boxcar was the only example issued (these were the days essentially before N scale).

While the 25th Anniversary car is not a true rarity, you don't see them too often today. I'd say the 30th anniversary car (1974) is harder to locate in good condition, the paint wear on this one usually being a problem. If you take a look at the bottom of page 46 of the March 2000 issue of Model Railroader you'll find a photo of most of my collection of MR anniversary cars - along with an MR&T loco and caboose I made to accompany them.

Care to look for some truly rare MR items? Try finding MR's 1974 Anniversary tractor-trailer truck by Ulrich, or freight cars with the 1936 paper side sides that appeared in MR! Incidentally, there are RMC cars in a similar series, some much harder to locate than the MR examples.

John