Hi,
I always admired the postwar Lionel O gauge "feather" boxcar. The feather was from one end of the car to the other (not just one side of the door or a small feather).
Did such a car exist? And, is one available in HO?
Thanks,
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Is this the one?
Doc
Doc,
That is exactly the one I am asking about!
Did such a model exist as a prototype????
Who made the model shown in the picture???
Thanks!!
Over the years I have tried to get many of the cars I saw that Lionel had when I was a kid. I looked for this one for a couple of years but could not find it in HO. I finally repainted another car and decaled it. I got the decals from Walther's (#98-48) in their 1972 Prototype Lettering Diagrams Book II.
Acually there are two other "Feather Cars". One is painted red with a silver feather to the right of the door with an orange "DF" over the feather. The lettering is white. (#98-11). The other one is painted aluminum with an orange feather to the left of the door and all black lettering. (#98-12).
I don't know if the decals are still available. I do know that the four Walther's decal lettering books are collector's items today.
Good luck, Doc
Thanks for the info! The full size silver car with the feather is the one I am after.
Was this model that of an actual WP prototype, or something Lionel made up in the early '50s?
This box car as were the other two cars previously mentioned were Western Pacific prototype . During the 50's Lionel copied its models from real railroad cars and locomotives although they were not scale models. Later on Lionel spread out into the toy market and came out with a "Girls Trainset" using colors such as pink, lavender and other pastels which of course were not prototype.
For a long time all box cars were painted an off shade of red-brown which became known as "box car red". The lettering was always white. Then in the 40's & 50's the cars became colored. The lettering also changed to many colors. I think these were the best years for the colorful "billboard type" railroad cars. By the 60's the car colors started to become more conservative and drifted back to only a few colors. I enjoy collecting the colored billboard cars of that early era.
Doc, thanks for the info!
You would think that such a beautiful car would be readily available from Bev-Bel or others. The fact that it was not available led me to think that there was no prototype.
I loved the Lionel 6464 boxcars, and have several of them. And, I collected all that I could for my HO stuff, with most of them being Bev-Bel. Of course most of the train cars we saw as kids were boxcar red or black and those colorful ones were unusual. So when I am in a realistic mode I run those plain cars on the layout, but sometimes, especially with company, I run a consist of those colorful boxcars and everybody loves them!
Thanks again,
Accurail has such a car in HO.
As the previous poster mentioned, the Lionel 6464 boxcars are as a rule accurate renditions of prototype paint schemes on 40 ft boxcars, even if the cars themselves are just semi scale. The train of 6464 boxcars, in addition to being worth $$$$ as collectors items, is a very impressive sight particularly if pulled by one of Lionel's better locomotives in terms of scale accuracy, such as the SW switcher or the FM Trainmaster.
Dave Nelson
Whoaaaaa, back the truck up!!!!
Accurail has such a boxcar???? Is it old or new or going to be? By chance do you know the kit number?
Thanks!!!!!
Try this!
http://www.accurail.com/accurail/50ft_rtr.htm
mobilman44 wrote: Whoaaaaa, back the truck up!!!!Accurail has such a boxcar???? Is it old or new or going to be? By chance do you know the kit number?Thanks!!!!!Mobilman44
All I know is what I read in the papers.
This
WESTERN PACIFIC
#82070 Western Pacific Single Door AAR BoxcarCar #3027 Built: 1955Now Out of Stock
#82071 Western Pacific Single Door AAR BoxcarCar #3046 Built: 1955
is from the Accurail website
Now that I look at it, it is a variant of the car above, isn't it? Orange car with silver feather rather than the other way around. There were a number of variants I gather.
Just ordered the 82071 from Walthers! I do hope they come out with a color combination like the Lionel has, and I sure will buy one.
For the record, it is nice that you can order direct from Walthers even if you do pay full price. While I generally use one of the two LHS, they sometimes just don't have what I want. And of course there are the mail order houses, but for something this small I would just as soon go to Walthers. Besides, they are really good folks there.
Good Morning!
Well, in the previous email I mentioned I ordered one of the Accurail "feather" cars from Walthers. This morning I got an email from them stating it is on backorder. Hope it gets here in time for Christmas!
I did check Walther's online listings and it indicated this car was "on hand". Well, I guess it is on someone's hand, but not anyone at Walthers..............
That reminds me of a bit of wisdom that I relate to a lot.......... "Nothing is ever easy". Actually, I can massage that a bit by saying, "those things that appear easy are rarely so, those things that appear hard are usually so".
Hey, whatever you do..........
ENJOY,
A
My bibliographic references to WP boxcars. I don't know whether these are "feather" design or not.....
WP box #1953 "cushion underframe" lettering Railfan Apr98 p.5
WP 20751 blt 1947 40' SD 7' boxcar
Rail Model Journal Freight Car Models Vol.II Boxcars Book 1 p.69
WP 40055 50' single-sheath DD boxcar w end doors
Rail Model Journal Freight Car Models Vol.II Boxcars Book 1 p.26