Well just to conclude my Saturday afternoon of posting, how about some "HAFNER"....its been awhile since I posted any of these so here are two tankers just to finish up today...(or say..."tanks a lot!" Oh boy is that bad!).
The first is what I believe to be the older and more common, the silver, black, & red Hafner 1010 tanker. Hafner often numbered his cars and engines 1010 because (it is said) that was the address of the factory on the street in Chicago. Who knows. He did bring out the 1010 loco in 1938 and produced it up through the late 40's although Hafner products are very hard to date. So this car could have been used to accompany any freight set from 1938 on to about 1949-1950.
Around 1950 Hafner changed the lithography on the engines and cars and produced the 2000 series engine. There is a video on the internet claiming to show a "1950 Hafner Freight Set" in operation and the consist contains this orange car. I believe that this car in this new color was made from 1950-51 up until Hafner sold out to Wyandotte toys in 1956. In fact it may indeed have been used for a short time after, because Wyandotte just used up old stock that they acquired in the sale until it ran out. However these post sale cars are usually stamped Wyandotte - Hafner and this car carries no such markings. So it is likely to have been made 1950-1951 up until about 1956.
You will note that both cars have what appear to be two black holes to the left and right of the ladder about 3 rungs down from the dome. These are not physical holes but just circles or big dots in the lithography. Candidly I have no idea what they are supposed to represent and they appear on both cars in the same place. Mystery for sure.
Well anyway, just thought these guys were fun to post, hope you like them. If anyone has any further data on these cars please let me know. I have looked at the various web sites, especially Western Division TCA and they have some nice pictures but few dates.
Regards, Don
