Beer Trains

Houdini Lager

Longboard

 

rat

As long as they get the licensing rights it looks like a great idea. Beer trains always seem to sell.

 

Jerry

I currently have 14 billboard cars advertising a beer company.  Working on getting more.  Here are some microbrews I'd like to see:

 

Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Company

Full Circle Brewing Company

Sequoia Brewing Company

Sierra Brewing Company

The Mad Duck Craft Brewery

I'm a OLD MILWAUKEE and YUENGLING PREMIUM Beer fan.  I have 24 Ol Mil cars from Lionel a few Custom Ol Mil cars, and all the Lionel beer cars.  Also a few of the MTH and K line cars.

 

  I asked Lionel when they would reissue the Old Milwaukee cars and they said that some people complained that beer advertising wasn't good for kids, so they stopped making beer cars.  Go figure?

Anything Karl Strauss would be nice

Being a Pittsburgh guy,I was able to get all of the Iron City cars and motive power.  Then came the Rolling Rock cars,Dubois Budweiser,and Curve Beer.  These are mostly Railking.  On top of that there a a couple of New York State beers that were meaningful to me made by Weaver.  All of these adorn the walls of my office.  On top of that I picked up a couple of Atlas classics for my layout.  At this point I am done.  Exception:a new Iron City or Rolling Rock car done by MTH Railking or an older car from one of the old mainstay breweries done by Atlas. 

 

Norm

I was disappointed that the current issue of MR lists "fictional" Atlas beer reefers...in

O, as they had long stayed with models of actual cars that existed protoypically, which is all I want to own.  No microbrewery had any reefers, although at least one microbrewery was resurrected using the name of a defunct historical brewery that did

have reefers that Atlas produced.  Sadly, O is not behind, but I will avoid them.  No

fakes wanted here.

Norm,

 

And you probably have the Railking Duquesne Pilsener car, too, right?

 

Bill

I love the Atlas and MTH Premier wood sided beer reefers and am always hoping for more.

 

I have a number of Pittsburgh regional RailKing beer cars as well.

 

I'd like quite a few wood sided microbrewery reefers, especially from breweries I like, like Stone, Dogfish Head, Penn Brewery, Victory.  Also would be cool to have reefers of beers with train-related labels, like Erie Railbender and Erie De-Railed.

 

Andy

My favorite steam era train sets would be an all wood sided reefer train,  beer or otherwise. But more beer cars would be great in micro breweries,  shock top!  Atlas O and K-Line make /made the finest IMO.

 

I always liked the old Lionel MPC beer reefers. They made for a colorful train.

I'm not really into them, but my son sent me a picture of this delivery truck. I'd buy a reefer decorated for this lager!

 

And a delivery truck on the layout.

Wft,

I do have the Duquesne car.

Norm

Beer? Did someone say BEER??? I just may be able to lay my hands on a few.... there have been at least five more added since these pictures were taken. Tobacco and wine cars also get mixed in too; just for giggles. 

 

I really miss K-Line, and now Weaver.... but always up for a few more cars.

 

 

Doesn't show up too well, but that's Graves Mortuary Supplies just in front of the caboose. A little tongue and cheek humor there.

I am always good for beer reefers. 

 

"Being a Pittsburgh guy,I was able to get all of the Iron City cars and motive power. "

 

IMHO Iron City is the worst beer I have ever tasted. Like effluent from the steel mills. 

Yeah, it's got a certain distinctive wang to it.... You're very fortunate to have the Iron City cars. They've become right pricey.

Forrest, I believe New Orleans' "Dixie" beer would give Iron City a run for the money as the worst beer, ever.  Great packaging; but, awful beer.

I thought Lionel and perhaps the other manufacturer / importers placed a self-imposed ban on beer / liquor decorated rolling stock.
Before they decided to stop as a matter of policy, Lionel produced a number of beer and liquor reefers. Tobacco too.

Seems silly to me.

Fellas,

I would say that Iron City has a special taste of the hops.  Now,if you wanted to taste a swill,it would have been Dubois Budweiser.  It was brewed in Dubois,PA.  It not only cleaned your teeth but also gave you an instant headache.  It was cheap for a keg and therefor an attractive brew for a Saturday afternoon college festival,ha,ha.  Gone,but certainly not forgotten.

 

Norm 

I think it was only Lionel, but I know they will do beer cars for clubs and conventions.  I have the Robin Hood Beer car they did for LOTS a couple of years back, and I know there is another beer car on the designing board for I think next year's LOTS convention.  It will be of great interest to many...

 

I think it is primarily due to fear of Big Brother and activist groups.  Most beer cars these days come with small disclaimer stickers proclaiming the contents to be an adult collectible (and thus not a childrens' toy).

 

Andy

You guys don't know from bad beer. The worst beer in the world was brewed in Khartoum, Sudan before the Islamist takeover. It was called Camel Beer and it came in liter bottles with a camel molded into the glass. The local joke was that it was the only beer in the world with a picture of the factory on the bottle.

 

I visited Khartoum a couple of times in 1975-1976 and it was a pretty awful place even then, but those were the good old days compared to later. Of course there is no beer in Khartoum now. 

No such thing as a bad beer, just different grades of good.

This is still my all time favorite

 

99 reefers

 

Last update I heard was that Coors was no longer licensing their trademarks for use on model trains, etc. Beyond that, MTH and certainly Atlas haven't slowed down making Beer reefers. I bought a bunch of K Line reefers that were NIB.

as for Tobacco cars, the Master Settlement Agreement with the Attorney Generals quashed that.  

I always liked the traditional names and rolling stock.  Once, I had a train devoted strictly to different beers.  Tank cars, refers, and box cars.  I also used to have a Coors Silver Bullet train.  Sold off everything and moved on to other stuff.   

I do like and collect cars from the newly revived Narragansett Brewery. 

I would not be opposed to some fantasy Narragansett items like some based on the Dr Suess drawn ads or some later Jaws inspired things.

 

 

As as far as pure fantasy one of my favorites that now seems to have wider exposure is Stone Brewery products. Not sure if I would get fantasy trains about this beer but I would be more than happy to have some.

 

 

I know that Bachmann has offered some fantasy beer reefers in On30 the Dogfish Head reefer I would consider because  I do enjoy the product.

 

I am sorry to read that there is a market for fantasy reefers.  At least another poster

on here besides myself agrees that there are a great number of yet undiscpvered,

unidentified prototype reefers that Atlas and whomever could track down and produce

models of.  Somewhere, buried in the archives of musty historical societies are more

lost photos... Prior to Prohibition there were a great number of breweries in the country.

I'd like to see this one in 0 gauge - or one of the many other T-shirt graphics that have been done for this fantasy brewery.

 

 

Here are two more I'd like to see, but I'll have to make the decals myself - no chance either of these will be a commercial proposition.

 

If by "fantasy" schemes you mean beer cars that never existed but are based on real breweries and their products, I'd definitely signed up for a few.  I'll take your idea of a tour of California and suggest a State based tour series.  Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, even Montana have some great local craft breweries! (I'm sure every region has their favorites)  A "best of" 3 or even 6 car series would be awesome!!  A smart marketing department might even come up with a way for "fans to vote" for their favorite.  Spread it out over a several years and you might just have a long term income stream.  Atlas, MTH, Lionel, ye got your ears on?! 

Lionel stopped the beer / liquor cars for awhile. MTH and Atlas never halted the beer reefers. MTH probably has set the record over the past 10 years for the number of different beer reefers manufactured.

 

   Bill T.

I'm with you all "in spirit" but sadly all my favorite breweries, micro and otherwise, are British. So I'm out of luck for rolling stock.  Of course now that Guiness Stout is manufactured in Canada, I wouldn't mind a matching car ...

 

Tomlinson Run Railroad

anybody remember "Gablingers"

 

it was advertised a a "diet beer" and proceeded miller's lite by a few years

 

shows what a good advertising agency can do for you

 

j

 

These guys ought to do some commemorative cars:

 

 

WD,

   I believe MTH already has a Black/Silver trimmed Tin Plate Miro-Beer Train, Black 260E P2 Engine and all, can't remember all the different names on the 6 Tanker Cars however.  It does look great, almost bought it at one of the Monroeville, Pa Greenburg Train shows one time.  They do look fantastic in Tin Plate!

PCRR/Dave

 

I liked the graphics for this beer so much,I made my own beer car for it.

Dan 

Dan, What a fantastic idea and beautifully executed, too.  Reminds me of the recent topic on using cigar box labels for layout inspiration.  And here I've been pasting my ale labels in a tasting notebook! Silly me! Great job.

 

Tomlinson Run Railroad

Something no one has listed is the Yuengling passenger train that was made under license by MTH. Each car represented a different brew. I have the train, plus a caboose they had, but not the locomotive.

I certainly do remember gab lingers.  It was the first light beer ever.   It was marketed by rheingold.  It was a flop