Got my first Std Gauge Dorfan. Not perfect, but colorful.
Steve
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i can add two more, and i agree with Steve, colorful is definitely the ruling adjective here...
the #486751 Pennsylvania caboose...
and the #11701 P.R.R. hopper.
the hopper has a great play-feature with a working bin-dump control wheel.
one of the things that likely added to the company's demise during the depression years. with the number of detail parts on both freight and passenger cars, it was hard to keep manufacturing costs low.
fun stuff!
cheers...gary
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Beautiful.
Steve "Papa" Eastman posted:Got my first Std Gauge Dorfan. Not perfect, but colorful.
Steve
love the light green/aqua tank car!
Good stuff. Darstead were going to make Dorfan freight cars in O gauge not sure if that's still going to happen but I would like to see them done in standard or O gauge.
Jim O'C posted:...
so you're the one who has this car! 
as in O, the simple lumber flat is the most elusive of the bunch.
oh well, what's life without a little challenge.
cheers...gary
overlandflyer posted:i can add two more, and i agree with Steve, colorful is definitely the ruling adjective here...
the #486751 Pennsylvania caboose...
and the #11701 P.R.R. hopper.the hopper has a great play-feature with a working bin-dump control wheel.
one of the things that likely added to the company's demise during the depression years. with the number of detail parts on both freight and passenger cars, it was hard to keep manufacturing costs low.fun stuff!
cheers...gary
love these Gary, and Papa's too. May have to get some vintage Dorfan cars after all...
I've also seen (only once!) a variation of the caboose that is lettered for Dorfan Lines instead of PRR.
My shiny genes like these - first time I've seen the caboose. Them's purty 
Dorfan was the only one of the "big four" manufacturers in the 1920's to use lithography on standard gauge freight cars. The result sure is stunning. They were made for only three years from 1928 to 1930 – and the lumber car was only one year, 1930. The trucks were Dorfan zamac casting that deteriorated ("zinc pest"), so these are usually now found with replacement trucks. Gary's have Lionel 500-series trucks on them; not sure what yours are Steve, any ideas? Possibly homemade?
hojack posted:Gary's have Lionel 500-series trucks on them; not sure what yours are Steve, any ideas? Possibly homemade?
Dave
Mine look like Dorfan passenger car trucks someone had chromed. The will most likely get some Lionel trucks someday. I'll probably wait until I get another car or two, then decide.
Steve
David, thanks for the info on the trucks. i had my doubts because the wear pattern on the car bottoms didn't match the trucks, but the fix does not look at all recent. the Greenberg/ Dorfan book (McKenney) doesn't have very good pictures of the trucks, but it is mentioned that they were diecast so i'm guessing they suffered the same fate as many of their locomotive shells.
cheers...gary
you just keep find more great stuff Steve!
I have a number of Dorfan cars, both passenger and freight, and have never seen an intact diecast truck that is original. All of my original trucks are in small pieces in paper bags. MEW made reproduction die cast trucks several years ago. As you might expect the diecast trucks certainly weigh the train down greatly affecting how many cars a given locomotive can pull.
Don
overlandflyer posted:Jim O'C posted:...
so you're the one who has this car!
as in O, the simple lumber flat is the most elusive of the bunch.
oh well, what's life without a little challenge.
cheers...gary
not mine, Gary. One I bid on back in 2013 but it got away. Pretty sure I still have a truckless 253761 gondola in my Dorfan overstock. I'll check my stores.
The Dorfan diecasting deteriorated very early; it is what put Dorfan out of business in the early 1930's. So owners of the cars would have replaced the trucks and wheels with whatever was available at the time.
Dorfan did make a pressed-steel (tinplate) truck and wheel set for its less-expensive line of standard gauge passenger cars, and ironically they have survived well. If you buy standard gauge Dorfan passenger cars and they have tinplate trucks, don't immediately conclude that they are replacements. The inexpensive cars were enameled rather than lithographed, and had less brass trim, and the tinplate trucks. There were not nearly as many of them as of the diecast trucks however; all the lithographed passenger cars and all the freight had the diecast trucks and wheels.
MTH has reproduced Dorfan passenger cars; so for awhile, MTH had reproduction diecast Dorfan trucks available. Don't know about continued availability of these from MTH however, and they were quite expensive.
This is one case where even the most die-hard "all original" collectors tend to make allowances. If the trucks were replaced in the 1930's, at this point the replacement trucks are part of the history of the car. Even if replaced more recently, having replacement trucks on Dorfan standard gauge is really part of the whole Dorfan story: Milton and Julius Forchheimer gambled on a brilliant, revolutionary new formula of "self lubricating" and "unbreakable" zinc casting that would have transformed the industry if it had worked... but it didn't, and their company crumbled with it.
Steve i was gifted a Dorfan log car and a caboose that says Dorfan lines can you help with the value?
Ron jacquard posted:Steve i was gifted a Dorfan log car and a caboose that says Dorfan lines can you help with the value?
I guess the big question is condition. The next question is do they have the original trucks and wheels and their condition.
Steve
Pretty neat. Thanks for the history too.
