Favorite freight car?

The first train related gift my wife got me.  2016 Macy’s boxcar 

The 3656 cattle car and corral, which I received for Christmas sometime in the early 50’s. 

The one that doesn't cost much.....LOL   I can't say that I have a particular favorite.  I like any operating freight car though.

One Christmas season I had experienced some significant losses in life and was alone on a Christmas Eve after work.  This was before the recent explosion of scale trains by MTH, Atlas, Lionel, etc.  I had been looking for a Railbox Lionel boxcar at a few local places with no luck. Then on this rather bleak Christmas Eve a great friend dropped by briefly to bring a gift of the Railbox boxcar, and a Christmas greeting from he and his wife.  That car is permanently in my collection. It comes out around Christmas each year to make some runs on the seasonal floor track.  

VISTADOMESCOTT,

Are you talking about the #9767 MPC Railbox box car. That car, was a very sharp car.

jim sutter posted:

VISTADOMESCOTT,

Are you talking about the #9767 MPC Railbox box car. That car, was a very sharp car.

Yes, that's the car Lionel MPC.  It is a nice looking car for sure!  

Railbox:

You gotta love Railbox.

PD

The only train set I ever received for Christmas was a Tyco Silver Streak set. When I was a kid the flat car with trailers was my favorite, because the set included a trailer unloader that was fun to play with. I grew up in the HO era I guess. O-gauge trains weren't very popular in the seventies as best as I could tell. So no stories of a shiny Lionel under the tree for me.

I would have to say my Spirit of 76 Virginia Box car that I got as a Christmas gift from my oldest brother back in the 70s. 

For some reason I tended to get train items for my birthday rather than Christmas.  When my wife and I were dating she got me an HO DeWitt Clinton loco, but even that may have been a birthday present.

I would have to say two favorites ... 1.) Lionel operating milk car.  2.) Lionel operati ng barrel car.

The milk car was received with my first Lionel set back in 1956.  The barrel car was the first add on operating car for my layout around 1958.  I still have both cars and they still operate just fine. 

21 years as a USAF pilot, 14 years as a Navy program manager.  These are my favorites.  Both were from my wife (different years).

Milk car for its reliability. Cattle car is a love/hate relationship. Love working with it to get it to work, hate that it never works!

Wow Jim, that is really a tough question. At one time I was really hooked on the 3444 cop and hobo. The PRR TMCC Crane is near the top of my list today, but any of the freight cars out of the 1631WS set are still at the top. My father bought us that set when I was 4 or 5 years old. Between the 6519 Allis-Chalmers car and the 6812 Maintenance it would be hard to pick. We destroyed that set growing up but I was lucky to get a steal on a near mint set of of E-bay 10 or more years ago. Train looks like it was ran once and put away in a time capsule. I bid $450.00 dollars but got it for I think $225.00. When you ask us what our favorite set is you have the answer here first. Guess it wasn't that tough afterward.

Forest.

An NYC boxcar from the 2026 freight set.  One could load it with cowboys and Indians from the Marx ranch set.

Mike D posted:

The only train set I ever received for Christmas was a Tyco Silver Streak set. When I was a kid the flat car with trailers was my favorite, because the set included a trailer unloader that was fun to play with. I grew up in the HO era I guess. O-gauge trains weren't very popular in the seventies as best as I could tell. So no stories of a shiny Lionel under the tree for me.

Mike D

That was the first train set I received, also for Christmas. It made a lot of loops around the 4x8 layout my Dad and brother made for me.

James

Mine was HO, but it was a little Peerless Beer 36' woodsided reefer.  It had so much more detail that the other models I had.

Many decades ago, a 6464 Alaska RR boxcar. Still have it, but back when I was a youngster most of the boxes ended up in the garbage.

6464 State of Maine boxcar.  I'm from the Boston area so it just always screams New England to me.  It's a great colorful piece to breakup a string of standard colors.  Also, I have distinct memories of seeing a real one as a kid somewhere in our family travels (Conway Scenic Railroad, maybe?)