HO Passenger Cars, What do I have?

Bob Delbridge posted:

Here's 4 aluminum HO passenger cars my nephew had when he was a toddler, maybe 35 years ago (1985-ish):

I see no markings on any of the 4 cars, but I think they're Mantua, not sure.

They have been in storage for probably 30 years, can't see anything wrong with them.

 

Any ideas on the brand?

They're Mantua/Tyco...  And very nice.

From what I can determine, the aluminum cars were last available in 1968 and only as unlettered kits.  I think these may be from the late 50's or very early 60's, given they appear to be factory decorated and have the "NMRA" coupler and not the Mantua loop coupler.

I haven't been able to locate an ad for aluminum cars in the Model Railroader archive, other than for kits in 1957.

Rusty

Thanks Rusty!

The ends, doors, and truck side frames are plastic, the body shells and floors are metal.

My nephew is 45, so I know he got them after 1970, but they could have been an old set.  I don't know exactly when I got them but I was still in HO so that had to have been between 1978 and 1995.

At least 2 cars have lights, the combine and baggage, not sure about the diner and coach.  I'm also not sure if there were other cars in the set, if there were they're long gone.

For a toddler, he certainly took good care of them.

RoyBoy,

LOL!!!, I think they were "Put Up" by his mom for safe keeping, probably never saw the light of day until I got them.  Of course that may be where the rest of the set went (in the trash that is), if he did get hold of them.

They are Mantua, and are probably from the run they did in the 1980's or so, when they had the orange and yellow boxes with black lettering for Mantua.  When we had our hobby shop (up to 1983), we carried these.

They were the aluminum ones, and actually sold pretty well!  They were available at that time for Pennsy, Santa Fe or Undecorated.

Thanks Eddie!  I don't recall ever seeing any boxes, except the cardboard box I got them in.

They're quite hefty compared to the plastic passenger cars I have.  I was always leery of running metal HO cars, the possibility of a derailment and shorting out across the track was always in my mind   I don't recall any of my power packs having circuit breakers/fuses and could imagine the arcing and sparking a metal car would create, not to mention what it would do to the paint job.  I don't worry about O scale (with Hi-rail wheels) because those flanges tend to keep cars on track.

A little short for full scale, except the baggage car....they still come off pretty decent on a smaller pike.  These passenger cars will survive young kids !