How many iterations of the "cop chasing hobo" car have there been? Pictures ??

The simple answer is too many.  Actually there are a few I'm missing photos of.

I have this one.

Holy moly, I didn't know there were that many. Thanks.

We could have a contest to see who could pull all 54 of those at once.

I’ve had this since the 50’s, still works great and visitors really enjoy seeing the cop chasing the hobo! Especially when I tell them that the cop has been chasing for more than 65 years and he hasn’t gained an inch on that hobo!!! Just sayin...😉

Somebody should do an EMPIRER OF THE NORTH version.  One of the charatets is Shack.

And then there's the Williams by Bachmann version.  It isn't powered by the track but by a gear arrangement from the axle.  

Dan Padova posted:

And then there's the Williams by Bachmann version.  It isn't powered by the track but by a gear arrangement from the axle.  

 

Same is true for many (most?) of the Lionel ones shown in Ed's post.

A few of the more recent (last 10 years or so?) Aquarium cars were upgraded back to having a motor (not all - they reverted to cheapening them back to worm gears for at least a few recent ones), but I'm not sure if there are any C&H cars made recently with motors.

-Dave

Here are three more. One is from an uncataloged Bass Pro set, another in the Hallmark set. The Rio Grande is an LCCA banquet item.

Also the grey Santa Fe animated gondola in my earlier post was not made, it was advertised in a recent starter set that was canceled.

Looks like 99% of them move from right to left as does mine.

As a kid, I sure thought hobos, bindles, and quicksand would be a much bigger part of my adult life. 

These cars are great, I’ve always wanted one...time to buy. 

Amazing, I had no clue either on the multitude of these!

I have an original Erie 3444 that still looks and runs great. 

There was the variation on the theme by K-Line, which had George Bush chasing Sadam Hussein around the car (K707-8011). It was part of the Operation Desert Storm items in the early 1990s.

found photo online

jay jay posted:

There was the variation on the theme by K-Line, which had George Bush chasing Sadam Hussein around the car (K707-8011). It was part of the Operation Desert Storm items in the early 1990s.

 

Actually, that was later than the original Desert Storm cars from the 90's (or at least some of the cars.  I didn't follow those close enough to know when all of them came out, maybe a few were after the Osama and Saddam chase cars).  The Operation Red Dawn car, as well as a "Get Osama" car came some time after 9/11. 

I seem to recall the cars were announced before Operation Red Dawn occurred that captured Saddam.  They were updated graphically, I believe as the operation occurred in between the announcement and the actual production.

I thought of these cars when I saw this thread, but I think it depends on what we each consider to be the key elements of a given car to make it a Cop and Hobo variant.  Personally I'd probably consider any gondola with some sort of crates in the middle that the figures revolve around in the "family".  Not sure I would consider these since they were flatcars.  (Obviously a very similar mechanism, and nearly identical premise, though)

-Dave

The Scooby Doo set came with one 

Someone posted "too many".  NOPE!

There can never be too many.  These cars are entertaining and creative.  And they must be selling well as that first 3444 started out in 1957.  (I have the original that Santa brought me in '57.)

At one time, I had almost all the "chase" cars but I began selling them 4-5 year ago when we moved.  I hated to part with them, but it was time.   

I've kept the original....  

From the 11716 Lionelville Circus Special set of 1990: