Lets see Unusual, Unique, Rare, or Interesting Cars of Yours

I have a few.........

Ballast car

American crane boom car

Large long refinery tower

Big Hook boom car

Halliburton cement car

Layouts  most favorite Operating cars, Lionel Giraffe Cars

Ducked and Not Ducked Giraffe cars

Charlie

This is a rather unique car, weathered by, and bought from, Malcolm (of caboose fame), many years ago. It was salvaged (not by me) from my losses due to Sandy, and preserved. Still looks pretty good.

Here ya go...

Autographed William Shatner Star Trek "Captain Kirk" boxcar.

Mark

Please share what that very unusual car is used for.

Charlie

@Choo Choo Charlie posted:

Mark

Please share what that very unusual car is used for.

Charlie

Part of a wreck train - flatcar with the upside down wrecked body of a hopper, being transported to wherever broken cars get taken after the clean up. I’ve made my own anemic representation of it.

@Choo Choo Charlie posted:

Most cars on model railroads are boxcars, tank cars, flat cars, coal cars and others.

There are many cars that are different and more interesting than the typical car.  Let us see one of  yours.

I will start with my latest, a homemade Borden's Milk Tank Car

Charlie

That looks really nice. I like these cars in this paint scheme too, and scratchbuilt one in HO.

This Weaver Pacific Fruit Express reefer is the only model I have found that has the correct 1942-46 paint scheme.  The UP shield is in color and does not have the diagonal "Overland" slogan.  It would be nice if a current manufacturer would do it since this is a little too bright yellow.

Ben

Thanks for the reply.  I never heard of the Borden's milk tank cars until a few months ago.  I am working on some fins for the top of the car, like the earlier cars had before WW2, and will decide on putting them on when I see how they turnout.  The earlier cars were more Art Deco than newer cars.  I think I read that the top fins were removed to get the steel for WW2.

PS   6-19-2023   I added a picture to post 1 showing the new Art Deco Top Fins on the Borden's Milk Tank Car.

Charlie

These are American Flyer #1106 passenger cars.  Note marked "Dominion Flyer" and "Canadian National Railways"  These were uncatalogued cars from ca 1920's designed to appeal to the Canadian Market.

Best Wishes

Don

One of my converted and customized Metra bi-levels.

A car that I got somewhere unremembered:

This cars weighs about three pounds+. Note that the cribbing has since been entirely replaced, now to make protective covers for the two commutators.

Edit: Due to the date, I suspect that this might have been from some WW2 device, maybe a motor generator set.

Lionel Track Maintenance Car

Charlie

@MartyE posted:

Here ya go...

Autographed William Shatner Star Trek "Captain Kirk" boxcar.

Now that is cool, especially signed by Capitan Kirk...

Colorful Lionel Operating TV Monitor Car, with a rotating TV camera, always gets a smile.  The blue men are on break.

Charlie

This intermodal train has both of my "train car oddities:" the first are the flatbeds loaded with Transformers robots and the second being my roadrailer collection, 6 of which are K-line railmates and the final 3 are kitbashed from an Optimus Prime trailer, two MTH trailers, old Lionel MPC caboose trucks, and a few scrap legos to hold everything together.

Lionel Transformer depressed center car.  Be careful with this one!

Charlie

Giraffe cars in action:

I model the 1948-1949 time period, so when I saw this Weaver boxcar I had to have it.

While the Playboy convertible had several innovative features, only 97 production cars were made before the company went bankrupt. 

@Choo Choo Charlie posted:

Lionel Track Maintenance Car

Charlie

I have that same maintenance car, but the railings are missing on mine.

Prewar Lobaugh O scale reefer cars

P&S flat car and scratchbuilt crane

1938 Parmele & Sturges EP3

Hard to find original Lionel 2347

A couple of my homemade loads. 

The top one is a jet from my gas furnace .         Bottom:  I made a cradle for the poles and hot-glued them together.

Here's a remote controlled auto carrier loaded and unloaded.

That's neat Bob.  Have any problems stopping the cars when discharged?

Many of you guys are great at building or buying "outside the box".

Charlie

The prewar American Flyer 3212 butterdish milk tank car, restored as BFIX 520 with postwar MTH passenger car trucks.  This is the only surviving butterdish car, preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum.

3424 Operating Brakeman Car with 6464-275 shell.  Bought the shell for $ 10.00.

Rock Island missile launcher in 1970s "The Rock" scheme.  The missile launcher fits on any of the heat exchanger cars.

Gondola with Christmas lights.  The lights are from an LED necklace, illuminated with Evans Designs LEDs.

Probably neither rare nor unusual but as a kid I only had a lowly 6257 caboose that came with my 2035 set and always wanted a 6457. Early on after my return to 3 rail I found I could upgrade one with the repro parts available today. That and 6357.

Pete

Boxcar autographed by Lenny Dean.  Bought this for the trucks for $15.00 but kept it because of the autograph.

A Campbell's Soup train, the engine bought from a fourm member a few years ago.

McDonald's Beanie Babies from about 20 years ago ( I think).  I made bench type seats and twist-tied them in.  Also put small rubber bands around their arms to keep from hitting scenery.

cbq

At last an American Flyer Borden's Milk Tank Car.  Very nice and great profile not like that fat Lionel version.

Great posts All.

Below is my homemade Lionel Style Life Savers Double Dome Tank Car.  My car will hold two flavors of Lifesavers candy syrup !  A good fun homemade car project and I had a good time looking for that Life Savers pack of candy for the logos.  Cracker Barrel came though.

Charlie

F9 Well Car a unique type of flat car.

A Patriot Missile battery flat car

A custom made battery powered searchlight car

A holographic aquarium car

A Strategic Air Command Minute Man Missile car.  Two different prototypes existed, the 1960s era Minuteman Mobility test trains and the 1980s Peacekeeper Rail Garrison.

A custom made auxiliary water tender.  The manufactured ones were way too expensive.

A Track Maintenance car

The Allis Chalmers condenser car. A "well hole" flatcar, prototype ACMX 4000 built in1957,the Lionel version originally cataloged from 1958-1961.  Lionel trains were on the cutting edge of railroading.  Lake state Archives even has a photo of it painted a dark color (blue perhaps) lettered for Siemens Allis.

Vat cars, enclosed and open sided used to haul cucumbers to the processing plants to become pickles.

Lionel Jet Snow Blower, early production with functioning smoke unit to emulate blowing snow.  I also have one in NYC livery.  I believe latest production didn't have smoke.

Lionel 19825 Electro Mobile Power Car

Charlie

What could possibly go wrong...?

@Don Winslow posted:

What could possibly go wrong...?

If it is like mine, all of the fluid leaked out where the car had been stationary for months; the really odd thing? There was NO puddle or damp spot under the car! I guess that the aliens reclaimed their people.

A couple of cars that I am adding to this neat, informative train:

1. An all-aluminum hopper by a forerunner of ALCOA:

2. A helium tanker:

3. A scratch-built (July 1939) hand-lettered B&O class O-58 "gondola" (it has sides), actually an early type of pig flat:

4. A unique piece of whimsy built out of the pieces left over from making three-bay hoppers out of Weaver two-bay hoppers. I got this at the San Antonio O Scale National.

Dave

My father worked for the Aluminum Ore Company in E St Louis in the 1930s and 40s.  I used to have trouble pronouncing Aluminum as a kid.  We both worked for ALCOA later.

Your car is missing the cover with doors for loading the granular alumina use by a smelter to make aluminum metal.  Alumina must be protected from rain and trash.

Who make that car and is it O gauge ?

Charlie