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

Here is a car I just finished this past weekend:

Full story on my blog here: https://dandhcoloniemain.blogs...e-transport-car.html

Ben

Love it as I love hot dog cars of all kinds.  I have a few smaller Hot Wheels versions on the layout.

Charlie

What a great load this flat car has.

Charlie

@Choo Choo Charlie posted:

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.

Who make that car and is it O gauge ?

Charlie

It is two-rail O but I have no idea who the maker was.

EDIT: I think that it may have been scratch-built or possibly a modified kit.

In the early 2000s the LIRR began scrapping the old Budd M1 MU fleet as the Bombardier M7 fleet was being delivered. The first ten cars to go offline were loaded onto 90 foot TTX flatcars leased by Bomb for the move to Mexico. Hulcher Services did the attachment of the de-trucked cars to the flats at a remote location on eastern Long Island. The trucks were loaded into two gondolas and added to the train. I was present at the job and decided later to create my own "scrap train" using various cars and material on hand.

The carbody is a Williams Amfleet car from a six-car set (all were used). I made cribbing to fit the well of the MTH TTX stack car that is masquerading as a flat to support the scrap car. Although the door arrangement is different from the M1 car, the car itself is the same. So, since no one ever modeled the M1 fleet it will have to do, close enough. Here it is under clearance testing on the MTH Hellgate Bridge soon to be on the layout. BTW- There will be a special instruction in my layout timetable prohibiting Double-Stack and High/Wide clearance cars from the Hellgate, or BANG!

One in the lll. museum implies they ran into Chicago, or, even St. Louis, Did butterdish cars run there?  Long admired but feared not geog. protorypical.  Hope this interestng thread lasts for a while.

The Borden's butter dish milk tank car (BFIX 520) at IRM was repurposed to haul glue after milk service ended.  The car went bad order at the customer, a box factory, and was forgotten until IRM acquired the car.

Sheriff Clay Hollister has a dispute with one of the residents of Tombstone, Arizona...

A customized Sheriff and Outlaw car using a PWC 3370 and a K-Line (nee Marx) S gauge boxcar body.  The K-Line shell fits on the Lionel mechanism if you cut out the internal bracing.  Had to drill a 2nd mounting hole for the body screw.  Cut holes in the roof with a cutoff disk.

Today I showed a video of the Lionel giraffe car, with the giraffe ducking under the tell tale, to my wife's 35 year old nephew and his 20 month old son. I showed them the video on my smartphone.

The dad loved it, and it might lead to him getting some Lionel trains for his son down the road. He lives in Boston, I'm in Northern Westchester County, NY, several hours away, but it's possible that one day he and his wife might bring their little boy to see my trains and layout in my basement.

The little boy looked a little puzzled. He watched the video and had a look on his face like he was thinking: what the H.... is this? LOL.

I think if the little boy saw the real toy train, he would have also loved it.

I've previously posted on this thread my 2 giraffe cars with the giraffes ducking under the tell tale.

Arnold

A Lionel Pickle Vat car had to be purchased the first chance I got.  A unique car for sure.

Charlie

Here is a photo of my scratch built Lionel 6413 Mercury Capsule transporting car and Mercury capsules.  This was a fun project.  The Mercury Capsules can be picked up with my Lionel Gantry crane too !

Details on how the car was built are at 52 OGR post below

https://ogrforum.com/...ra-027-layout?page=6

Charlie

Not the bottom of the car is finished and the track does not show like the Lionel version.

Here is a rare, of a rare, car that you won't find anywhere.  This is a 3-rail, built to scale, open top, passenger car of the Great Northern Railway circa 1912.  561 individual scratch-built pieces, by me.

@Choo Choo Charlie posted:

A Lionel Pickle Vat car had to be purchased the first chance I got.  A unique car for sure.

Charlie

I have a K-Line "Keokuk Canning"  tomato version:

and this unknown brand kit-built pickle car:

Here is a Lionel 3362 Helium Tank Unloading Car.  One can never have too much Helium!

Charlie

Custom made alien containment car. Made with a Lionel disconnect car and alien figure. Plus outdoor solar light parts and wife's empty makeup containers. Control panel is from a kids NASA playset.

I'll try again.  How about an open auto-rack for unusual and interesting?

As for rare, the prototype Allis Chalmers condenser car was truly a rare beast.  I posted an original earlier in this thread.  It was one of the cars my brothers and I had as kids.  When I got back into the hobby it was missing the guide wires, hold down straps, whatever they were supposed to be, and the brake wheels were broken off.  I found the wire supports at a train show but since the little tabs the brake wheels went into were broken off there was no fix.  When Lionel included this car in the Post War Celebration Series I had to get one. 

Notice the BLT date and the PW.

coach Joe

Thanks for posting.  I will have to add some hold down cables like yours on my AC condenser car.  Lionel made good use for those molds for an inverse or hump back flat car.

Dan

Very creative use of things around the house.

Charlie

I actually got replacements from a parts supplier at a train show.  It's been so long ago that I don't remember which supplier nor what the wire piece are actually called.

Custom lettered On30 beer reefer.

The Christian Brothers had a winery; the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) prefers beer.  Complete with motto.  The brewery's location is a real place.

Two more rareish cars.  A Montgomery Ward custom reefer and a Trains Magazine 25th anniversary box car from 1965.  This predates Kalmbach's making their special cars in multiple scales.

Here is a Lionel 8 inch gondola car with a homemade cover made from a junk boxcar roof.  Now the cargo will arrive nice and dry.  The four lugs on the cover allow removal with the gantry crane which is always looking for another job.

I have been enjoying all the great interesting cars being posted here.

Charlie

A Lionel train car truck transport car.  I use cheap plastic trucks and plastic wheels to keep the weight down.

Charlie

@coach joe posted:

Notice the BLT date and the PW.

I have one of those that a friend two-railed for me. I noticed that the "ACMX" is a bit slanted on mine, too. Anyway, I like the car and had wanted one for many years and found mine at a show for a decent but now un-remembered price. Comparing it to the prototype, it is reasonably accurate if about 10% or so smaller.

There is a thread on the forum: https://ogrforum.com/...almers-o-scale-model

Every post war layout should have a Wheaties, "Breakfast of Champions" Box car.

Charlie

@Choo Choo Charlie - Agree with the Wheaties car, now how about a "Chun King Orient Express" car !!

Best Wishes

Don

Double door opening on Box car makes loading automobiles into Box car possible.

Charlie

K-Line cars converted to Marx with replacement trucks.

cpq

I love your going from Kline or Lionel to Marx.  I run lots of both and have a few cars with Lionel on one end and Marx on the other.  Also have several coal tenders whose rear trucks can reverse from one to the other.

Charlie

Just stuck a Diesel powered generator on a work caboose chassis and cab to make a really useful wreck car.  All Train wreck trains need power.  I have another Diesel generator along side the round house, it is hard to turn a powered turntable without electrical power.

Charlie

The Target Launcher car, Lionel 19824, works very well and is one most fun car Lionel ever made.  It will suspend a small balloon and and the balloon will stay suspended and follow the car all around the layout.  This newer one has the blower powered from track voltage vs. batteries on the original.

But it will not work in tunnels and bridges with overhead frame work.  I have to remove my mountain with tunnels or remove my coal mine loading station to have a route to make it work in a loop.  I can run it back and forth on some longer tracks that do not have a tunnel or bridge.

Charlie

With suspended balloon that follows car around

Lionel passenger car with President Eisenhower and VP Nixon and a homemade, lighted  "IKE" medallion from the "I Like Ike", all 1950s stuff !  Passenger cars are Lionel O27 Baby Madison 9500 series “The Milwaukee Road” passenger cars

Charlie

The cars just keep getting better and better.

This is an unusual car and load for sure, a Lionel  3519 Satellite Launching car.

Charlie

Thom

That is an unusual car for sure.

Here is a homemade ORMET alumina covered hopper car number ORMX 987.  It has modern center fill top hatches making it easy to load and easier to build as a model.

It is unusual because ORMET Corp did not have any company railcars and used rental covered hopper cars.  I should know as I worked at ORMET alumina refinery at Burnside, LA,  on the mighty Mississippi River.

Charlie

A Lionel operating barrel car is lots of fun.

Charlie

A few from my collection:

Canadian Park observation dome in VIA.  One of about 12 made.

K-Line express car signed by Maury Klein on this side and Nick Ladd on the other. 

Lionel Missile Firing Car    Lots of fire power and lots of Action.  This one has an astronaut too.

Charlie

I've had this one for years. SD60M Demonstrator -- one of two custom painted by Jeff Sohn. Part of my collection of Demonstrators, though there are several I missed out on.

Matt,  Thanks for posting that big SD60M Demonstrator diesel.

A Lionel 19819 Chicken Sweeper car, purchased at a, what else, train show.

Charlie