Lionel Coke set cars - individually boxed

Hmm, that's interesting.  I have never seen them in the individual boxes.

The Coca Cola set was my first train set as a kiddo.  My dad had purchased them at work.  He worked at phila coca cola.  I found them Christmas morning running around the tree.  I think we only had them around the tree for a few years, then I wound up setting up a layout in the basement

I still have that set.  I picked up another boxed set at York a few years ago, just to have the box, and another set for display.

I love this set as it is what started my affinity for model trains!

I don't think that label is factory original. It looks as if someone took an old box and did a nice job of printing a mailing label. I would further guess that it was done for storage purposes, as that person did not have the set box.

I don't think that label is factory original. It looks as if someone took an old box and did a nice job of printing a mailing label. I would further guess that it was done for storage purposes, as that person did not have the set box.

Could be. But as I poster earlier, I've seen more than the six that were at the NETCA show. Could have been a jobber too.
That said, Lionel did package other pieces of rolling stock with the same style paper labels around then.

Or somebody did a set break-up and went to the trouble of providing boxes.  I can't imagine a single collector doing multiples of that. 

I like that jobber explanation better. I know that over the years Lionel did a lot of "over labeling" on boxes, a pretty common practice in the MPC era. I'd have to look, but I thought those factory over labels had square corners. They also didn't always stick very well and fell off.

I'm not aware of separate sale on the 3 set cars. I suppose there could have been over run, or maybe someone came across a stash of bodies and doors, and assembled them into complete cars. Given the fact that we are more than 40 years removed from the original production, anything is possible.

I have a friend who is an avid Coca-Cola collector and one subset of his collection was model train cars. I do not recall him ever having individual boxed cars. Only the boxed set from Lionel.

BTW there is a unique car from the set that has a label for a Tennessee bottling plant. It was in an article in an early Classic Toy trains. I am fairly certain it is the Sprite car. I have never run across one in all the train shows I have gone to. 

I'm not aware of separate sale on the 3 set cars. I suppose there could have been over run, or maybe someone came across a stash of bodies and doors, and assembled them into complete cars. Given the fact that we are more than 40 years removed from the original production, anything is possible.

It may not be well known that Lionel did some of their own set break ups, offering individual cars from the sets by the case. I have a Lionel order form in my paper collection. Exactly how often they did this, or whether the Coke set was done is unknown to me. If they did, that would explain the boxes.

BTW there is a unique car from the set that has a label for a Tennessee bottling plant. It was in an article in an early Classic Toy trains. I am fairly certain it is the Sprite car. I have never run across one in all the train shows I have gone to. 

The Coke set was the brain child of Andrew Kriswalus, who made Kris Model Trains, and owned a business called the Railroad Shop. According to Andy, he was supposed to get the entire run, but Lionel reneged. While he wouldn't be specific, he told me there was a settlement over the issue.
We never spoke about it, but I read somewhere that he took some of the cars and had them over stamped for a bottling plant. But I thought the ones he did were for a local plant in Endicott, NY.  I don't any idea who would have done the Tennessee plant. I'm not positive on the over stamping.

I don't have any of the over stamped cars.

I purchased my first Coke set in 1974 from the Railroad Shop. I believe it was $40. I still have the set, I don't think I ever ran it.
I got into purchasing additional pieces because I had mine on display and my iguana climbed up the display shelves and knocked the Fanta car to the floor, damaging it.

The unboxed separate cars turn up with some frequency. The orange Fanta car seems to be the most common. A lot of the Fanta cars I've seen have very poor paint jobs, with lots of crud embedded in the paint.
Maybe they were rejects that someone put together.