Mystery 1970's Atlas Gondolas (3R or 2R)

Those gons are definitely commercially decorated.  I have that same Virginian #22094 and I also have a C&O, but mine is #25808.  I bought mine second hand at train shows and I doubt they were boxed.

I believe that when Atlas-Roco eased out of the O scale market, there was a lot of undecorated rolling stock out there that I vaguely remember went to a couple of shops that were selling Atlas custom-decorated items in the 1990-2000 era -- box cars, stock cars and gondolas. Those might be from that era.

It is in fact early atlas-roco origin.

One of the custom painters of this early plastic O scale were Bev Bell.

this from internet:

Remember them?

This firm was started by a husband and wife, back during the late 1950's, as a side job, in their respective home in New Jersey and prospered for well over 40 years.

For the readers who are not familiar with Bev-Bel, they specilized in customing painting and decorating of HO, N and O Scale stock undecorted Athearn, Roundhouse, Train Miniaturer and others in HO, plus other scale manufacturers.

No deacaling used, print pad stencil method.

So, I had a few  of these found at O scale shows. I bought them at the Stamford (Connecticut) shows.  I had the two gondolas you have displayed,  and the box cars.
my favorite was a Susie Q , 40 footer. It had an image of Susie on it! Might possibly be able to find photos of them in an old PC. The wheels were plastic and the flanges were like Lionel wheels large enough to support their use on tubular rail. The standard coupler part of the truck assembly was a non operating but some of them had a swing. They fit in the standard  Lionel coupler. The models were light weight. Adding weight to them for use was an easy application. I would change the trucks and wheels on these. They were nicely detailed. The stock rolling stock had limited paint schemes and commercially they were easy to weather. Bev Bel made them irresistible!

@Leroof posted:

It is in fact early atlas-roco origin.

One of the custom painters of this early plastic O scale were Bev Bell.

...

That was one of them. I remembered the other one -- P&D Hobbies was issuing special runs of Atlas rolling stock and I believe they offered F9's based on the Atlas-Roco, but with modified pilots. The F9's were 2-rail only.

Susie Q photo I believe pad printed Bev Bel

• @AGHRMatt posted:

That was one of them. I remembered the other one -- P&D Hobbies was issuing special runs of Atlas rolling stock and I believe they offered F9's based on the Atlas-Roco, but with modified pilots.

In addition to Bev-Bel and P&D, Petersen Supply also offered custom runs of the “old” Atlas (Roco/AHM) gondolas.  I owned several of them at one time, but have since sold them all off.  I can still picture the white boxes with a cellophane window and red pinstriping.

Nearly all of my HO CNJ equipment was custom run Athearn by Bev-Bel in the 1980's.  They were the go to custom run company during my high school years.

Peterson Supply has also been a big supporter of custom runs.  I did several painting diagrams on 3rd Rail locomotives on their behalf for the FP7 and the E7 projects.

I really like these C&O & Virginian gondolas.  I'll have to keep my eyes open now that I know they exist.

@GG1 4877 posted:

Nearly all of my HO CNJ equipment was custom run Athearn by Bev-Bel in the 1980's.  They were the go to custom run company during my high school years.

I always wondered why I would see “BEV-BEL” on the typewritten labels from Athearn and Roundhouse boxes. It all makes sense now.

I don’t know how 10 year old me functioned without the Internet. I literally had zero resources for model train info in mid to late 80s rural Pennsylvania. Other that the 10 minutes I would quiz the shop keeper at the local hobby store until my mother said “time to go!”

@rplst8 posted:

I always wondered why I would see “BEV-BEL” on the typewritten labels from Athearn and Roundhouse boxes. It all makes sense now.

I don’t know how 10 year old me functioned without the Internet. I literally had zero resources for model train info in mid to late 80s rural Pennsylvania. Other that the 10 minutes I would quiz the shop keeper at the local hobby store until my mother said “time to go!”

Funny you should mention this.  I was 14 when my dad started taking me to train meets in NJ and eastern PA.  That would have been circa 1983.  I really wanted the HO Athearn / Bev-Bel Trainmaster in CNJ and ran across one at a meet, but the seller wouldn't take my $20 dollar bill against his $25 asking price.    I was literally devastated as I had around 10 Athearn / Bev-Bel heavy weight cars and a GP9 in "Red Baron" paint.  At that time the CNJ Trainmaster was my unicorn!  I already had a GG1 by then manufactured by Pemco which started me down the rabbit hole of GG1 collecting.

It helped me that my dad, to this day, is an HO modeler and collector and got his interest in the hobby from my grandfather who started collecting HO in 1947 after an honorable discharge from the US army after his service during WWII.   

Honestly, I'm not sure the internet would help much now with a history of Bev-Bel custom runs.  At least I have not run across much.  I'd love to see more.

Sorry to deviate from the OP topic.  Mystery paint schemes are always fascinating regardless of scale.

Weaver did a lot of painting for Bev-Bel.

Those atlas/roco rolling stock I used to run in a switching layout via All Nation diesel switcher power . Bev bell painted were worth the price.
Peterson supply! I still have a few. Some connection with Northeast trains I suspect.

good quality affordable items.

Sounds like these were like some of the Weaver custom run cars I've run across in that they don't have item numbers, so it's looking increasingly likely the closest we're going to get is maybe pinning down which entity commissioned these paint schemes.

---PCJ

I have  a C&O and NKP version of these gons I purchased,I think new, at P&D.    I have never seen the Virginian before.   

Why no photo of the underframe was posted, I do not know but plainly stamped in the channel of the underframe of the Atlas cars is "ATLAS" on one end and "MADE IN AUSTRIA" on the other end. I checked one of mine this morning and saw that.

Just eyeballed my two gondolas, and they also say "Atlas" and "Made in Austria"

Incidentally, my AHM gondolas have in the same relative location, "POLA Max"

---PCJ