National Parks Box Car proposal

What a great idea! Let's hope it happens. It would make me start buying rolling stock again...

John

Thanks, John

I think we're on a roll here.

There are 59 national parks.  So say 3 cars a year for 20 years.

And to be politically correct we wouldn't want to overlook the 129 national monuments.  (Devils Tower is a monument).  So if you do one, you have to include everybody to be fair and politically correct.

So add 3 cars a year for national monuments and we get another 43+ years added to the product plan for prospective O gauge collectors. 

It's possible that the marketing plan and sales forecast may not align with the OGR forum but who knows.  Companies have done candy, beer, baby food, soda pop, fast food outlets, cigarettes, some presidents, some inventors, JLC series, etc, so there is a possibility. 

Best hope would be to have the guy in the orange hall do them.   I think his initials are RGS .  He is on the aisle endcap close to Charles Ro.  I have 3 of his various cars and they are awesome.

I'm in. If Lionel would do something along the lines of the graphic arts that they are using on the World War II boxcars it could be stunning. I would buy everyone offered. How about a Mikado with the National Park Service badge on the tender and matching caboose to boot.

Ed, you have opened a big can of worms'..  This is what the masses call a capital idea''...  This would have been a great idea on the RPO cars back in the day.  I guess since the railroads didn't receive any revenu from the parks, they never gave it a thought'.  Images of the natural beauties on the side of  a RPO would of been a nice touch...

The Milwaukee Road advertised national parks a lot. Here's some ideas for cars. Don

The Milwaukee Road even had a station for Yellowstone as seen in this Milwaukee Road public relations shot. They had a special bus to take you to the park. 

 Don

Public domain Picture

I’m in!

I would consider purchasing something like that. I really don't purchase much rolling stock, most of what I have rolling stock wise is via the Manufactures' Clubs

ToledoEd posted:

We just returned from a trip to Yosemite, King's Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks as well Muir Woods.  I'm still looking at the majesty of those places in my mind's eye as I sit typing this post.  I'll be on the prowl for an "El Capitan" boxcar at York and then I thought, we have Box Cars that capture many landmarks and other  historical artifacts, airplane Nose Art, Tomb of the Unknowns, The Smithsonian series, etc., but I've not seen anything that captures the majesty of the national parks. Boxcars with images of El Capitan, the Grand Tetons, Grand Canyon, Devils Tower, etc., would, in my humble opinion, be a spectacular addition to a collection.  I know I'd buy any such series as I've collected the nose art.  Lionel (Lion Scale) or Menard's...hope you're reading this and it sparks an interest.  "Oh beautiful, for spacious skies...."

Count me IN if they do!  I just returned from Yosemite and Devil’s Postpile National Monument. LOVE our national parks!  Great idea!

Here’s an image from my trip to Yosemite last week!

I am liking this idea. Good thinking. 

Dave, love the pictures. Devil's Postpile is truly unbelievable when you see it.

Scale Rail, I love the old National Parks poster art. I am very appreciative of the advertising era when "Illustrators" ruled the day.

John

Had the same idea for Lionel's Design Your Own Boxcar Contest but was insufficiently satisfied with the artwork to submit these.  Artwork too rectangular maybe?  BTW these are my own photographs and artwork so no risk of copyright infringement.

Update:  Conductor Earl's comment below reminded me of another reason this two-sided boxcar commemorating national parks was never submitted to the aforementioned contest.  The National Park Service arrowhead logo carries a registered trademark, permission for use of which is limited to purposes contributing to their work.  Suppose boxcars could be sold in park gift shops to contribute but offer no assurance that idea would fly.  I have replaced the original photographs with the NPS logo removed in the modified photographs but left a shadow where the logo was on the right side of the photographs so one can see the original intent.  I apologize for the oversight.      

I would love to see these as well.  Many of our nations first national parks had railroad service.  Yellowstone had Northern Pacific via Gardner, Milwaukee via West Yellowstone, and I believe the Union pacific came in from the south.  Yosemite had a railroad from Merced and both Glacier NP. and Denali NP. even today are accessible via railroad.  These cars could be made really special with additional memorabilia and park history included.  Atlas? Lionel? MTH?  or maybe one of the dealers who contracts for special runs could launch this? I'll let someone with legal expertise comment on the viability for licensing.

scale rail posted:

The Milwaukee Road advertised national parks a lot. Here's some ideas for cars. Don

I love this type of post card art promoting the beauty of our country.

The old National Park posters I posted are public domain. Don

Perhaps they could be guided by the US Treasury which is issuing 56 quarters in the "America the Beautiful" series which started 10 years ago. First year had Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Yosemite. I'm sure you've all seen some of them in your change? (You do still use actual money don't you?)

Beautiful vintage art, would enjoy seeing these on a boxcar series. I'd buy the series.

We don't necessarily need the big guys to buy in... lots of train clubs create private cars. This might be an interesting niche for an entrepreneurial train lover.

Jan

These National Park Posters were all from 1938 and all prints available from Shorpy. Don

hobby-go-lucky posted:

Had the same idea for Lionel's Design Your Own Boxcar Contest but was insufficiently satisfied with the artwork to submit these.  Artwork too rectangular maybe?  BTW these are my own photographs and artwork so no risk of copyright infringement.

Love it. The basic boxcar in National Park Service Green with the WPA (1930s) artwork and some technical information such as year inducted, acreage, annual visitors, etc and we're in business. BTW, I love the original WPA artwork and always buy the postcards at every park. We went to Glacier National Park this summer and thumbed through a book of a husband and wife team that does new artwork based on the color scheme and style of the original WPA artwork. Can't remember their names but they did nice work also, even though I prefer the original WPA artwork.

Edited 10/11/19 to remove photos

This would be a great idea for Menards. 

Dave

ToledoEd,  Fantastic idea!!!!

Hobby-go-lucky, I like the design you have a lot.  I would increase the size of the park artwork , maybe use those famous posters also shown in this thread.  Do not forget the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, served by regularly scheduled passenger train service via the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.  

Interesting idea!

I'm way past the stage of accumulation where I would try to go for a "complete" set of something like this, but I could see buying a few (maybe more than a few, but probably less than a dozen ) of them and maybe an engine/caboose combo to pull them (similar to what I'm doing with the US President boxcars right now).

-Dave

Ed, glad you guys had a wonderful time at the parks. Some of the best vacations we have had are road trips to the different parks. I grew up running around Muir Woods. Sorry to say we only have one National Park here, Haleakala National Park. 

I think a great idea for Lionel or others is to make a box car with the old type posters on the side like I posted. Only make them for the larger parks with gift shops and only sell the car with that park on the sides. That way you could collect the cars from only the parks you visited. Don

National Park Service Photo

That 30s and 40s art work is just stunning.  There is a lot of it in old buildings and post offices to this day.  I don't know if you can still tour the Justice Dept in DC but there are murals on the fifth floor that are outstanding.

Potrzbe, There are many WPA projects in San Francisco. Coit tower has a beautiful one. I think with the popularity of this style of art, they would make great railroad cars. Don

Don, adding WPA art would also be very cool, indeed.  

The graphic arts of today is no match for the great illustrators of the mid 20's through the mid 60's......... Illustrators and Draftsman.  Two subjects I studied in High school along with print, metal, and wood shops'.... The new electronic age has deprived kids of today  learning these valuable skills....

Okay, back to box car park art'...

I certainly would be in. Can you imagine the pictures we could get with Lionel’s new printing method? They would be stunning. Are you listening lionel?

I don't collect such things, but I think this is a great idea for the many who do. I'm sure the NPS would have to license the use of their logo, but they have got to like the idea.    

I have a great idea?

Just glue on all of the 56 National Park State Quarters onto a old box car.

Could do a box car with the state quarter?

May be heavy but it will look cool?

I have to collect all my quarters so my son, grandson and I can use them at the Arcades in Ocean City, MD. Trumpers target gallery still requires quarters, among others.  

Remember when K-Line and Lionel did all the cars - plus a loco and caboose - for the 50 States Quarters? They weren't all boxcars; some were hoppers and some were gondolas. Some were actually banks with a slot so you could put money into them.