New AF Mint Car

I want the Boston federal reserve when they hit the shelves.  Any pics of the car?

You know,  I had exactly the opposite reaction.  The mold work on the roof seemed crude and seems to make the mesh of the roof walk too large, and the end walks seemed to be out of scale. The bullion blocks looked too large to be convincing in 1/64 scale and the gold color seemed to make the car look very toy like.

 

I am glad that it pleased someone.  I was worried that the "Mint Cars" would sell poorly, and it would make Lionel less committed to American Flyer.  The more people who buy American Flyer, the more stuff they will make, and the better it will be for all of us.

 

Little Tommy

I've only have seen some test shots, but I don't really expect scale fidelity out of something like the mint cars.  However they do appear to be a bit of outrageous, but otherwise harmless fun.

 

(And yes, I apply a different lense to something like this vs. the likes of the cylindrical hopper.)

 

Actually, I'm waiting to see if Lionel uses this car body to make the Aquarium Car in S...

 

Rusty

Unfortunate to hear the detailing on the car is a coarse version, and not proportioned like the Lionel O car shrunk down. I may have one on order because I found the American Flyer or Gilbert mint version was appropriate since that's where all my "gold" goes. I'll find out if I did when the LHS calls me to say it's in.

I prefer toy-like with a shiny finish...hence I like it.

 

I like that too! It's a "Toy" Have fun with it!

Mike, I bought the "Naughty or Nice" Christmas version from Ro @ York.  It looks nice.  No gold bricks to worry about being out of scale.... one window has a pile of coal.... the other, two brightly-wrapped Christmas presents.  The "chunks" of coal are, however too big.... more like BOULDERS!  Ro had the gold plated one also..... you are right, it looked great.  Perhaps I should have snagged one of them!

An aquarium car would be a natural use of this tooling, as they already pretty much have the "swimming" mechanism with the reissued walking brakeman car. 

Certainly not prototypical, but fun.

Our club did the TCA national show in Baltimore 3 years ago.  One of the Baltimore area O-gauge clubs had a real live aquarium car running on the layout, with live g

Oops.  Didn't finish the last post.... Live goldfish with an aerator on the car.  Definitely a head- turner.

Nick C.

And don't forget about the new "swimming lobster car" that's part of one of the sets in the 2014 Lionel catalog.

 

I just looked at the 2014 Flyer catalog agian.  There is no aquarium car in it.  You must be looking at an O Gauge catalog.

Matt Ashba at the Toy Train Museum Presentation. while showing the New Mint and  Christmas Present & Coal Car, mentioned that American Flyer was would potentially make an Aquarium Car with the Tooling...

This is theoretical talk.... there is no Flyer aquarium car... yet.   But the release of a mint car sure makes the possibility greater.

Mint cars on display at last year's S Fest:

 

They indeed appear to be scaled-down O cars, which weren't true 1/4" scale anyways. 

 

Rusty

That just means the good little boys should look under the tree again for the steam locomotive...

 

The bad little boys get underwear, socks and a really cute, itchy sweater that they'll "grow into..."  

 

Rusty

The O Gauge Mint Car looks small compared to the real O Scale Freight Cars.

 

How tiny will the S Gauge Mint Car look compared to real S Scale freight cars?

 

 

Andrew

The S gauge Car measures 40 scale feet from one end of the body to the other, as do my "real S Scale" boxcars from American Models.  Now in the transition era boxcars varied a lot in size and the MTH (SHS) boxcars are smaller than the American Models PS-1, but the mint car is long enough and wide enough to not look out of place.  (of course it is a fantasy car, so who is to say what size it should be). 

 

However the roof walk and end walks are wider and coarser than those found on "Scale cars" which tend to make the car look smaller in isolation (but if it is side by side with a "scale" car, it looks like a car of the correct length with unusually proportioned roof and end walks).  To me it looks like a S gauge car that someone put O gauge roof walks and end walks on.  I am sure that the potential market for this car really doesn't care.

 

Little Tommy

The Flyer Mint Car is about the same size as traditional Flyer boxcars, where as the O gauge Mint Car is visually compatible with the traditional Lionel 6464 series boxcars, which are not 1/4" scale.

 

Rusty