New Iroquois Beer reefer

That one rates the gold star, super nice.

What great artwork! A sharp looking car.

Love it !!

I'm in for a pair. Along with the Milwaukee rib sides, Weaver at this point is getting a good chunk of my budget for the next few months. And made in America to boot!


Milwrd

I am not sure but who was offering it but in CTT new issue there is a ad for purchase of a new Gennesee Beer car as well. The two would look sharp together for all us Westrn New Yorkers!

Yea,I have fond memories of Iroquois and Genny Cream Ale for $0.99 a six pack at Tops many years ago! (and sometimes $0.89 on special)

Norm

Gotta get one of those for sure!

Steve Tapper

Lionel Operating Train Society (LOTS) is the club offering the Genesee Beer & Ale car:



Genesee Beer Car

Hello Al,
Thanks for the heads up! These are definitely on my list.

No problem guys. I ordered two today. I hope they do a second road number.

Hello Al,

Is this in their Fall Catalogue for 2011? It is not on their website as of today.
Thanks,
Paul S

quote:

It is not on their website as of today.

Yes, it is. Go to the Product Locator, and scroll down to the last item,
"Wood Side Refrigerator Cars." Hit "Transfer Ticket" and you're there. Here's a direct link. There's another beer reefer as well, "Screaming Lobster Lager."

Weaver Wood Side Reefers

Buffalo Creek Graphics recently had cars for iroquois Beer and also one for Indian Head Ale. The same for Phoenix and William Simon which also were Buffalo Brewerys
The Genesee by MTH had bad more accurate graphics than the projected LOTS Car. The MTH car was easily 2 railed by dropping the floor and replacing with a wooden floor with 2 rail trucks and Kadees.
One Buffalo brewery car that won't be made is one for the brewery on Fillmore Ave near the Broadway Fillmore Shopping area. This was Schreibers.They made good beer and their Old Stock Ale was excellent. An early entrant in 1950 or 1951 in the dismantling of local brewerys. You could walk acroww the street to Mellingers to get a cold one.
Another brewery that used Lake Erie water was Langs on Jefferson Ave. and somehow Downs got inot the act. I never quite figured out how.They had somthing called Arf and Arf.

It's on their web site as previously indicated as I ordered 2 off there this morning.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Culliton:
Buffalo Creek Graphics recently had cars for iroquois Beer and also one for Indian Head Ale. The same for Phoenix and William Simon which also were Buffalo Brewerys

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Culliton:
One Buffalo brewery car that won't be made is one for the brewery on Fillmore Ave near the Broadway Fillmore Shopping area. This was Schreibers.They made good beer and their Old Stock Ale was excellent. An early entrant in 1950 or 1951 in the dismantling of local brewerys. You could walk acroww the street to Mellingers to get a cold one.
Another brewery that used Lake Erie water was Langs on Jefferson Ave. and somehow Downs got inot the act. I never quite figured out how.They had somthing called Arf and Arf.

Good info Bill. I remember the name Langs but not Schreibers. Both were gone before before I was able to try them.

Pete

Thanks for posting the link to order this car from Weaver. I just placed my order!

Steve Tapper

The other Buffalo brewery which I forgot to mention was Becks. This was made in Buffalo even though there was also a German beer with the same name.

Any beer reefer is a good reefer.

Hi,

I believe Stein's was another Buffalo brewery and a sponsor of Friday night wrestling on TV back in the '50s. Also Koch's Beer in or near Buffalo.

Dicks

Did Koch's also make Black Horse Ale?--a pretty good brew in it's own right.
Ordered my car today also.
Norm

Norm Kochs made Deer Run Ale , Genesee made 12 Horse Ale and some Canadian outfit made Black Horse. It wasn't Labatts and I don't think Molson but I can't think of the brewery.

You guys are killing me! I grew up in Niagara Falls and remember all those beers. I may have to re-think my schedule and add a run of beer cars.

Bill,
Wikipedia says Koch's did Black Horse Ale. Anyway,it was a good brew. There were a lot of good brews back in the day--all gone now.

Norm

I'm sure with the renewed popularity of beer reefers a lot more of the old "fallen flags" of regional beers may soon be reborn!

These old labels bring back a lot of nostalgic feelings for certain parts of the country and to our credit many of us still remember when they were still in business.

In the late 1800's when many immigrants came to America from Europe and settled throughout the country they brought their own special recipes for beer and ale with them.

They brewed their beers and the more popular ones stayed around for many years.

Here in Baltimore there were literally hundreds of small home town brewers but as time went by people started settling on certain brands putting most of the small guys out of the retail business. Brands like National Bohemian Beer, Gunther Beer, American Beer, and Arrow Beer to name a few all enjoyed many years of success.

This story was repeated all over the country especially after the downfall of prohibition! Every major city had their own strong local brands and some enjoyed popularity outside of their hometowns as well becoming strong regional brands.

During the early 1970's I lived in Syracuse, NY and covered half of upstate New York as a Field Manager for the National Brewing Company. We marketed Cold 45 Malt Liquor through distributors in my territory from Syracuse to Albany, from Malone, NY on the Canadian border down to Binghamton, NY and from Plattsburgh, NY down to Hudson & Poughkeepsi, NY.

I learned a lot about the popular brands of beer in each market as I studied the inventories of my distributors. The common goal among distributors was to market a "national brand", a Budweiser, Miller, Schlitz, Pabst, a strong regional brand like Genesee, Rhinegold, Utica Club, Schaefer, and of course specialty brands like Colt 45 Malt Liquor. Most distributors also carried "imported" brands like Lowenbrau, Heineken, Molson, LaBatts, Guiness, etc.

I would ride along with the distributor salesmen and promote Colt 45 while at the same time get a feel for the favorite local beers in every market.

It was a fun job but way too much time on the road as I was out of town every other week from Monday to Friday.

Steve Tapper

More suds,

Remember Standard Brewery and also Topper in Rochester. The latter would make a good one to model--a black profile of a man's head and a tophat.

Dick

If someone would grab the bull by the horns on this one there could be a series of cars that could rival the Atlas reefers. The list could go on and on: Schlitz,Piels Wide Mouth,Ortleib's,Stoneys,Old Shay,Colt 45,Big Cat Malt,Black Label and many,many more that we as individuals don't even know about.
If they would be as striking as the Iroquois car there would be a lot of sell outs.
I'd also like to add Silver Top to the list!

Norm

quote:

Originally posted by Norm:
If someone would grab the bull by the horns on this one there could be a series of cars that could rival the Atlas reefers. The list could go on and on: Schlitz,Piels Wide Mouth,Ortleib's,Stoneys,Old Shay,Colt 45,Big Cat Malt,Black Label and many,many more that we as individuals don't even know about.
If they would be as striking as the Iroquois car there would be a lot of sell outs.

Norm

You're right Norm! The problem is doing the homework to see if any of the brands are copyright protected. In some cases the brand labeling and brewing rights were picked up by a larger brewery. An example would be G. Heileman Brewery who picked up some of the brands like National Boh, Colt 45, Carling Black Label, etc.

Later on some of these brands were picked up by other breweries. At one time Iroquois Brands had the Colt 45 label. Carling merged with the National Brewing Company in the late 70's to become Carling National. They also brewed Tuborg beer.

Some of the brands you mentioned have had beer reefers made in the past. I have several Schlitz reefers plus reefers from Miller, Carling Black Label, Natural Light, and Strohs to name a few. I currently have 32 beer reefers not counting the one I just ordered from Weaver, the Iroquois Beer Reefer.

My guess is that it takes a lot of work to figure out who owns the copyrights and artwork for many of these old brands. In some cases maybe no one owns them.

Steve Tapper

i have a listng of ber cars in scales larger than HO which I generated over the years from 1999 to 2005 . I think there are over 700 different listings of beer cars. I quit and got rid of the 80 beer cars I had when I went back to traction modeling.
Norm I find that Wikepedia can contain some gross inaccuracies. For example in the article on Buffalo Trolleys they show companies that had no affiliation with the International Railway as being part of tht combine.
Also the last time I looked the names of the IRC funeral cars were wrong.

It's interesting because there is a Blackhorse Ale railcar for sale on ebay presently. It is a really nice looking car with nice graphics and Dunkirk,NY very prominently displayed.
I remember stopping in Westfield,I think,and driving up to the lake for lunch at a neat spot and drinking Black horse Ale. There are probably a number of makers of "Black Horse Ale",including Canadian brewers.

Norm

quote:

reefers from Miller

k-line went under before they did the miller girl in the moon reefer. i really wanted that one.

beer reefers are insidious. you can't resist them. i had the first apache reefer. swore i didn't need the second. got it after all.

am real happy to have my sprecher reefer.

Didn't Atlas do the Girl in the Moon reefer as part of a 2 car Miller set?

quote:

Didn't Atlas do the Girl in the Moon reefer as part of a 2 car Miller set?

Yes,Atlas did two different 2-car Miller sets as special runs for Walthers. One paired the Lady and Moon with a car with just the Miller name and the other set was the Miller Eagle with a different lettering-only design.

K-Line did get their Lady in Moon car out just before they went under. The K-Line one is scarce, hard to find, and usually expensive when you do find it. I seem to recall that I got mine at that big train show outside Chicago, and that I paid the most for it of any of my K-Line reefers. K-Line also did the eagle and both text-only versions, as well as one commemorating the first shipment of Miller High Life to Alaska. The Alaska car had a CMStP&P herald. All of the K-Line Miller reefers are scarce, the most common being the one with "Miller High Life" on one panel and the reefer owner on the other.

Lionel also did the Lady and Moon design, on a traditional size woodside reefer as part of a special run for Walthers. The other car in the set was the eagle.

I have all three Lady in Moon cars. Sorry I can't post pictures, the cars are buried under a pile of other rolling stock.

Norm I stand corrected and even though I spaent some time in Dunkirk it might well have been that Kochs made a Black Horse Ale or is this when Genesee owned them? Alas it is difficult to be perfect and this is my first error for the year.

Hey Bill,
A brew is a brew. A Blackhorse Ale car would look great next to the Iroquois car. It would also be great if we could get a few cases and chat about years gone bye. Now that would be nice.

Norm

"K-Line did get their Lady in Moon car out just before they went under."

Really? I am certain les lines told me they didn't. Now I will be sad I don't have one.

I would love to get that William Simon reefer but I don't find it on Buffalo Creek's website. Are these limited run when they're gone they're gone cars or is there a secret source?
Remember the Simon Pureheart radio ads?

Clinker, I too would like to have one or both of the William Simon cars. I have all of the other Buffalo Creek beer reefers but these. Some how I missed this run. And yes, these are limited run cars.


Milwrd

mine showed up today. no pictures can do this car justice. It is STUNNING! for less than $60 delivered to my door, I know which company will be getting a lot of my freight car money this year! AND MADE IN AMERICA.

I am from Milwaukee so I had to have a beer train running on my railroad. I have two versions of the girl in the moon plus a bunch of other Miller beer cars. I also have Schlitz, Blatz and Pabst cars. Our cemetary in Milwukee has one section where many of the founders of these breweries are buried. That is also why our baseball team is named the Brewers.