Will lionel ever make add on ice cold express cars?

Hi Andy,

The LCCA MADE THE FIRST CAR THEN LIONEL MADE THE SET.

SOME ARE STILL AVAILABLE.

GG1GUYY

SAL GAMBINO

Little did we know that the set would become the poster-child of overseas labor issues in China which would mark the tip of the proverbial iceberg.   At the time this set was produced, it almost seemed like the regular workforce had walked off the job and alternate/replacement workers were used to quickly finish the set and ship it off to the States. 

The matching LCCA car is actually a step up in quality from those in the set, as it predated the Chinese labor/factory issues that are so commonplace today.  It now shows up periodically on eBay.  So while not extremely rare, it seems to carry a bit of a premium as compared to mechanical reefers in general.

Not sure if we'll see more "ice-cold express" branded reefers, but Lionel has produced quite a nice number of mechanical reefers over the years -- that together make a very nice modern-day freight train.  Not too many cars, so they're still a "manageable" number to be collectable.  All too often, production for some car types (i.e., Atlas-O reefers and Lionel ore cars, for example) becomes too unwieldy to collect them all.  That hasn't been the case with Lionel mechanical reefers (yet).  Of course, if you try to buy them all at once, they'll put a damper on your checkbook.  But if you've grabbed them as Lionel issued them (3 or 4 at a time, sometimes in 2-packs), it hasn't been too bad on the wallet.  Aside from the LCCA ice-cold express reefer, I don't recall any other "special runs" issued by clubs or dealers.

David

TTOS also had a BNSF ice-cold express reefer with a ETD. It is not similar in body style to LCCA's. Certainly not a scale example. The MTH version is also not similar to LIonel's / LCCA.