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waw47
Hudson
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 Posted - March 03 2015 : 11:42:03 PM
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The Alcan Hopper was considered by many to be a Tyco Promo car, but maybe not.
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/IKQAAOSwrklU7G9Q/$_57.JPG
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Posted - March 04 2015 : 10:15:53 AM
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http://tycotrain.tripod.com/freightcars/id22.html
yeah its a promo car according to the link 
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Posted - March 04 2015 : 11:52:55 AM
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quote:
Tyco promo car and Mantua production item?
http://tycodepot.com/
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Posted - March 04 2015 : 1:24:23 PM
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Mine has the Tyco ID on the bottom... but some things from that era of Mantua are blurred with cross pollination.
My understanding is that one reason the Tylers spun "New Mantua" off, once Tyco decided to consolidate production to their HK operation, was to keep the original Woodbury plant running by producing the USA-made items they were equipped for. This is why some of the legacy items reappeared, while a limited license was apparently granted to some (importantly, not ALL) of the items developed in the Consolidated Foods era. To that end, I've been told by a few sources that most of the promo cars made by Mantua are, non-coincidentally, linked to businesses with local ties to that area: drumming up business with the promise of custom quantity and quick turnaround. If it smacks of desperation, it was. Find any excuse to keep the place running.
The Center Flow is of course part of the Consolidated Foods breed of freight cars exclusively tooled and sourced from Hong Kong: a Tyco attribution makes sense. Counterpoint: the 50' boxcar was made in both places, but New-Mantua never changed the ID marks for their own releases. This may be because they still had a contract to fulfill certain orders for Tyco.
So in that sense of mutual favors, did Mantua source a batch of Center Flows from Hong Kong, either pre-decorated, or for themselves to paint? Either is plausible, I guess. Alcan obviously has no use for boxcars, but the Alcan Center Flow is essentially an easily re-branded Old Dutch. Even easier, the Pfizer Center Flow (note the local-promo connection of Pfizer being based in New Jersey) is a mylar decal on a plain gray car. Presumably Mantua did not have the proper masks to paint the Center Flow in Woodbury, so to make a promo car sale they used stickers applied locally instead. Still, the Pfizer car also has the Tyco ID mark.
But the Tyco mark is confusing. Mantua's promo car offerings were fairly limited, yet even the tankers and open hoppers still said Tyco on the bottom, having been produced in the USA before and during the Hong Kong boom.
Originally I attributed the "boxing" vendor to the tooling source: in this case noting the Center Flow, PS Covered, 60' box and other HK car assets remained there with Tyco (and ultimately went to IHC). Since then the New-Mantua connection has been revealed as much more complex.
It's hard to argue with a nice crisp box, which mine did not have. But then it's unlabeled, and those can be swapped, so who knows? I'm leaning toward "Mantua" but there's obvioulsy a Tyco connection, and ultimately the car is genuinely rare so any unlabeled box is a wash. Tyco also made some HTF cars for direct competitor Bachmann before the latter's acquisition by Kader... some of those boxes are labeled.
Would be interesting to know the backstories...
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Posted - March 04 2015 : 6:17:47 PM
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 That's actually a very interesting history lesson there, goingincircles. 
-Steve
"A lot of modellers out there who go to these train shows see broken HO stuff and go, 'This is useless' when, in reality, they can still be used for modeling whether it's as a prop on your layout or a cool project to make something old new again."
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