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 Posted - July 12 2009 : 5:47:25 PM
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I have 3 different coal cars I would like to identify so that I can hopefully find good fitting loads for them.
I think they may all be 34' cars.
Car A, the L&N, has a 'load space' of 4 1/16" long by 1 1/8" wide.
Car B, the B&O 31434 has 4" by 1 1/8" & is split into 2 bays.
Car C , the faint B&O has a 4 1/16" by 1 1/8" space to drop a coal load into.
Any identification help would be appreciated. Ideally brand name & type, or whatever will allow me to search for a commercial load that will fit.
In the group photos they run A, B, C left to right.
Tanked
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Posted - July 12 2009 : 7:50:28 PM
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I'm only going to guess that A is a Life Like hopper. B is a kit? C is Varney, maybe, and it has the same dimensions as A. Nice examples though.
Alco Fan
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Posted - July 12 2009 : 9:47:16 PM
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quote:I'm only going to guess that A is a Life Like hopper. B is a kit? C is Varney, maybe, and it has the same dimensions as A. Nice examples though.
Originally posted by Alco Fan-July 12 2009: 7:50:28 PM
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Thanks
I wonderd if A was Athearn?
Perhaps someone can recognize the bent weight system inside the hopper as characteristic of a brand.
I thought B & C might be identifiable by their couplers.
I think B & C have been 'weathered' by age & use.
Tanked
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Posted - July 13 2009 : 03:39:40 AM
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A+C: Taking a close look to the rivets I guess A+C where made with the same tooling. Varney made plastic models from tools they used for metal models before. Lifelike later used Varney tooling too.
B: The coupler and they way the trucks where mounted (sideframes with screws) reminds me Varney did - this is a early car.
Also cornersteps On B+C are Varney like.
http://www.hoseeker.org/varneyinstructionscar/Varney1950HopperCarPg1.jpg
Erich
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Posted - July 13 2009 : 1:27:04 PM
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| Car A is Life-Like as i have an L&N 2bay blue coal car with same weight--if it were athearn--would have screw on trucks--not snap in talgo trucks
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Posted - July 13 2009 : 2:16:01 PM
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B is the real oddball...look at the couplers! It also looks like it has paper sides?
A is certainly Life-Like, C is probably Varney.
    
- Matt -
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Posted - July 13 2009 : 3:51:56 PM
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quote:B is the real oddball...look at the couplers! It also looks like it has paper sides?
A is certainly Life-Like, C is probably Varney.
Originally posted by MM 1498-July 13 2009: 2:16:01 PM
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Thanks re A & C.
I think B does have paper sides & perhaps a wood floor. The couplers are unusual.
I will try & post some more pictures of B tonight.
Tanked
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Posted - July 13 2009 : 4:52:31 PM
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Didn't Globe use couplers like that? I have an old pair of streamliners (pretty sure they're Globe/early-Athearn) with couplers very similar to the ones on car B.
Edited by - DaCheez on July 13 2009 4:53:31 PM
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Posted - July 13 2009 : 7:28:40 PM
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quote:Didn't Globe use couplers like that? I have an old pair of streamliners (pretty sure they're Globe/early-Athearn) with couplers very similar to the ones on car B.
Originally posted by DaCheez-July 13 2009: 4:52:31 PM
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There are 3 more shots of 'B' below. I think what caught my eye in the 1st shot is the screws in the trucks & that the coupler is 'pinned' down & can swivel about that pin.
The 2nd shot is to show what appears to be me to be wood grain under the paint on the bottom of the hopper.
The 3rd pic shows the vertical side braces on the hopper & they appear to have been glued on.
I suspect it was a wood & paper/ kit that has been assembled.
Tanked
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Posted - July 13 2009 : 8:16:33 PM
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TE,
That's a great vintage kit. That's our HO train heritage. I have here a: A. Life like I think like yours. B. a Varney repaint, C. an Athearn RTR for comparison.
Alco Fan
Edited by - Alco Fan on July 13 2009 10:08:12 PM
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Posted - July 14 2009 : 2:26:07 PM
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quote:TE,
That's a great vintage kit. That's our HO train heritage. I have here a: A. Life like I think like yours. B. a Varney repaint, C. an Athearn RTR for comparison.
Originally posted by Alco Fan-July 13 2009: 8:16:33 PM
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does that mean that the lifelike is shorter than 1/87?
is the athearn the same car, or better : do they have the same prototype? - Erich
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Posted - July 15 2009 : 06:26:02 AM
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I was giving you something to compare yours to, but you have a good question that I can't answer. You had mentioned Athearn so I thought I'd give you an example that I've had for more than 25 years, so that might eliminate any of yours from being Athearn.
Not trying to muddy the waters. Still nice examples and the kit, B, is awesome.
Here's a link.
http://www.hoseeker.org/varneyinstructionscar/Varney1950HopperCarPg2.jpg
The info from the above link I think clears up example C and is very much like B although an earlier example.
This might help with example A since I believe the Varney hoppers became Life Like over time.
http://www.hoseeker.org/varneyinformation/varneycatalog1967pg06.jpg
Thanks to HOseeker.
Alco Fan
Edited by - Alco Fan on July 15 2009 06:50:33 AM
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Posted - July 16 2009 : 02:58:54 AM
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No way! This hopper is VARNEY! - Erich
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Posted - July 16 2009 : 06:59:20 AM
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Sweet!, and an excellent example to boot.
Alco Fan
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Posted - August 18 2009 : 02:55:04 AM
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| The L&N car is a common Life-Like issue; the B&O with no ladders is a 1950-54 issue Varney (by '55 the ladders were molded on). The middle one is a puzzler - my book shows Varney hoppers as having sides of aluminum or brass prior to 1950. It has to be another brand. Silver Streak perhaps. Not Athearn or MDC.
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Posted - August 18 2009 : 3:56:43 PM
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Im going to take a WAG that the car Tanked has labeled B is a Megow model of a 50 ton steel hopper. They were inexpensive kits sold in the late 1930s, 1940s into the early 1950s. The basic kits consisted of wood, cardboard and paper and no trucks. They were extremely popular during World War 2 when metal toys werent being made. They were sold in the Five and Ten Cent Stores popular in that era. Cost was less than a dollar for the basic kit! Dress up kits consisting of thin diecastings were included in Megows higher priced kits. These added some detail if you could keep them glued to the wood! Flat tin couplers, supposedly compatible with Mantua loop and hooks were included.
If you were a train crazy kid during the war or if you lacked the serious funds needed to purchase a quality kit these and other brands like it are what you wound up with! Back in those days the modern adhesives we use today were not available! Homes were not air conditioned! So, after a couple of hot humid days the wood would absorb enough moisture to cause it to expand, warp and pop the glued joints loose. I dont care what they called the TV show, the 1950s were not Happy Days for model railroaders.
We called the couplers on Tankeds model B dummies. You could with difficulty, hook cars with them to together, they looked good and were a cheap maintenance free option enabling the operation of longer trains that stayed coupled together.
Loopy
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Posted - August 24 2009 : 07:10:31 AM
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Just woke up from a dream about Megow's kits... Thought of HO seeker's site and just looked there and found a bunch of stuff posted. It appears I'm mostly right. Tanked's car is a Megow's, the instruction sheet even has a picture of a B&O hopper with a number ending in 434. Price in 1939 was Fifty Cents. I was wrong about the trucks! Trucks were included, but they wouldn't stay together! This was the part of my dream that woke me up. Yep, sorta like a nightmare and those trucks were a nightmare. It's funny what you remember after all the years...
Tanked, I hope you enjoy the car more than I did...
Loopy
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Posted - November 13 2009 : 10:30:29 AM
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TankedEngine,
I have two of those L&N Dixie Line hoppers with loads.
When I got them, and I think it was on eBay, the seller stated that they were made by BevBel. I don't know if that company was a subsidiary of those mentioned or if I was given the wrong info. Anyway, I can't find them in my stash, so I really don't know, but was throwing out another possible answer to your question.
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Posted - November 13 2009 : 1:43:25 PM
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There's no picture, but a Dixie Line hopper is listed here:
http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/lifelikefreightcars/id32.html
That's always been one of my favorite LL molds. There's a covered version that I use with my cement factory.
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