Lionel Black Bonnet

K-Line made a beautiful set of 18" cars in Black Bonnet paint, but they are now hard to find and can be expensive. There was also a smaller set of cars in the K-Line by Lionel line - these were made to go with a traditional size Alco locomotive. I don't know if Lionel made any cars specifically to go with the postwar style Black Bonnets that Trainworld is blowing out - have you checked the Lionel website?

I may be wrong, But I seem to remember a set of Black Santa Fe box cars Lionel put out many many years ago specifically for those locomotives.

Bob,

My son went wild for the black bonnet F3 when he saw it at York.  Of course, dad doesn't have to be pressed too hard to buy a locomotive, or an F3.  It's a terrific locomotive -- all the postwar goodness of the F3 remains intact -- with a sharp and beautifully applied paint scheme and a nice horn and bell as well.  (I'm no poet, but I try.)  We run it with the traditional silver aluminum Santa Fe passenger cars, as well as with postwar rolling stock and it looks "natural."  Not that matching passenger or freight cars wouldn't be cool but my wife, as with many wives here I suspect, has to put some limits on the amount of domestic real estate that can be occupied with trains.

For that price, it's a steal:  I would grab it and the B unit too.  No shock there.  ;-)

K-Line made its streamlined open-platform business car in Black Bonnet paint. I just found one the other day at a reasonable price. Didn't have any real need for it but couldn't pass it up. 

There was also a set of freight cars by K-Line. A boxcar, aluminum tank car and 2-bay covered hopper, and a die-cast coal hopper. The boxcar is the easiest of the bunch to find, the coal hopper the hardest. There's also a caboose which is quite rare, and expensive when you find it. 

The later cars by Lionel are all traditional size, as far as I know. They do not measure up to the original K-Line products. There's the boxcar in Popi's post above, a TOFC, and I don't know what else.