@Don McErlean posted:Today I have what I might call a "stand in" for a car I still can't find. I have been trying to assemble a train of "I Love XX" boxcars for all the states we lived in over my career (7) and have found all but Maryland, which I discovered is very rare in this series and I have not seen one for sale (actually I saw one but it was listed as starting at $200 - too rich for me). So I found at auction a "stand in" for that "I Love Md" boxcar which is the Maryland boxcar from the 1776 series. Not perfect but close. This was produced by Lionel (MPC) as uncatalogued in 1974 & then in the catalogue for 1975-76. Here is the full side view
The Map side of the car. Yes that map is correct, the Chesapeake Bay just about cuts Md in half. We lived about 30 minutes south of Annapolis and I worked at the Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent River & we "owned" airspace over the Chesapeake for flight testing.
Best Wishes
Don
Nice Maryland car, Don! Those "Spirit of '76" cars were actually a very nice decorative accomplishment for Lionel, given the time (1970's). You may also be interested in acquiring the Maryland car from the 13-car series K-Line did to honor the first 13 states. Very nice decoration. They were not sold individually, but in 3-car packs. I wanted the Delaware car, so I had to buy it along with the Pennsylvania & Maryland cars at the time.
