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We just returned from a trip to Yosemite, King's Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks as well Muir Woods.  I'm still looking at the majesty of those places in my mind's eye as I sit typing this post.  I'll be on the prowl for an "El Capitan" boxcar at York and then I thought, we have Box Cars that capture many landmarks and other  historical artifacts, airplane Nose Art, Tomb of the Unknowns, The Smithsonian series, etc., but I've not seen anything that captures the majesty of the national parks. Boxcars with images of El Capitan, the Grand Tetons, Grand Canyon, Devils Tower, etc., would, in my humble opinion, be a spectacular addition to a collection.  I know I'd buy any such series as I've collected the nose art.  Lionel (Lion Scale) or Menard's...hope you're reading this and it sparks an interest.  "Oh beautiful, for spacious skies...."

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I think we're on a roll here.

There are 59 national parks.  So say 3 cars a year for 20 years.

And to be politically correct we wouldn't want to overlook the 129 national monuments.  (Devils Tower is a monument).  So if you do one, you have to include everybody to be fair and politically correct.

So add 3 cars a year for national monuments and we get another 43+ years added to the product plan for prospective O gauge collectors. 

It's possible that the marketing plan and sales forecast may not align with the OGR forum but who knows.  Companies have done candy, beer, baby food, soda pop, fast food outlets, cigarettes, some presidents, some inventors, JLC series, etc, so there is a possibility. 

Best hope would be to have the guy in the orange hall do them.   I think his initials are RGS .  He is on the aisle endcap close to Charles Ro.  I have 3 of his various cars and they are awesome.

Ed, you have opened a big can of worms'..  This is what the masses call a capital idea''...  This would have been a great idea on the RPO cars back in the day.  I guess since the railroads didn't receive any revenu from the parks, they never gave it a thought'.  Images of the natural beauties on the side of  a RPO would of been a nice touch...

ToledoEd posted:

We just returned from a trip to Yosemite, King's Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks as well Muir Woods.  I'm still looking at the majesty of those places in my mind's eye as I sit typing this post.  I'll be on the prowl for an "El Capitan" boxcar at York and then I thought, we have Box Cars that capture many landmarks and other  historical artifacts, airplane Nose Art, Tomb of the Unknowns, The Smithsonian series, etc., but I've not seen anything that captures the majesty of the national parks. Boxcars with images of El Capitan, the Grand Tetons, Grand Canyon, Devils Tower, etc., would, in my humble opinion, be a spectacular addition to a collection.  I know I'd buy any such series as I've collected the nose art.  Lionel (Lion Scale) or Menard's...hope you're reading this and it sparks an interest.  "Oh beautiful, for spacious skies...."

Count me IN if they do!  I just returned from Yosemite and Devil’s Postpile National Monument. LOVE our national parks!  Great idea!

Had the same idea for Lionel's Design Your Own Boxcar Contest but was insufficiently satisfied with the artwork to submit these.  Artwork too rectangular maybe?  BTW these are my own photographs and artwork so no risk of copyright infringement.

Bryce CanyonGrand Canyon

Update:  Conductor Earl's comment below reminded me of another reason this two-sided boxcar commemorating national parks was never submitted to the aforementioned contest.  The National Park Service arrowhead logo carries a registered trademark, permission for use of which is limited to purposes contributing to their work.  Suppose boxcars could be sold in park gift shops to contribute but offer no assurance that idea would fly.  I have replaced the original photographs with the NPS logo removed in the modified photographs but left a shadow where the logo was on the right side of the photographs so one can see the original intent.  I apologize for the oversight.      

 

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Last edited by hobby-go-lucky

I would love to see these as well.  Many of our nations first national parks had railroad service.  Yellowstone had Northern Pacific via Gardner, Milwaukee via West Yellowstone, and I believe the Union pacific came in from the south.  Yosemite had a railroad from Merced and both Glacier NP. and Denali NP. even today are accessible via railroad.  These cars could be made really special with additional memorabilia and park history included.  Atlas? Lionel? MTH?  or maybe one of the dealers who contracts for special runs could launch this? I'll let someone with legal expertise comment on the viability for licensing.

hobby-go-lucky posted:

Had the same idea for Lionel's Design Your Own Boxcar Contest but was insufficiently satisfied with the artwork to submit these.  Artwork too rectangular maybe?  BTW these are my own photographs and artwork so no risk of copyright infringement.

Love it. The basic boxcar in National Park Service Green with the WPA (1930s) artwork and some technical information such as year inducted, acreage, annual visitors, etc and we're in business. BTW, I love the original WPA artwork and always buy the postcards at every park. We went to Glacier National Park this summer and thumbed through a book of a husband and wife team that does new artwork based on the color scheme and style of the original WPA artwork. Can't remember their names but they did nice work also, even though I prefer the original WPA artwork.

Edited 10/11/19 to remove photos

Last edited by TimDude

Interesting idea!

I'm way past the stage of accumulation where I would try to go for a "complete" set of something like this, but I could see buying a few (maybe more than a few, but probably less than a dozen ) of them and maybe an engine/caboose combo to pull them (similar to what I'm doing with the US President boxcars right now).

-Dave

Last edited by Dave45681

Ed, glad you guys had a wonderful time at the parks. Some of the best vacations we have had are road trips to the different parks. I grew up running around Muir Woods. Sorry to say we only have one National Park here, Haleakala National Park. 

I think a great idea for Lionel or others is to make a box car with the old type posters on the side like I posted. Only make them for the larger parks with gift shops and only sell the car with that park on the sides. That way you could collect the cars from only the parks you visited. Don41504A2B-1DD8-B71B-0BE8882E405E536A

 

National Park Service Photo

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Last edited by scale rail

The graphic arts of today is no match for the great illustrators of the mid 20's through the mid 60's......... Illustrators and Draftsman.  Two subjects I studied in High school along with print, metal, and wood shops'.... The new electronic age has deprived kids of today  learning these valuable skills....

Okay, back to box car park art'...

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