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I have not been looking at Atlas reefers on the auction site, for some time, as I had thought the quantity of them being

produced had dwindled.  I just paged through the listing tonight and saw several branded cars I had not seen before.

Marx's slogan was, "One of the many Marx toys, do you have all of them?"  I wonder how many different billboard reefers

Atlas has made so far?  I only acquire(d) a few from a specific region, but I wonder if anybody has all of them to date?
And I think a few cars for the same brand, but different, have been made.

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I believe (and it wouldn't be the first time I'd be wrong about something) that Mr. Muffin may have 'em all; I'm looking forward to seeing his collection one day.

 

I too, have a fraction of what Atlas has produced. The Illinois Onion Growers reefer is the one O gauge item at the top of my wish list. The town referenced on the car is where I grew up; I can still remember smelling the onion sets!

 

There have been hundreds of different ones made. I suppose there may be a few folks in the country who carried their addiction to the extreme and collected most or even all of them. If so, they spent a fortune in money (and time).

 

I wonder if perhaps at some point the thought would cross such a person's mind that some of this money really could have been used toward more meaningful ends. Just a thought.

Last edited by breezinup

To have all, or anywhere near all, the Atlas reefers would require an enormous investment and a very large display space. A friend of mine used to have them all, but he stopped buying several years ago and sold most of the ones he had. It was just too overwhelming to keep up. 

 

I have a pretty substantial collection, but I specialize in beer and wine cars (mostly from Milwaukee or other places on the Milwaukee Road), cars lettered for the Milwaukee Road and its subsidiaries, and the most colorful and interesting of the non-beer cars. I used to buy a lot; now it's half a dozen or so per year. I have no interest in owning them all. I wouldn't have any place to put them. 

 

I would be curious to know which are considered the rarest or most collectible of the Atlas reefers. I'm guessing that the Frank Fehr brewery, Fitger's, and the two Gluek Brewing beer cars  are among the hardest to find. And I don't think I've ever seen a Fauerbach beer car for sale on eBay, at a train show, or anywhere else except Dunham's, the dealer that commissioned the car. 

 

There's a website with what may be a complete set of photos of the Atlas billboard reefers. Here's the link: Toy Trains 1 At the bottom of the page he has a link to a PDF of what he says is a complete list. 

Last edited by Southwest Hiawatha

I have over 30 Atlas Billboard Reefers. Noware near all of them. My collection is split into three groups: 1. Colorful Billboard Reefers mostly meat packing and dairy from the midwest to the east coast. 2. Pennsylvania Railroad associated express reefers. 3. Beer reefers. I have 11 Beer Reefers I am looking for the limited edition Ballantine Beer Reefer to complete 2 six-packs. 

Terry,

These are actual cars for the most part--probably 99%.  There are a couple of "special runs" mixed in like Specklers and maybe a Cascadian Farms.  Len Deichman did a couple also.  Penn Canning comes to mind.

They were really hot when they were introduced.  I have a few and will have to get an inventory sometime.  There was a sense of "gotta have it" when they were released and always with great anticipation.  Toy Trains1 has all of them it seems.

 

Norm

Last edited by Norm

I am from Louisville, so I have the Falls City beer car and two of the Fehr's cars, and

I will be interested if it is the rarest one.  Oertel's '92 was the third beer brewed in

Louisville when I was a kid, and I, when Atlas cars took off,  spent time at the Univ. of Louisville and at the historical society researching old Louisville breweries.  I could not find that Oertel's had a reefer, nor that any of the previous and defunct Louisville breweries did.  One of the old breweries was at the head of Broadway, near Cave Hill

Cemetery, and its cellar caves were just north of Broadway.  A couple of others were farther west just off Broadway, more in the "West End". These came before Fehr's, Oertel's, and Falls City. Hobby Station, a shop in Elizabethtown, Ky., did Falls City, Fehr's, and several other cars for that area.  I think that there were a couple done for

Vissman's packing company in Louisville.  I would like to see a list of all the ones done by Atlas, especailly if it has pictures, or identifies the city or region of the product on the reefer.  Quantity of each produced would be interesting info, also.

Fauerbach's is in Madison, Wisconsin. The company is still around. They stopped brewing beer in 1966 and resumed in 2005. It's a local brew. The company sponsors iceboating and has a web store where you can buy hats, posters, etc. The Atlas car is real, although there is some question as to whether the colors are right since there are no period color photos of the original car. The Atlas car was a special run for a train shop called Dunham's in Ohio. 

 

Fauerbach reefer

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Originally Posted by Southwest Hiawatha:

To have all, or anywhere near all, the Atlas reefers would require an enormous investment and a very large display space. A friend of mine used to have them all, but he stopped buying several years ago and sold most of the ones he had. It was just too overwhelming to keep up. 

...

And therein is the biggest hiccup regarding Atlas-O's reefer madness strategy and the subsequent demise of the "collecting them all" goal.  Don't get me wrong, they're still the nicest detailed reefers out there for those who demand scale fidelity.  But we all have our limits these days... and it quickly became too harsh a reality that "collecting them all" wasn't gonna happen. 

 

When the original set of 40' reefers was first announced and delivered, many of us thought these cars were gonna be the modern-day 6464's in terms of collectibles.  But then Atlas-O did some key things that pretty much gave lots of reefer enthusiasts second thoughts... and essentially sealed the fate of "reefer madness" as we once knew it:

 

  • After the first series of reefers had well-defined, limited edition runs... Atlas-O over-produced several subsequent series of reefers.  Heck even today, some dealers still have those cars from over 5-7 years ago and can't give them away.
  • Some reefers were only available through lesser-well-known clubs who didn't promote their special-run productions to the masses.  This was particularly true with a few of the Canadian special-runs that didn't have the greatest visibility in the US during the relatively small window for pre-ordering cars that had extremely small production runs.  In other words, it was too easy to miss out on these gems.
  • Atlas-O eventually "re-issued" the initial set of 40' reefers -- essentially undermining the collectible value of owning those early reefers.  Very poor move, IMHO.
  • Even to this day, Atlas-O continues to offer yet more reefers... So there is essentially no FINITE collection of these to be had.  Whereas the post-war 6464 boxcars had a reasonable number of 30 (or so) cars to "collect", the exact opposite is true for the Atlas-0 reefers. 

 

Simply stated, there are just TOO MANY to collect.  And reefer enthusiasts like myself decide a long time ago, "The heck with it".  Now when a new reefer announcement happens, I barely even give it a second glance.  And as if having too many 40' reefers wasn't bad enough, Atlas-O added an entire line of 36' reefers alongside the 40' models.  Too much of a good thing, I guess...

 

I recently sold many of the 36' reefers I purchased, and probably will list a few more when I do another round of "collection thinning" very shortly.  I have decided to keep the 40' reefers on my roster, simply because you just can't beat them when you need a wonderfully long and colorful consist behind articulated steamers or double-headed steam locomotive configurations.  They're absolutely tops for those situations!!! 

 

But trying to collect them ALL in this day and age when an operators-culture tends to dominate our hobby???  Forgettabouddit!!!

 

David

Last edited by Rocky Mountaineer

We don't have every one produced but we have at least one of each road name..... There were several that were made in two numbers or maybe even four numbers for which we just have one..... Almost all are either on the layout or on display at our place..... I ran out of shelf space so a few cases are still boxed up.....

 

ToyTrains1 has them all and has a complete photo inventory of all of them.... check out his website.....

I confined my acquisition of these to a few states in a geographic area.   I never had

any thought of collecting all of them, and many, many were produced for areas in

which I had no interest.  This confined me to only a few, luckily.  There were temptations, such as when I visited a brewery museum in Wisconsin (searching for

cars not done in my favored area) and became slightly intrigued with Wisconsin

breweries, of which there were a lot.  I repressed myself from going off on that tangent.  However, if more are (or have been) done for my area, I want to know

about it.

A few of the cars mentioned by posters above (I'm originally from northwestern Wisconsin and the Twin Cities area, so was interested in these cars). The Fitgers and Land O' Lakes were done for a train shop in the Twin Cities area that went out of business years ago now. A little Great Lakes ship is in the center of the small star on the Fitger's car - it was a part of their logo. One my favorites is the Balza's pickles and kraut car (done for a train shop in Green Bay), because it's about pickles and kraut!

 

 

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Last edited by breezinup

I focused on the 40ft version and initially bought everything that came out............  until I hit 60 different ones and my billboard reefer train was complete.  Most I have run at one time actually is about 45 of them.

 

Link:  https://youtu.be/O1XQv2d96EU 

 

This train has about 20 or so and looks like a bigger train that it is.   The 12' x 14 ACCR has a limit of about 35 cars with engine typically............... beautiful cars for steam era freight trains.

 

Mark

Originally Posted by Sidewinder:

Breezinup:

 

That Cherryland and the Balza's pickles are on my wish list....really sharp cars. Thanks for posting!

The Cherryland is a rare bird as it was a special run. The last one I saw on eBay was over $125 when I stopped following the auction.

 

One I wish they'd issue more of is the original ATSF woodside reefers (as opposed to the rebuilts). The first run had two numbers, followed by a four-number run. It would be nice to have a couple more.

Last edited by AGHRMatt

Cherryland and Balza's are very hard to find - especially the first Cherryland car, the plain grey one. The one with the cherries is a little more common. These were special runs for GBTV, a train and appliance dealer in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They have done about seven special run Atlas reefers. I got lucky on both the Cherryland and Balza's cars and managed to find them at semi-reasonable prices. 

While I could not get the entire ToyTrain1 list to open up on this computer, I did see

that Atlas did one "fake"car...a reefer with THAT competing three rail magazine on

the side of it.  There may be others.  There is that problem with B&W photography.

The Fauerbach car in the photo above could be gray, light green, yellow, orange,

or even pink (not likely).  But if the company is still around, maybe an old timer can

be found who saw the prototype.

Here's some more info on the GBTV cars and the Fauerbach reefers.

 

There have been six Atlas reefers issued by GBTV (I thought it was seven, but just checked their website and it is six). Their website is www.railtycoon.com

Cherryland #!

Cherryland #2

Balza's Pickles

Red Crown (preserved meats)

Hamilton Canning

Marty Cheese

All are Green Bay & Western except Cherryland #2, which is Chicago & North Western. According to the website, Marty Cheese is still available in 2-rail and Red Crown is available in 3.rail. All others are sold out. 

 

The Fauerbach's car was a special run for Dunham's in Ohio. It was issued in two numbers. Dunham's does not have a website. Here's a picture of the car from the Atlas website.

 

Fauerbach Beer Reefer Atlas

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Originally Posted by Pat Kn:

I was always under the impression that Atlas O will not make a car that didn't exist.

Technically, Natty Boh is a fantasy scheme. IMHO, the most desirable of the Atlas reefers.

 

 

I collect only the beer reefers. From Atlas, I currently have

 

Natty Boh (2)

Miller (2)

Ballantine

Robin Hood (2)

Coors

Pabst Blue Ribbon

 

 

Last edited by Gilly@N&W

Since this thread has gotten revived, here are a couple of pictures of assorted Atlas reefers in action behind Milwaukee Road steam at the Gadsden Pacific Toy Train Museum in Tucson. The first reefer in each train is a Milwaukee Road car from a special run for Petersen's.

 

 Weaver F6a 4-6-4 with assorted reefers.

 F6a_Reefers_1b

 

Weaver S3 Northern with beer cars

Northern_Beer_1b

 

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Last edited by Southwest Hiawatha
bluelinec4 posted:
I had all of them up until 5 years ago. Sold off most of them and made decent money on the harder to get ones. My favorite is still the ballantine beer.  There were 10 numbers of it made in all.

Well I was going to say Ben had ALL of them, but guess not anymore. Now he does have 99.999999999% of the Ballantine Beer cars.....

DL&W Pete posted

Well I was going to say Ben had ALL of them, but guess not anymore. Now he does have 99.999999999% of the Ballantine Beer cars.....

I can only confirm that TWO Ballantine cars were shipped to the state of Virginia. Putnam Division got one, I got the other. When we went to Trainstock a few years ago, I lost count of the Ballantine cars somewhere around eleventy seven.

Ben has (or had) probably twice as many Ballantine cars than my entire "Train of Sin" Beer Reefer collection.

Last edited by Gilly@N&W

Dave pretty well spelled it out.  I got into the madness early on and realized I could never collect them all.  I went after the ones I wanted and ended up with 211.  My favorite part of York from about 2004 on was an hour or so with Jim Weaver talking about reefers.  He had a long drive to make a Grain Belt which didn't happen, but we talked about it every six months.  The 2 things that cooled me were that in 2010 one of my Natty Bo's was stolen off a display at the Virginia Beach convention center, probably by an acquaintance and the loss of Jim in 2011.  I bought 8 sets of the Ballantine Reefers on the advice of my investment counselor "Ben", but that didn't work out as well as several cases of Gluek.  Andy Petersen is still chasing an Olympia Beer reefer and I'm hopeful that will be the exclamation point on my collection.  I had wanted the reefers to be the center piece of my dream layout, but cancer has way laid that.  I am cancer free, thank God, but it took away 3 years.  I have a great club layout, but I don't want to take the reefers to the club layout and about 75% are yet to be unboxed.

I had the entire first run and quite a few of the second run but some guys we're offering so much money for the first run cars I sold them all. I had a bunch of them go $400 plus and 5 that went for $800 plus. 

  Bob Thatcher knew most of the guys who were buying and gave them my phone number because he knew I had them because I originally bought them from Bob. 

I really liked the cars but when some guys going crazy offering more money then they should have, I took the money. Never bought another reefer. 

bluelinec4 posted:
 

By the way, when you have collected all the Atlas reefers in O scale you can carry on the hunt in S scale. The former S-Helper-Service (now MTH) produced 100+ billboard reefers of identical quality to Atlas.

Mark

 

This is my favorite from S-Helper

IMG_0463

Well I liked this s helper reefer so much I convinced the njhirailers to do a special run mth 36 foot reefer check out the sell section and the announcement forum for info

I was wondering about those Manhattan Brewing Company reefers.  I visited the Manhattan Brewing Company one night in December 1989.  If memory serves, they had large copper brewing kettles and fermentation tanks in view, with lines running under the patron area to the bar, where the beer was hand-pulled.  I took home a jug of their porter - one of the best beers I ever had.  Looked for them years later, and was disappointed to hear they did not make it - they were simply ahead of their time, as the microbrew craze had yet to hit the east coast.  One of the inspirations for me to start homebrewing the following year.  Had some real winners, but nothing I made ever topped their porter.

David

Loose-Caboose posted:

I have an excel listing of all the cars from 2007 until 2019.  I did not see a Yuengling in the list.

Fie!  Fie!  How dare they overlook America's Oldest Brewery?  There also seems to be a shortage of Swift cars, considering the fact that Old Man Swift had a great deal to do with the invention and evolution of the refrigerator car.  Harrumph!

Would you please consider sharing your Excel master list?  I don't know how up to date this website is:

https://www.toytrains1.com/atlas_reefers.htm

Loose-Caboose posted:

I have an excel listing of all the cars from 2007 until 2019.  I did not see a Yuengling in the list.

Yuengling had Kline make train's for them, they have not released their Trademark to any other's since. I inquired with Yuengling back in 2003 about getting new Reefer billboard cars made at Weaver, asked them every year till 2010. You can go on there website and see what Kline cars are left.

www.yuengling.com

Rapid Transit Holmes posted:
Loose-Caboose posted:

I have an excel listing of all the cars from 2007 until 2019.  I did not see a Yuengling in the list.

Fie!  Fie!  How dare they overlook America's Oldest Brewery?  There also seems to be a shortage of Swift cars, considering the fact that Old Man Swift had a great deal to do with the invention and evolution of the refrigerator car.  Harrumph!

Would you please consider sharing your Excel master list?  I don't know how up to date this website is:

https://www.toytrains1.com/atlas_reefers.htm

Boy did I goof up! My list is only for the GSC cars that Pat Kimble sent me. I do not know where my brain was.  Sorry for mix up. It is still a valuable listing for anyone wishing to know that information  

Dallas Joseph posted:

Yuengling last release was a claimed  4-8-4 steamer by MTH IN  2007. 

Saw some listings awhile back of nice boxcars and  a passenger car for more moolah than what I am able to put down for my MTH locomotives.  I can't remember the manufacture.

 

MTH Yuengling Brewery steamer

MTH Yuengling Brewery #1

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PDeVaney posted:

They have become an addiction for me. So far 270 of them. The NATTY BOH is the hardest and the most expensive one so far for me.

PDeVaney posted:

They have become an addiction for me. So far 270 of them. The NATTY BOH is the hardest and the most expensive one so far for me.

That's because there were a little more than 100 made at that time by OGR forumite VAGolpher.

OK......DAVE.......

..................on those hot summer nights I enjoy having a couple Yuenglings to settle me down .   😋                                   How can I obtain one of these boxcars ? 🤔                                          Being a Lionel product , would it look OK with Atlas and MTH Premier boxcars ?

 

 

 

 

 

Dallas, I used to live in Philly about 30 years ago, when Yuengling Porter was on tap at all the neighborhood bars, and I was young enough to frequent them, so it fairly ran in my veins!

The box end says it has "Scale Dimensions and Authentic Decorations" and it has die-cast sprung trucks, so, yes, I do think it would look good with Atlas and MTH Premier reefers.  Apparently, these were sold out at the 2016 LOTS convention, so it may be hard to find one.  There was a for-sale posting of one on this website by "wtjohn" some time ago, 2017; not sure if he still has it available.

Best of luck,

David

HEY Dave.....

....thank you for the good follow up on this Yuengling boxcar.

I've seen guys paying hundreds for the various billboard cars .  I could probably go $ 175 or so,  so I probably won't  be looking at one in person but I sure appreciate the photos you posted and your backround info. Pretty good stuff Dave .

Thanks                                                                                                 Dallas

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