My father over the years has collected every available car in the Lionel 9800 series. I’ve been wondering how many people has collected all or almost all the cars of the series. Comment if you have the majority or if you know somebody who does!
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What cars make up the 9800 series?
Norm
The original poster may be referring to the o scale cars made from the molds purchased from Pola.
I don't think they were sequentially numbered. There were boxcars, reefers, gondolas and flatcars.
I have some of them
Norm,
A lot of the original standard "O" cars and several of the billboard reefers.
The dominant car in the 9800 series was the plugged-door reefer. They were "traditional sized." The plugged-door reefers were not standard "0" and were made, I believe from new tooling beginning in 1972. These were the first new cars made by the "new" Lionel.
I believe there are sixty-four (64) of the plugged-door reefers (including the two Cracker Jack colors) ... and they represent, IMO, some of the most fun trains Lionel offered in the '70s. Production of the 9800 series plugged-door reefers went from 1972 - 1986.
I haven't checked recently, but I seem to remember that there were no more than a half dozen or so of the Standard "0" cars (box+gondola) were made with 9800 markings. None had plugged-doors.
I have accumulated the entire run over the years. There were seven cars introduced in 1972-73 (9850, 9851, 9852, 9853 x 2, 9854, 9855). I bought each of them from Schmidty's Trains in Santa Clara, CA, for between $4.95 and $5.95 each. That was a major stretch at the time - even over quite a few months. 
A major favorite - certainly until Atlas introduced their reefers. 
I have about 35 of them. About half are candy and the other half are general merchandise( Lipton Tea, Old Dutch Cleanser, etc.) with a few soft drinks thrown in the mix. As a kid in the seventies these are the cars I saw and wanted but couldn't afford. If you keep an eye out on the 'bay most of them can be found for $10-$20 LNIB. Some of the harder to find ones will cost a little more.
I always loved the MPC 9800 series reefers. Two of my favorites were the 9831 Pepsi and the 9883 Oreo.
Fascinating! What a great history lesson.
I have about 25 of them. The beer and booze cars are great conversation starters with non-train guests.
For the record, the cars are numbered 9811-9814, 9816-9819, and 9827-9888. Lionel skipped some numbers in the series. There are also a few cars of the same design not numbered in the 9800s (like the cars from the 75th anniversary set). All told there are about the same number of MPC refrigerator cars as there are 9700 series boxcars—about 81 or so.
The numbering is confusing because the first ones made started at 9850. 9800-9849 was originally set aside for the Standard O cars, but they were slow sellers and as Lionel started running out of numbers for the refrigerator cars they wrapped back around and filled in the open spots below 9850.
For the most part they are pretty inexpensive but some of them, like the 9883 Oreo, 9845 Bailey’s and 9831 Pepsi can get a little pricey.
"For the most part they are pretty inexpensive but some of them, like the 9883 Oreo, 9845 Bailey’s and 9831 Pepsi can get a little pricey. "
There are several others, too, notably the Cheerios reefer.
rthomps posted:"For the most part they are pretty inexpensive but some of them, like the 9883 Oreo, 9845 Bailey’s and 9831 Pepsi can get a little pricey. "
There are several others, too, notably the Cheerios reefer.
Ah yes—the 9832 Cheerios is quite scarce. I think it was one of the pieces produced on a short run during the chaos of moving the plant back and forth to Mexico.
The 9884 Fritos is another one you don’t see too often.
Cheerios, my favorite 9800 series car. The perfect breakfast cereal, too.
I have 50 of them, just thought they looked great and started buying them in the 80's. Including the 2 different Cracker Jacks and Johnny Walker cars.
I remember in the '70's the big deal was the 9866 Coors car and if it did or didn't have the registered trademark 'L' above the 's'.
Grampstrains posted:rthomps posted:The dominant car in the 9800 series was the plugged-door reefer. They were "traditional sized." The plugged-door reefers were not standard "0" and were made, I believe from new tooling beginning in 1972. These were the first new cars made by the "new" Lionel.
I believe there are sixty-four (64) of the plugged-door reefers (including the two Cracker Jack colors) ... and they represent, IMO, some of the most fun trains Lionel offered in the '70s. Production of the 9800 series plugged-door reefers went from 1972 - 1986.
I haven't checked recently, but I seem to remember that there were no more than a half dozen or so of the Standard "0" cars (box+gondola) were made with 9800 markings. None had plugged-doors.
I have accumulated the entire run over the years. There were seven cars introduced in 1972-73 (9850, 9851, 9852, 9853 x 2, 9854, 9855). I bought each of them from Schmidty's Trains in Santa Clara, CA, for between $4.95 and $5.95 each. That was a major stretch at the time - even over quite a few months.
A major favorite - certainly until Atlas introduced their reefers.
The 9800 reefer is not really new tooling. One of the postwar reefer dies was re-tooled to look wood side. If you look close, you can see where some rivets are still on the side and behind the ladder, you can still see the refrigeration unit.
As I recall, that was the statement that Lionel made at the time (1972).
Does re-tooling an existing tool make it a "new" tool? Maybe yes. Maybe no.
In 1972, it was exciting just to have Lionel and toy trains back from the dead with something "new".
No questions asked. 
Tommy_F posted:rthomps posted:"For the most part they are pretty inexpensive but some of them, like the 9883 Oreo, 9845 Bailey’s and 9831 Pepsi can get a little pricey. "
There are several others, too, notably the Cheerios reefer.
Ah yes—the 9832 Cheerios is quite scarce. I think it was one of the pieces produced on a short run during the chaos of moving the plant back and forth to Mexico.
The 9884 Fritos is another one you don’t see too often.
IIRC I gave about $30 each for the Pepsi and Oreo cars. I have yet to see a Cheerios car for sale, although I do have the Rice Krispies car. I have only seen one Fritos car on the 'bay, but it had a BIN of $80, I don't need it that bad. The restaurant cars seem to be a little higher as well. I don't think there were as many of them produced as the others.
These are good looking cars, and the nostalgia and fairly cheap prices for like new cars make them fun to collect. They also run well and are so light that one of my PS2 or PS-3 engines can easily pull as many as I can fit on the layout.
There are also variations of the Cracker Jack reefer, one of which was considered rather valuable at one time.
I am not certain whether I remember the variations:
Carmel with white boarder around Cracker Jack
White with white boarder around Cracker Jack
White with no boarder around Cracker Jack.
C W Burfle posted:There are also variations of the Cracker Jack reefer, one of which was considered rather valuable at one time.
I am not certain whether I remember the variations:
Carmel with white boarder around Cracker Jack
White with white boarder around Cracker Jack
White with no boarder around Cracker Jack.
Reportedly only about 50-100 of the caramel-with-no-border were made. I’ve seen a couple; the best way to describe its appearance is ‘odd’.
There is another variation where there is the white border around the letters on a white-painted car. You have to hold it at an angle to a light to see the sheen around the letters. This is definitely one of those obscure ‘rivet-counter’ variations.
Back in the late nineties I purchased a case of Cheerios reefers for either $10.00 each or $15.00 each.
jim sutter posted:Back in the late nineties I purchased a case of Cheerios reefers for either $10.00 each or $15.00 each.
Got any left?
I have all of the "favorite Spirits" series alcohol cars. I collected these as a kid in the 90's. It's a rare occasion that I get them out now but they are very colorful. I really like the Bailey's, Cutty Sark , and the Sambuca colors.
I never attempted to fill in the blanks with the rest of the cars in that series.
The 9800 series was (and is) amazing. These cars have amazing graphics, and are a lot of fun to collect and run. They're also a hit with visitors. The pictures below are of photos shown in the Greenberg Guide - the colors are significantly more vibrant when seen in person than shown in these photo reproductions.
These cars were a tremendous achievement for MPC, IMHO. Also, it had to be a lot of work getting all the authorizations from these companies to produce these cars. I think I had about all of them back in the day, and still have quite a few. Many folks seem to like the scale cars these days, but they're missing the boat by not including some of these beautiful cars in their consists.
Breezinup,
Thank you for posting the pictures of the reefers. Brings back a lot of great memories.
ed h posted:One 9800 reefer that never made it into production. Appears in the 1979 Fundimension's full line catalog as well as the cover photo. Also known as the Toy Fair catalog. I believe RGS trains did make a version of the car however.
Yes I bought one of these from RGS it has the same number as the Hills brothers reefer. I think RGS also made a 9800 series UPS reefer, I have to look for it.
The 9863 REA came out about the time of the 9500 PRR passenger cars. Great head end car for a passenger train.
Apparently, the license deal with Kraft fell through and Lionel was not able to make that reefer.
Not sure how RGS did it.
I believe Lionel replaced the Kraft Cheese reefer with the Oreo one.
Dominic Mazoch posted:The 9863 REA came out about the time of the 9500 PRR passenger cars. Great head end car for a passenger train.
The 9863 REA is the only car from the 9800 series I own. I have no idea where or when I got this car. It is in a Lionel box that just has 9863 written on one end, no printed label.
Reading this post, I went to my train room and starting counting all the 9800 reefers, all the so called sin cars and started me in purchasing more. I got through Geber Baby Food that's coming today and 9800 Tropicana, both from the bay. I would love to get through special Nathans made for NOLA. I am on a crusade to get all the sin cars and billboard reefers.
Jim, No, just the reefer
GREGM,
THE 9863 REA reefer was sold two ways. It was sold separate and it also came in the 1974 Denver and Rio Grande Service Station Set. With no label on your box, I'm guessing it came from the set.
I think the REA car in the Grande SSS came with metal sprung trucks.
DOMINIC MAZOCH,
In all the sets that I owned, the REA reefer never had sprung trucks.
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