Did the federal ban on cigarette advertising affect the Lionel cigarette cars or any subsequent manufacturer that might want to produce such cars? I got on a hunt for all the Lionel cars a while back, and found them all, some in sets, some by themselves, and also did the same with their beer cars. Guess a beer billboard or boxcar advertisement at the fed level might raise quite the revolt.
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That ban is over 50 years old.
Which specific cigarette cars are you referring to? (I assume that they're the ones from that era because I don't recall ever seeing any newer ones.)
I don't believe that any later ones have ever been made, so the ban may indeed apply.
Mike
Beer cars aren't a problem. Lionel has made some fairly recently, and Atlas O and MTH have beer cars available currently. Tobacco cars are a different matter. (Note that Lionel made not only cigarette billboard reefers, but some chewing tobacco and pipe tobacco cars as well.) There was discussion of the future of these cars quite a few years ago.
Because of the well-documented health dangers of smoking (Lionel's MPC era tobacco cars were made in the '76-'77 time frame, before these health dangers came to the forefront), and the serious public relations problems that would result from producing these cars (and remember, young people run Lionel trains), Lionel indicated years ago it wouldn't be producing tobacco billboard reefers again. The Federal print media ban on tobacco advertising, which took effect in Dec. 1989 (the broadcast media ban took effect earlier), likely sealed the fate of tobacco cars permanently.
Don't forget the hard liquor reefers.
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