Ok, here is what all of the fuss was about, The Macy's Boxcar #6-83644 ( Macy's SKU # - 0 23922 83644 1)
As you can plainly see, it is not a holiday car by any stretch of the imagination. Just a nice looking traditional sized boxcar.
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Thanks for posting. I'm not sure where the idea came from other than it being on display at MACY's. The original thread's picture was pretty clear for me to see it was a freight car and not a holiday / Christmas / Hanuka / Kwanzaa / Festivus etc. theme car.
Big Jim,
Actually now that I understand it's not a Christmas Box Car I might just have to pick one of these Macy's Fancy & Dry Goods Box Cars up, it does look kind cool, definitely an original.
PCRR/Dave
No, not a "Christmas" car, but would look great in pretty much any Christmas consist with those colors & styling. If I did traditional I'd try to pick one up. 
The red on the tops of the "ladder" actually look pretty good to me - as if they're colored for safety, etc.
Originally Posted by RadioRon:
It looks like the black paint was not fully applied... You can see red showing through on parts of the ladders & boxcar door guides. May be just yours. 
It is "BROWN", not black.
Thanks for posting. Mine won't arrive until Monday. It is actually nicer than I thought, a departure from the holiday/parade cars. It will look great heading up the others. I still need a decent Macy's caboose.
There is one now on the Bay for $100!
Originally Posted by RadioRon:
You can see red showing through on parts of the ladders & boxcar door guides. May be just yours.
What is interesting to me is that if you look straight on at the side of the car, the red doesn't show. Look from above and below and you can see the red as you mentioned.
There is also appears to be a bit of "texture" to the finish. Looking at the finish at a low angle, it appears that the side has a hint of a horizontal tongue & groove. The brown also stands up higher than the white lettering only. The rest of the lettering is smooth with the brown finish.
None of this takes away from the fine finish of the car, it just makes me wonder how they painted the sides.
Originally Posted by Big Jim:
None of this takes away from the fine finish of the car, it just makes me wonder how they painted the sides.
Jim,
This car is part of Lionel's Made in the USA series. They don't actually "paint" the sides. To see how the cars are decorated (using the back and forth printing process), check out:
Stu
Thanks Stu, that explains everything!
Where can you purchase one of these boxcars?
I tried a search and nothing comes up except this post.
Originally Posted by RadioRon:
I disagree. In your "straight on" side photo, you can see red on the top of the lower right door guide and still see it on the top of the ladders. For $70- or whatever you may have actually paid for it - $50-60, this is unacceptable. 
Originally Posted by Big Jim:
What is interesting to me is that if you look straight on at the side of the car, the red doesn't show. Look from above and below and you can see the red as you mentioned.
Ron,
The photo that I took was not taken straight on. You need to hold the car in your hand to see what I am talking about. And yes, if you will pay close attention to what the heck is happening and have an analytical brain, the video Stu provided does explain exactly why the "BROWN" is only on the horizontal surfaces of the car where it was applied and not on any upper or lower surfaces.
Now, as for the "BROWN". The sun had gone down behind the trees by the time the car had arrived at this station, so, it may not appear as brown as it really is. However, it is clearly brown in my photo, not black, nor should it "may as well be black".
quote:Where can you purchase one of these boxcars?
I tried a search and nothing comes up except this post.
SC2, you can read all about it in the linked thread Macy's Boxcar.
Called The Herald Square(New York) store directly this past Sunday after searching the Macy's site and placed my order These cars are in limited supply and not carried thru out the Macy' system I live in the Detroit Metropolitan area and none of their stores carry this item. If you do get thru make sure you have the sku number and Lionel item number for this is how the clerk at the Hearld Square store located this item Shipped directly
Good looking car, can't wait til mine arrives.
This car will look good in my holiday train but will stay out all year, and remind me of the the holidays, thanks for posting the pics.
Cant wait for the parade tomorrow morning, watching the parade is a family tradition, great kick off to the holidays.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Good looking car, can't wait til mine arrives on Friday.
This car will look good in my holiday train but will stay out all year, and remind me of the the holidays, thanks for posting the pics.
Cant wait for the parade tomorrow morning, watching the parade is a family tradition, great kick off to the holidays.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Originally Posted by Southern Crescent 2:
Where can you purchase one of these boxcars?
I tried a search and nothing comes up except this post.
This car is only located at half a dozen or so Macy's stores throughout the country. If you're shopping at a local Macy's, just go up to any customer service station and they can arrange to have the car shipped to you after finding it in their inventory system. When I ordered mine, the system was showing stock in Herald Square, NYC; Philly, PA; Chicago, IL; one store in CA; and two stores in Florida.
The Lionel SKU is 6-83644, but you need the full Macy's SKU in order for the customer service employee to locate the car in THEIR inventory system. The Macy's SKU is 023922836441, and it will show up as Lionel L.L.C. Custom Macy's Train Car.
Best of luck... I order mine on 11/19 by visiting a local Macy's store here in Montgomeryville, PA. The order fulfillment is rather random. And when I received a shipment confirmation email (very quickly), I can see by the tracking info that mine is scheduled to arrive on 11/28 via UPS SurePost from Miami, FL. No complaints here, as there was no charge for shipping.
You could also try calling the Macy's Herald Store in NYC directly.
David
got it yesterday
Since the OGR forum won't allow large photos, here's a link to bigger ones
http://s13.postimg.org/7483sst...ys_2015_boxcar_1.jpg
http://s2.postimg.org/54uobx21...ys_2015_boxcar_2.jpg
http://s7.postimg.org/vybfhr6a...ys_2015_boxcar_3.jpg
http://s11.postimg.org/jj07nkx...ys_2015_boxcar_4.jpg
http://s11.postimg.org/nob49hv...s_2015_boxcar_5x.jpg
Riki, thanks for posting your photo. It's the first image of this boxcar that actually looks brown! All the others made it appear dark olive green.
David
Happy Thanksgiving
Link to larger photo:
http://s18.postimg.org/40dstso...ppy_Thanksgiving.jpg
It's nice I got mine last week at Herald Square. There was a guy in front of me who bought a sealed case of six. It's nice sprung trucks and the brown had a nice metal flake sheen to it. In glad it doesn't say Thanksgiving so it could be run on not Thanksgiving at the same time running it would make a normal person think of thanksgiving without hitting you over the head with it.
