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My eagle eyed wife found this Heinz box car at a train show, but darned if I can identify who made it.  Sure looks alot like a Lionel el-cheapo starter set car by the couplers and trucks, but there is no manufacturer marks or numbers anywhere inside or outside the shell, other than the rubber stamping (says car inspected 1972 in fine print.)  Wife thought someone might have repainted and decaled, but I can't see decal shine or edges.  Shell ends are held onto the frame by clinch snaps, no screws except to secure trucks to frame.  This might be a common starter set car I haven't seen in any Lionel catalog, but never the less, another great find (for me at least) to add to my Heinz car collection

Here are pictures. 

 

DSC02824DSC02823DSC02822DSC02821DSC02820DSC02819

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IF those are Lionel Die cast Sprung trucks , those trucks are certainly not "Cheapo" . They were PREMO trucks of the Day from the 80's to the mid 1990's. From your third Picture:

One can see the raised base of the underside to prevent the truck from riding and eventually catching and scratching the body side sills.

I say this is a custom boxcar. Blank cars sold by Lionel and decorated somewere else or a promo.

IT would not be the OLD Atlas 1970's becasue of the raised Floor adapted for that die cast truck.

 

The stirrup steps and ladders on your car are different from the ones shown on the Rivarossi/AHM car shown elsewhere in this thread. If it was made in the early 1970’s, the timeline would be right. No markings for country of origin? Seems to me like Pola made some cars for AHM as well, though it could be my imagination acting up...

Bill in FtL

Last edited by Bill Nielsen

Lionel did use a car that looks exactly like this in their Std-O line. (Because of the door type, they called it a reefer, even though it has no hatches, either for ice, or for accessing refrigeration machinery.) I do not think that Lionel decorated your car, though. Lionel had the practice of putting the first year of the car's production as the BLT date, regardless of when the prototype car was built. Lionel did not make this sort of car until 1973, but your car has a build date of 3-72. This makes me think that it was decorated by someone other than Lionel.

Possibly, it was decorated by a third party for some promotion, or as a club car. There were a few companies who would do that, and at least some of these included a mark or serial number on the car someplace, so you might look for that. It might also be that someone mounted an AHM body on a Lionel frame. I have always heard that the Lionel cars were, or were based on, the AHM cars, but whether bodies were actually interchangeable, I don't know.

Edit: Just saw Bill's post. The steps certainly are different. Making me think it's a repaint of a Lionel car, then.

Last edited by nickaix
nickaix posted:

Edit: Just saw Bill's post. The steps certainly are different. Making me think it's a repaint of a Lionel car, then.

I removed the shell and in sunlight the inside is orangeish, while outside is definitely red.  So either Lionel/AHM/Pola or the promo company could have repainted them. Then someone rubber stamped them.

Heinz in fact used and branded itself as a "Purveyor of Pure Food Products" as a way to distinguish itself from other food processors of that 1800 era (don't ask, you don't wanna know, I have books published by Heinz describing what when on then.)  Heinz led the way to getting the pure food (and later drugs) act past, which didn't hurt that Heinz competition went out of business or were forced to meet new standards.

Thanks to all for decoding a unique car!

AMCDave posted:

The body and frame are originally AHM Rivirossi castings. Lionel used these for the 40ft gondola with plastic coal load but I have not seen this box car body used by Lionel but could be. Or it could be like the 15 AHM box cars I own that I converted to 3r trucks and couplers. 

before

REEFERP9

after (i added ladder later)

REEFERP7

This is not possible. Look at the pick in my post or the third pick in the o.p. post. The floor has a raised semi round area above the coupler shank. This was NOT the case with the original Ahm/Pola/Atlas boxcars and reefers of the 1970. Also the die cast truck is offset attached- NOT at the bolster as was o scale cars and the pola/ahm/atlas plastic cars the time were.

Those Lionel early (full) die cast trucks could not be attached to a full o scale bolster without obtaining the high water pants look!

Last edited by prrhorseshoecurve
prrhorseshoecurve posted:

This is not possible. Look at the pick in my post or the third pick in the o.p. post. The floor has a raised semi round area above the coupler shank. This was NOT the case with the original Ahm/Pola/Atlas boxcars and reefers of the 1970. Also the die cast truck is offset attached- NOT at the bolster as was o scale cars and the pola/ahm/atlas plastic cars the time were.

Those Lionel early (full) die cast trucks could not be attached to a full o scale bolster without obtaining the high water pants look!

I too noticed the "funky" offset of the truck kingpin(?) attachment to the floor, but just figured it was part of making/adapting an "el cheapo" car with what ever left over parts you had.  But obviously this was the real deal and a deliberate designa change to make the trucks work.

HEre is on overhead view of the truck being used on the boxcar...

 

That Die cast spur to the left of the center bolster was threaded and used as the off-center kingpin. This was true for all those Lionel/Pola "Standard O" scale cars of the late 1970's and those that appeared in the premium scale sets of the 1980's and 1990's

BTW... Here is a pick of the NEwest "die cast trucks that Lionel Uses...

Rivited Sheet Metal with die cast sideframe bolsters

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