Why the extreme popularity of the Baby Ruth box cars?? The 1940s are over! I believe Snickers is now the number 1 candy bar in America, and has been for a long time. Where are the Snicker's box cars? :-0
Mannyrock
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@Mannyrock posted:Why the extreme popularity of the Baby Ruth box cars?? The 1940s are over! I believe Snickers is now the number 1 candy bar in America, and has been for a long time. Where are the Snicker's box cars? :-0
Mannyrock
They're here:
https://mthtrains.com/search/snicker
Stu
The Snickers needed a refrigerator car as did the Baby Ruths. Just think of all that chocolate that melted, because they weren’t kept cool in reefers. 😂 Good to see that MTH made them.
It's tradition and nostalgia. Plus they are really colorful.
Take the popularity of the Sunoco tank cars, for example. AFAIK the real ones only existed in the 1940's. Today Sunoco and Shell are both owned by Energy Transfer Partners who primarily specialize in pipelines.
John
Starting in the mid 1930's Lionel and the Curtis candy had some agreement and Lionel used their name on boxcars. Kids could relate to candy bars. That ran through the 1950's with 1004 and 6014 series boxcars. MPC did a Baby Ruth refrigerator car in 1973. When Nestles bought out Curtis I don't think Lionel has run another Baby Ruth car. Atlas has done a Baby Ruth car. The only Snickers car I remember seeing was Train Miniature did a Refrigerator car in HO sometime in the early 1970's.
Thanks for the info guys.
And, thanks to Stu! The blue Snickers refer car looks great! It is on my list! (And I almost never buy a box car or refer.)
So now that that is resolved, what about the most underrated candy bar in history? The "Chunky"! Excellent dark chocolate with just a couple of nuts and raisins. This use to be a standard in every candy display, and now is rarely seen in the stop and go shops, or even in the racks at big box stores. Yep, there still made but you have to search for them.
Is there a Chunky car?
Mannyrock
Not sure where you live, mannyrock, but Chunky bars are for sale in many super markets on the dc metro area. Also Rollo.
I myself enjoy PAY DAY along with PAY DAY with chocolate. 👍👍
It would be pretty cool to have a string of refers for all of the major candy bars with the same detail and quality as that MTH Snickers car.
POTERZBE, I was born and raised in the City of Fairfax, and still have to drive up there every month for a Trust that I manage. I pity anybody who has to live in the DC Metro complex, and not even a Chunky factory could ever make me move there now. :-)
Hope you don't have one of those hour and 15 minute commutes to travel 18 miles to get to work in the morning, like my brother! :-O
Mannyrock
@Mannyrock posted:Why the extreme popularity of the Baby Ruth box cars?? The 1940s are over! I believe Snickers is now the number 1 candy bar in America, and has been for a long time. Where are the Snicker's box cars? :-0
Mannyrock
I much prefer the Baby Ruth over the Snickers (but do appreciate a frozen Snickers bar). Unfortunately, I can't have either anymore for medical reasons. No nuts, not seeds, no corn - *sigh*
MTH did a Premier Milky Way reefer years ago. Yummmm
Tsk tsk. Here on the central Gulf Coast, the chocolate of chocolates was made by a company called Elmer's, based in New Orleans (I grew up in not-far Mobile, so, common on store shelves). They called their little bars "Gold Bricks". A medium-light milk chocolate. There was an ice cream topping, too - you had to melt it then pour it over your ice cream, where it hardened. Mmmmm.
Hershey, Snickers, Baby Ruth, Chunky (those were rare around here) - nah. Never match Elmer's. (Our own local George's chocolate did, but that was strictly local.)
Really I'm off-topic. Sorry. Man, do I want some chocolate right now.
Mannyrock, I used to have a 20 mile commute to work on the beltway to 270. I don't do that anymore since I've been retired eight years. It was a bear but you do what you have to do. And we still have chunky bars.
I always wondered about the Bosco car as well when they never existed in real life. Staten Island had a plant with generic syrup tank cars, no box car. 
Speaking of those classic 6014 box cars (like the Baby Ruth and Van Camp Beans), there was also a Chun King (the so-called "Chinese food" from back in the day ) version that is very rare and super difficult to locate.
I'm not a collector, per se, but have been looking for one of those for years to complete a set I put together. It's pulled by the old Lionel 520 Box Cab Electric and included 3-4 pieces of rolling stock, one of which is the Chun King car.
@SIRT posted:I always wondered about the Bosco car as well when they never existed in real life. Staten Island had a plant with generic syrup tank cars, no box car.
Many years ago, my work sometimes took me inside the P&G complex in Staten Island. The aroma outside of the Ducan Hines cake mix production building was so, so sweet.
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@Mannyrock posted:Why the extreme popularity of the Baby Ruth box cars?? The 1940s are over! I believe Snickers is now the number 1 candy bar in America, and has been for a long time. Where are the Snicker's box cars? :-0
Mannyrock
Probably two-fold:
Lionel made thousands and thousands of them over more than 5 decades.
Nostalgia for the candy, that is still loved by many
@Craftech posted:It's tradition and nostalgia. Plus they are really colorful.
Take the popularity of the Sunoco tank cars, for example. AFAIK the real ones only existed in the 1940's. Today Sunoco and Shell are both owned by Energy Transfer Partners who primarily specialize in pipelines.
John
No. Sunoco is owned by Energy Transfer Partners, but Shell, which drawfs Sunoco, is not. Shell is owned by Royal Dutch Shell, a huge multi-national company based in The Netherlands. They specialize in a lot more that just pipelines!
@breezinup posted:No. Sunoco is owned by Energy Transfer Partners, but Shell, which drawfs Sunoco, is not. Shell is owned by Royal Dutch Shell, a huge multi-national company based in The Netherlands. They specialize in a lot more that just pipelines!
My bad, You are right. Aloha Petroleum, a subsidiary of Sunoco acquired two Kauai Hawaiian Shell gas stations in 2015 not the entire company.
https://www.bizjournals.com/pa...ll-gas-stations.html
John
But what about Clark Bar or Mallo Cups need a car for them. Both Western PA standouts!
Was talking to my neighbor last night for about 30 minutes and he didn't mention Baby Ruth one time.
Maybe he didn't get the memo. I'll let him know.
@SIRT posted:
Nice weathering on the Clark pups. I still eat Mallow Cups.
Baby Ruth is immortalized by this
LOL!
Chun King
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It may have been that Jim's Train Shop ran some Boyer's Candy cars years ago:Mallo Cups,Peanut Butter Smoothies.
Good stuff.
Norm
@Chuck Sartor posted:Chun King
Chuck, your Chun King car is one of the nicest I've seen.
I'm sure you aren't looking to, but if you ever wanted to sell it, I'd love to have one in such nice condition.
@Andrew B. posted:Chuck, your Chun King car is one of the nicest I've seen.
I'm sure you aren't looking to, but if you ever wanted to sell it, I'd love to have one in such nice condition.
Agreed. Excellent.
A guy's had one on the Bay for over a year now, but he wants $50 and condition is so-so. One side has lettering that's all but gone.
@SIRT posted:I always wondered about the Bosco car as well when they never existed in real life. Staten Island had a plant with generic syrup tank cars, no box car.
I think I remember that plant off Morningstar rd (walker st) I believe.
Sirs,
It is sacrilege to broach the subject of a cheap imitation chinese-dish in the midst of a discussion of sacred 80 year old American candy favorites! Please desist! :-)
Mannyrock
I always like the $100 Grande candy bar.
A great way to reinvest a few bucks from a winning lottery ticket to increase the monetary return !!!
Has any $100 Grande cars been made in O-Gauge ?
I recently bought a Weaver Bire-ley’s Orange Drink reefer.
Bill
I remember the $100 Grand being a fantastic candy bar, but I don't think I've seen one for years.
It had a very colorful wrapper, so it would look great on a box car.
All in all, perhaps MTH, Lionel and others are missing the boat in not bringing out refers with the 10 or 12 classic old candy bars on them. I doubt it would be hard to get the licenses to do it. They seem to bring out lines of cars on every other conceivable theme. They would have to be high end, well detailed cars, though, because little plug cars such as the ones with Baby Ruth stenciled on the sides just wouldn't do it.
Mannyrock
I'm known as the M&M peanut guy in my hiking group. My vote is for an M&M Peanut boxcar.
@Arnold D. Cribari posted:I'm known as the M&M peanut guy in my hiking group. My vote is for an M&M Peanut boxcar.
Arnold I believe Menards did on!
My mom with her sisters 1934 candy counter in their parents corner store Chicago. If you look on the shelf’s you can see Milky Way, Baby Ruth, Bit o Honey and others. I vote for a Milky Way missle launch car.
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The 100 Grand Bar (formally the $100,000 Bar) is still around, I get them from our local Dollar General. I also remember Chunky in a gold foil wrapper made with either almonds or walnuts or pecans instead of peanuts. Haven't seen those since I was a kid.
To get back on topic (more or less), the pre & postwar operating Merchandise Cars came with crates of Baby Ruth in brown, black, and red.
@Chuck Sartor posted:Starting in the mid 1930's Lionel and the Curtis candy had some agreement and Lionel used their name on boxcars. Kids could relate to candy bars. That ran through the 1950's with 1004 and 6014 series boxcars. MPC did a Baby Ruth refrigerator car in 1973. When Nestles bought out Curtis I don't think Lionel has run another Baby Ruth car. Atlas has done a Baby Ruth car. The only Snickers car I remember seeing was Train Miniature did a Refrigerator car in HO sometime in the early 1970's.
K-Line also did O27-sized Baby Ruth boxcars in the 1990s, nos. K 515401 and K 515402.
