Side Shot Saturday starting 4 November

I was going to post this in the tank car thread, but decided to post it here instead (being a true side-shot). Many years ago I found a Lionel 804 in a bin at a local antique mall that was in really rough shape. I think it cost a buck. It was missing a few bits, was pretty beat up, and worst of all, a previous owner had soldered the handrails onto the tank after the loss of the stanchions. With a fair amount of effort I managed to remove the handrails, get the globs of solder off, stripped the whole thing, then repainted it for a fantasy scheme:

  

After polishing up the original domes, I used all new repro brass trim and plates that I bought from George Tebolt. A set of self-sticking postwar Cities Service decals finished it. I'm not a fan of self-sticking decals as they never seem to adhere well (you can see evidence of that here). I much prefer water-slide versions and a bit of Micro-Sol. Anyway, this was the end-result, a car that always gets a few comments from layout visitors (some good, some not-so-good). 

Thanks; the process looks a lot worse than it is. I find a lot of these cars with the handrails loose. It doesn't take an inordinate amount of effort to take the tank off the chassis (four tabs on the underside and the tabs at the bottom of each ladder). Once the tank's off, you can reach inside with needle-nose pliers and/or a thin-bladed screwdriver to tighten/rebend the stanchions back to their original form. Reattaching the tank to the frame is just the reverse of removing it.

The manufacturing complexity of these prewar tank cars make them a personal favorite. The late four-wheel 804 is comprised of over thirty parts; it would have been interesting to see folks in the factory assembling these things. The company certainly could have made something far simpler (and did; see the 1680/2680 tank car, for example), but I think this design is a good example of some of Lionel's best, perhaps more mundane, work. I just love 'em...

  

Mixed bag of freight it is...

Lionel Earth Stomper



American Flyer Armored Car Transport



KBN California Frucht Transport



...and a bit of toy train trivia (on the side, of course!  )

   In the 1930's KBN turned out a series of 8 wheel freight cars.  Among them was a series of fantasy boxcars of which the California Frucht Transport was one.  The others in the group were the following: Bananen, Kuhlwagen, Raubtier-Wagen, Milch Wagen, Bayr.BierTransport AG, and an Internationale Transport AG.    The interesting fact about these cars are the reporting marks.  The Bananen (a banana transport boxcar) reporting marks were from Bremen, The Kuhlwagen (refrigerator) was Augsburg, The Raubtier-Wagen (wild animal)had no reporting marks, Milch Wagen hailed from Munchen (Munich) as did the Bayr.Bier Transport (beer reefer), the Internationale Transport was from Hamburg, and the California Frucht Transport was Berlin.

 Bremen is/was a major port so it would be a place where one could find imported bananas. Augsburg is a cold place and cold is a key aspect of refrigeration. The raubtier-wagen would most likely be associated with a circus and circuses call everywhere home so the lack of reporting marks is understandable. Munich is famous for its beer and it is surrounded by farm country. Beer and milk would certainly be products of that city. Hamburg is/was a major transport hub with international connections so it would be a logical place to find a car that was used in international transport...and that leaves the California Frucht Transport with a home reporting mark of Berlin.  This may seem odd but in the 1930's Berlin was home to wealth, high fashion, and all of the rest.  It would be the place most likely to import and have for sale exotic imported fruits from faraway places like California.

Three cars, one new two old,

Dave

harborbelt70, all nice equipment - thanks for the description and background info. Alfred