What do you guys think of fantasy freight cars, the type cars that arent based on any roadname or company? I know alot of folks have a good dislike for those type of cars. For instance, you would never see a Hostess/Wonder Bread hopper or a Comet tank car, or even a Nesquik reefer car…those kind of cars simply don’t exist in the real railroads. Even sports team cars like baseball boxcars or football boxcars like the ones MTH had cataloged but found out recently that all of those cars were cancelled.
My personal opinion is, that yes I would buy fantasy cars as well as the roadname cars. If it looks good to me then I will run it on my layout. I can care less about running a certain roadname only and such like that.
For instance, I have gotten a few months back the Cleveland Indians baseball boxcar, and it is a nice car indeed. I got it mainly because since Cleveland is my birth city, I felt it was great to own a freight car that reflected my hometown. Showed it to my dad and he liked it too.
So would I buy more fantasy cars? Yep, I sure would.
I thought my Tropicana O.J. juice was a fantasy car. I liked it because I lived near Bradenton, Florida and a huge Tropicana plant. Then I saw a several car consist go by in Texas all painted for Tropicana!
What are you talking about. Not everything is a Fantasy Paint Scheme.
I have seen and photographed Wonder Bread and Hostess Covered Hoppers.
There is a photo of an ACF Center Flow in the Wonder Bread/Hostess scheme in the book Classic Freight Cars; The Series High Capacity Covered Hoppers.
The Wonderbread and Hostess Covered Hoppers are real cars. There is no fantasy with those cars. ACF, North American Car Co., and GATX really did lease Covered Hoppers to the Wonderbread and Hostess Company. These cars haul real baking products. This is totally real.
The company H&M Productions has published many books in their series titled CLASSIC FREIGHT CARS. You might think many of these colorful schemes were fantasy schemes if you did not live near a railroad or had many of the books in the series. Some companies with smaller fleets apply bold paint schemes to the cars they lease for hauling their products. It happens less these days, but there are still a few companies that apply bold advertising to their real life freight cars.
The Contadina Tomato Paste Box Car made by LIONEL has great graphics. Since I use Tomato Paste regularly, I like it a whole lot. It might not be real, but it is a great rendering.
The AEC Tank Cars with liquid inside are facinating fantasy freight cars. The engineer needs to make abrupt starts and stops to get the liquid sloshing.
A freind of mine has a Bachmann On30 tankcar lettered for “Flatulene,” a long-standing joke on the On30Comspiracy list. Much of his rolling stock is lettered for the Howard, Fine, & Howard company’s “Carbomite Mine #2.”
The Atomic Energy Comission Glow in the Dark Box Car from Lionel is a great fantasy car.
The welding work caboose has some nice animation and lights, but it is hard to classify because I have not seen an exact replica.
The best fantasty cars are the Aquarium Cars. The Aquarium Car with Sounds and Command Control is excellent. The water sound effects are truly synchronized. It can handle being in a light derailment.
