My goodies arrived today!
In a huuuuuuuge, flat box!! Wasn’t expecting that! Lionel 6-8100 N&W “J” for scale.
The dimensions will make this box great for storing trains, in one or two layers. A nice bonus!
And here’s what was inside… my shiny new copy of “Authoritative Guide to Lionel’s Promotional Outfits 1960-1969” by John W. Schmid! Once again, N&W J for scale.
This book is big and heavy. And full of some amazing pictures and information. I was able to look up my uncatalogued outfit, 11580 from 1966, and confirm that it was intended for general release- ie, it was a mass-produced promotional outfit available to retailers who either did not want to, or could not have a completely unique outfit put together for them. And now I have an idea of how many were made. So cool!
I had a little “room” left over on the gift card after ordering this must-have book for myself, so I decided to round things out with a pair of reproduction Lionel window boxes. I wanted to try them out, see what the quality was like, and if I’d enjoy storing some of my cars in repro boxes. The boxes come shipped flat, and the length of the larger box was probably the reason I got my items shipped in such a huge box.
I decided that the two cars I most badly wanted to put in boxes were my 6519 Allis Chalmers car, and 6017-100 caboose. I am happy to report that the 6414 box fits my Allis Chalmers car nicely, and the 6017-100 fits perfectly into the 6017 box. Boy do they look slick in those nice new boxes! Really adds some pizzaz, no?
Folding the boxes required some careful work to get nice results. Nothing that the crafty among us (you know who you are
) can’t handle. But for anyone unfamiliar, you will need to fold these boxes carefully so as to make sure they bend properly at the fold lines, and nowhere else. The plastic windows make the boxes more fragile, extra care needed on the window side.
Furthermore, anyone with a 6519 that has unbroken brake wheel stanchions will want to modify the insert flaps to prevent them from putting pressure on the wheels that might cause them to break, like what happened with the original boxes.
The 6017 box is designed for cabooses with only one coupler. It will fit cabooses with two, but you will have to turn one of the trucks inwards so it will fit. Or remove the insert flap.
One more detail- the boxes, as you may be able to see, had stickers on the insides of the flaps, applied presumably to help with stocking at firecrown’s store warehouse. I found that removal was difficult if not impossible without tearing to both the stickers and the boxes. No biggie, but worth bearing in mind.
All in all, I’m a verrrry happy “customer”. The rave reviews are true about the Promotional Outfit book, and I’ve barely dug into it at all. Project Roar clearly do lovely work. The book claims they have production records for HO too… I hope they will make use of this information in a publication someday. The repro boxes (by East Coast Train Parts) are great looking, and while not overly sturdy, are no less sound than original boxes- possibly a bit sturdier? The window boxes are clearly great for displaying and storing trains. I may need more of these…
-El
THANK YOU FIRECROWN!!! 
there are plenty of things on my wishlist 
