Be glad that you have silly train cars and not just a boring list of container, waste and hopper cars.
I think that this what some Europeans (like myself) like in Americans. Creating, producing and actually selling makes the US.
I would state Silly Cars are an essential part of Americana culture.
When I first got a Vlasic Pickle reefer car in the 80’s, I thought that that was the most extreme level of stupidity: who is running a car on his layout with advertisments on. A year later I got the “Old grand dad reefer” and was stunned that in the US they actually put the picture of a grand-pa on a train. Later I received catalogs with aquarium cars, mint cars and started to enjoy this typical American phenomena.
May be some suggestions from my side for future innovations:
-a Bill Gates self enrichment mint car
-a congressional passenger car with an exploding feature for your president candidate of choice that you do not like
-a Enron jail car
…
I’ve always felt the vaious cop-and-hobo cars were silly, especially the ones witht he truss mounted on top.
OTOH, I love the military cars. Every layout needs a defense force! My son and I have been known to fill gondolas and flatcars with troops, and pelt them with rolled socks as they run by us.
Picture window boxcars transporting giant-sized football helmets? Please!
Actually, there was a prototype for the picture window boxcar. I once ran across an ad in a 1950’s TIME magazine, featuring such a boxcar that Southern Pacific used for employee training purposes, to demonstrate that the railroad carefully handled customer’s shipments.
As for the space and military trains, I think that TMCC was made for the reissue Missile Launch Sets of the past few years (with the add-on sound car, of course!) Nothing like firing those missiles from the CAB-1!
this reminds me of an article in Model Railroader about a decade ago…about Union Pacific…(I hope I don’t get sued for posting their name)…attempting to use magnetic uncouplers on their real-life rails…it was an April-fool joke, of course…but whoever wrote it made sure it was so realistically detailed, it made a GREAT read…LoL
HEY…is that aquarium car still being used somewhere?..WHERE?..also…what ever happened to the eploding boxcars?
Well, the Capitol City Trackers did it again; this time in the renovated Roundhouse in Baltimore. In addition to the aquarium car, they had a rat in a gondola (perhaps representing a pachyderm???)
(wonder if the rodent was sedated? Ditto for the female guests)
I love the silly cars! I bought two baked bean vat cars for my eventual layout - I intend to have them parked next to a gas station! One represents me and the other a friend of mine - the two of us once cleared a room after a meal involving refried beans etc.
Did anyone ever do a Crapsman Tools train car? That would be perfect to represent another friend of mine.
How about an apple sauce car? I have another friend who lives on the stuff.
Sorry for posting on this topic so late but I have to throw in the lionel#44 missile firing engine.A diesel with full armament of missles sitting on a launcher on top ready to fire?
Never liked it, never bought it, reminds me of the edsel… a clunker when it came out few were sold but are valuable today[2c]
I’ll ad the “Elvis He Dared to Rock” Set by Lonel, and lets not forget the original Girls Train from 1957. Granted this turkey, of, all turkeys has spawned a number of recreations and reissues, but the original reason for this train was truly idiotic.
The Greendale set gets my vote. On so many levels the set was ridiculous (so were the album sales.) Satan chasing a woman car?!? Let’s all commemorate domestic violence! Unless you are, of course, one of the few that bought the album let alone, groked its deeper meaning.
Most ridiculous was the response by the rabid “Neil Young is God!” Thrasher Wheat Pinheads to some of the hobbiests on OGRForum. The whole thing spiraled downhill fast with personal attacks on both sides. The set was silly cross marketing, the response by hobbiests was silly, the reply by the music fans was silly… How ridiculous!
