I thought I’d share with you my latest ebay find. This caboose is made by Hafner and normally is a common item. This one, however, is a major exception. Take a close look at it. The sides are made out of two pieces of tin, each forming one side and end. One of these accidentally got put in upside down. Hafner, like Marx, was very frugal, especially during the war years. If something like this accidentally happened, but the car itself was still useable, it was put into a set and sold. Another thing to note is that these cabooses normally have windows lithographed on the cupola, but this one doesn’t. There certainly can’t be many of these around and I’m thrilled to find it, especially at only $23.15!
Very interesting Mitch. It was actually stamped and folded backwards. My guess is that the litho work was done while the metal was flat, but between there and the stamping, it got turned around.
On closer inspection, I see that the windows on the correct side are not symetrical. On a normal car, are they supposed to be arranged with 3 windows toward the cupola end? This would indicate that there was a right and left litho printing, but only a single stamp, since each piece has a side and an end of the car, with two seams on opposite corners.
Is the bottom of the car open? Is there any litho on the inside?
Nice find Sask! The more I collect of Hafner the more I like it. Something to be said about toy trains that were really toy trains. The condition on yours seems to be superb.
Carl T.
It’s a Hafner - Wyandotte. I beleve Wyandotte toys bought Hafner in the late 30’s? and continued producing their trains. Not sure on that - Sask would know -Great little trains with cool graphics. All wind-ups!
That’s how all tinplate trains and toys were made. The lithography for several of a certain part would be done on a big flat sheet of tin and then stamped out and formed. There might have been ten or more caboose sides on one sheet. I have in my collection a tin sheet from the Marx factory with the walls for six gateman houses lithographed on it.
Hafner had only one printing for both sides. On a normal one, the three windows are at the cupola end on one side and at the other end on the other side. On a different caboose of the same style, the lithogrphy included large lanterns (which in real life would both be hung at the tail end of a caboose on a train) which end up each on a different end of the caboose.
Unlike the streamliner Hafner cars, the body and base are seperate on this one, so you can’t see inside without taking the top off. I only just won this on ebay and so don’t actually have it yet to check anything other than the pictures. During the war, if there was an error in the lithography on a sheet at the Marx factory, they would just flip it over and use the other side. Hafner used a great deal of recycled tin, but their claim to fame is not reusing their own tin, but getting if from other sources. See Carl’s post. Graphics from pop and beer bottle caps, paint cans, etc. show up rather freque
