The Catenary Video “Western Pacific” includes a short section of film taken on the streets of Oakland, California and the Palace Poultry Car is a very dark color, I assume black with the cage material a much lighter color.

Gary Laakso

Northwest of Mike Brock

The whole idea of color is very difficult. I doubt that these cars were in passenger trains (brakes, trucks, etc), so Pullman Green does not appeal to me. I do have photos of them in freight trains coupled next to ATSF stock cars, and the tones of the cars are the same.

I have photos of LPTCo 257, 409, 475, 507, 683, 866, 1023, 1241, 1642, and 2146 all in service, and they appear pretty uniform in tone throughout.

My factory publicity photos of LPTCo 666, 677, 732, 1181, and 1566 all appear to be two tone.

This leads me to conjecture that advertising photos show the cars painted in at least two colors to emphasize the intricacy of construction, which would be difficult to see without contrasting paint. This is the same reason we see other types of freight cars in publicity photos in what appears to be unusual or reverse paint schemes.

Another example is my publicity photo of PPKX 5065 which has dark ends and messenger compartment while the cages and trusses are very light. The publicity photo of 5131  is the opposite with light ends, roof, sill, and messenger compartment while the interior is dark.  The first has white lettering, the second has black lettering. My in service photos of PPKX 5195 and 5559 show them to be uniformly painted in a neutral color so that the sill lettering is white and the name over the messenger door is a bit darker and hard to read. Special painting for publicity photos would explain this variation.

Could the cars have simply been some shade of box car red with white lettering and golden name over the door? Maybe the folks in St. Louis can scratch through what little paint is left on the PPKX 5568 and discover an original paint color. Of course there is that photo which has been circulated of the Pacific Wholesale Poultry car from Petaluma, CA. It appears to be MOW silver in that photo.

I believe the Con Cor 50’ gondola was originally a Lindberg product?

Cheers

Dave

I had similar experiences at the Illinois Tech Model Railroad Club c. 1964-5 when the Lindberg trucks first came out.   There were few places on the club layout that a car equipped with them would “stay”…compared to the MDC, Athearn, Varney, etc. trucks that most of us had they were fantastic!

Not a freight car, but I had a AHM Pullman equipped with Con-Cor metal wheelsets….once the brake shoes were ground down to clear the proper 36” wheels the car was about as slippery as a freight car with the Lindbergs.

Charlie Vlk

Most of the American Flyer HO was original tooling….not to say that the F3s were not Marx bodies.

The Model Power / Marx “F2” was a copy of the Varney tooling but IIRC there were additional crudities that brought them (down)  to another level….

The prewar American Flyer cars were cast metal.  The New Haven Baggage RPO still looks good today even if a little heavy in rivet sizes.  The “American Flyer” coach was short but fairly well proportioned with a few windows deleted.  They had a cupola caboose different than the postwar Reading NE and a nice composite gondola.  Some of the other cars may have transitioned to injected molded plastic versions.

Charlie Vlk

Friends,

I've occasionally seen the Lindberg switcher at train shows, and scored one of the rather oversized cabooses to get the end platforms/steps (parts still in my stock), but have never seen any of the other freight cars. Has anyone ever run across these? Were they ever re-issued by somebody else? The stock car looks like it might have conversion possibilities.

I think I still have at least one pair of the Lindberg trucks floating around someplace. They were among the best rolling trucks of their era.

Now here's something to ponder. A.C. Gilbert of American Flyer fame also tried their hands at HO. Most of their stuff was the same tooling as Marx (and  IIRC is still available from Model Power). Most Gilbert was really low-quality junk, but when I was a youngster I had two Gilbert 50' fishbelly flat cars that were quite different. Except for the trucks and horn couplers, these were one-piece cast metal and had some pretty good detail, plus enough weight to keep them on the track. I keep an eye out for these at train shows, and may be tempted if I ever run across any again. They might be worth upgrading.

Yours Aye,


Garth Groff

I believe that Mantua got the Lindberg line so now that it has morphed through Model Power and MRC to Lionel we will have to await yet another attempt at releasing dated tooling to see them again.  Maybe the Marx tooling they also got with the Model Power acquisition will be a higher priority…after all, they at least had a searchlight car!!!

Seriously, Mantua and Model Power did run the Lindberg tooling so some of the cars might be available….not sure if that is what they used for the “Heavies” line of diecast metal cars…just to prevent any kitbashing!!!

Charlie Vlk