# USA trains Boxcar question??



## cape cod Todd (Jan 3, 2008)

Hello All
Recently I watched 2 really neat USAT boxcars go through evilbay one was a John Deere and the other Country time lemonade. They both went over my budget but I noted something curious they were both reefers. I can understand the need to keep lemons cool but tractor parts? I checked on my fleet of 9 various named USAT cars and most are reefers even though only one actually says on the side that it is a refridgerated car. All the cars are older style wood not steel but for the ones that are not reefers they have steel doors on them. Only 2 have a wooden sliding door. 
Has anyone else noticed the abundance of reefer cars from USATrains? Is there a reason? Maybe by using the smaller reefer doors they end up with a larger surface area to apply the graphics?
With all the reefers I have the next structure I build might have to be an ice house. 
Todd


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Posted By cape cod Todd on 16 Apr 2011 03:31 PM 
Has anyone else noticed the abundance of reefer cars from USATrains?


Yeah Todd, there is a huge number.

A long list of USA Trains reefers here of the ones with a four digit product code:

http://www.gbdb.info/details.php?image_id=2909

and an even longer list with a five digit product code:

http://www.gbdb.info/details.php?image_id=2881


Knut


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

I suspect it is because Reefers had a colorful history. Billboard Reefers were some works of art. Many were owned by the shippers, so advertising departments rose to the occassion. 
The variety of these apeal to collectors as well as railroaders. 
Changing paint schemes is easier than making new molds, so they get a lot of life out of their production lines. 

John


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## ROUTE 66 (Sep 26, 2008)

Country Time lemonade was born in 1975 or 76 so that paint scheme never existed on a billboard reefer it appeared as a billboard only in Nascar Most of the billboards USAT markets only a handful ever existed in 1:1 real time or real life for that matter. if it is a colorful advertisement and they believe it will sell they will produce it.They use thier artistic license,change color combos to make it the most attractive.If you were looking for prototipical railroading on your layout most you wouldn't purchase because they never rode the rails.I buy and run what I like weather it rode the rails or is just pure fantasy...I agree though why would Indian motorcyle parts be shipped in a reefer,would make more sense for parts to be shipped in a boxcar.


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## bcer960 (Dec 27, 2007)

It seemed that back in the early '90s USA Trains came out with a billboard car every week. I was in a hobby shop in Oregan in 1993 and saw this car. It is the only USA trains billboard car I have. I saw it, laughed and left. Drove away, but turned around and bought it. I am glad I did it still makes my laugh every time I see it. By the way, it is not on either of the lists so I suspect there are many more variations out there.




Ray


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Bcer that is great. 

Nothing like a little humor to go along with our train hobby


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## DKRickman (Mar 25, 2008)

I like the little touches.. like the reporting marks on that Sam & Ella car


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## cape cod Todd (Jan 3, 2008)

That sam N ella car is a hoot and it proves that Charlie Ro has a sense of humour. I think there are many more cars out there than are on the lists that KRS linked to. This morning I saw a collection on Ebay of USAT boxcars that featured "bear piss beer" . clever. 
As far as keeping costs down I agree with Totalwrecker "Changing paint schemes is easier than making new molds, so they get a lot of life out of their production lines." So I suppose that is why we see so many "wood" planked boxcars with steel doors and we will continue to see more neat, clever and original works on reefers from USAT. 
Todd


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## bcer960 (Dec 27, 2007)

I have not seen the "bear piss beer", but a friend of mine managed to get all 5 "Bear Whiz" cars. Again not on te lists. 

Ray


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Posted By bcer960 on 18 Apr 2011 08:03 AM 
I have not seen the "bear piss beer", but a friend of mine managed to get all 5 "Bear Whiz" cars. Again not on te lists. 

Ray


The two lists only cover the standard production USA Trains reefers of these two number series.
I just posted that to illustrate the earlier posting as to the large number of reefers USA Trains has come up with over the years.

There is also a smaller number of "custom" USA Trains reefers which were exclusively manufactured for specific stores in small quantities of 25 to a few hundred.

Those don't have any standard Rxxxx USA Trains product numbers but are identified by N, U and X numbers.
The ones that have been identified to date are listed below - if anyone has USA Trains reefer not yet identified (there are gaps in the listing), I would love to hear about it.
If possible with a picture.
The Sam N Ella car is one of those - any more info on that like a product code on the box?

Knut

N1 Necco Wafer (Red, White, Blue), #C.N.D.Y. 254 
N2 Schweppes Ginger Ale (Green, Gold) 
N3 New England G Scale Trains - First Anniversary 1993 (25 units produced) 
N4 Cape Cod Potatoe Chips (Red, White, Blue). #C.C.P.C. 19947 
N5 United Farmers Dairy Association (Dark Green, Black) (25 units produced) 
N6 Mary Jane Candies (Red, Mustard Yellow), #CNDY 262 
N7 New England G Scale Trains - Second Anniversary 1994 (25 units produced) 
N8 RCA Victor (Red, Silver), #101  
N9 Cape Cod Popcorn (Red, White, Blue) #C.C.P.C.19957 
N10 RCA Victor (Blue, Silver), #102 
U1 Alexander Keith woodside reefer 
U2 Copper Head Brewing woodside reefer 
U3 Crayola Crayon woodside reefer 
U4 Erdinger woodside reefer 
U5 Northern Brewery woodside reefer 
U6 Prospect and Upper Ridge woodside reefer 
U7 Reading Blue Diamond woodside reefer 
U8 Reading woodside reefer 
U9 Mendocino Brewery Red Tail Ale - made for Train Showcase 
U10 Sierra Valley Pale Ale Beer woodside reefer - made for Train Showcase 
U11 Texas Pacific (green) woodside reefer 
U12 Texas Pacific (orange) woodside reefer 
U13 Undecorated - woodside reefer 
U14 Valvoline - woodside reefer 
U15 Wooden Shoe Lager Beer 
X1 Hog Canyon Lines (Black) woodside reefer - made for San-Val 
X2 Hog Canyon Lines (Pink) woodside reefer - made for San-Val 
X3 Las Vegas Dice woodside reefer - made for Train Showcase 
X6 Tournament of Roses woodside reefer 
X7 Beer Whiz road 908 woodside reefer 
X8 Beer Whiz road 909 woodside reefer 
X11 The Big Train Show 1998 woodside reefer 
X13 Happy Hanukkah 1994 - woodside reefer - made for San-Val Trains 
X15 Maryland Treasure the Chesapeake woodside reefer 
X16 Merchants Despatch 
X17 USAF woodside reefer 
X20 Welhouse Dutch made latic milk


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Sometimes an affinity for a product will help sell the billboard reefer. I was literally born in the Hershey Hospital. (The structure was demolished some years ago. It was a small hospital - about 100 beds - NOT the huge medical center that exists in Hershey today.) I have an affinity for Hershey's reefers, even though the chocolate was really shipped in insulated boxcars that were liveried closer to the Pacific Fruit Express reefers (back when I was a child). 

I had to have Bachmann's Hershey's Kiss reefer. The main reason is because my Daddy was a kiss inspector. Yes, that was his first job at Hershey Chocolate. He wore white cotton gloves and picked out the kisses that did not get wrapped in foil. Those kisses were put into bins and, I guess, melted and run through the line again. He did not work that job for long, and he told me that by his third day he was sick of the sight of unwrapped Hershey's Kisses, so the company did not loose too many kisses to his appetite. Just as well, since he was diabetic. 

Anyway, like I said, I think affinity for a product helps sell model billboard reefers. 

Yours, 
David Meashey


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## cape cod Todd (Jan 3, 2008)

Sorry i wnet back and had a look at the bear beer cars on Ebay and they are "BEAR WIZZ BEER" Here is the link if you are interested. 
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230610742683&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT 
The guy has several more items up for auction as well including a suggestive "beaver" USAT boxcar. He might have the collection of bear wizz cars. 
I got looking at the boxcar lists and I might have one that is not on there. How do you tell the numbers ? Are they printed on the sides if so then it is #2305 Dr. Hess stock and poultry preparations, union refridgerator transit co. It is dark purple with a silver roof and ends with a likeness of a horse, cow, pig, sheep and 2 chickens on the side. It makes sense that this one is a reefer.


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Posted By cape cod Todd on 18 Apr 2011 04:06 PM 
Sorry i wnet back and had a look at the bear beer cars on Ebay and they are "BEAR WIZZ BEER" Here is the link if you are interested. 
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230610742683&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT 
The guy has several more items up for auction as well including a suggestive "beaver" USAT boxcar. He might have the collection of bear wizz cars. 
I got looking at the boxcar lists and I might have one that is not on there. How do you tell the numbers ? Are they printed on the sides if so then it is #2305 Dr. Hess stock and poultry preparations, union refridgerator transit co. It is dark purple with a silver roof and ends with a likeness of a horse, cow, pig, sheep and 2 chickens on the side. It makes sense that this one is a reefer.


Thanks for the comments.


The Beer Whiz 909 car in the ebay auction is in the custom list above shown as X8

The Dr. Hess car is on the Large Scale database:
R16113 Dr. Hess URTCo 2305
The USA Trains product ID is just on the box not on the car. I just go to the database and type in either Hess or 2305 to see if anything comes up. Then I go through the list manually. The basic search is on an "OR" basis so it's best to just use one word as the search criteria, a word that is a bit unique.


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## bcer960 (Dec 27, 2007)

Knut, 

Unfortunatly I never had the box, it was on the diplay shelf, and he wrapped it in bubble wrap and that was that. I wouldn't dought that the store owner had a box, I just didn't get it. It also didn't come with couplers, that is why there are none in the pic. I do have USA Trains couplers that I could add, just haven't. So, there is nothing on the car, just the box, for reporting marks, too bad. Anyway, I had always wondered if there wasn't a list of USA trains refers/boxcars, as I said it seemed like a new one was out every week. 

If memory serves me I recall the store owner saying that there were only 50 of the "SAM N ELLA" cars made. That was part of the reason I turned around and bought, knowing it probably wouldn't be there next time. 

I would suspect the x9 and x10 are also Bear whiz cars. I thought there 5 of them, but I asked Dan and there are only 4. 

Ray


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Ray, 

There are actually five Bear Whiz cars, plus one Christmas car: 

Bear Whiz Brewing Company - Bear Whiz Beer 906 
Bear Whiz Brewing Company - Bear Whiz Light 907 
Bear Whiz Brewing Company - Bear Whiz Angler's Ale 908 
Bear Whiz Brewing Company - Ms. Bear Whiz 909 
Bear Whiz Brewing Company - Bear Whiz Fool's Gold 910 
Beary Whizmas Christmas Car 1994 

None of them have proper USA Trains product numbers, they were all small custom runs. 

I suspect you Sam N Ella car is the same, a custom run. 
I don't know anything about USA Trains, I'm more into old LGB. 
But I have asked Shawn who is really into that and he might be able to find out more about your car. 

Knut


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## LGBTA (Nov 11, 2010)

Next to LGB's Billboard Reefers, USA does the next best job... My collection used to consist of both but I have cut back to ONLY LGB recently... One of the best USAT ran was the Santa's "**** List" Reefer...


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## bcer960 (Dec 27, 2007)

Knut, that would be reat, thanks 

Ray


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Ray,

I dug up some information on the SAM N' ELLA car and created an entry on the data base:
http://www.gbdb.info/details.php?image_id=2953&l=english

The information came from Jon who was intimately involved with the creation of that car, in fact the name was his idea.


Knut


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

100 SAN N' ELLAs made. They were comissioned by Jon Miller. Charlie will do runs down to 50 cars.

Six Bear Whiz Beer Cars. These were sold in numbered sets, but some individual cars could also be had. I have set #103.


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## bcer960 (Dec 27, 2007)

Thanks Knut, 

Guess I was off a couple of years with my dates.... 

Ray


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Ray, 

I have the same problem for things that go back to the 90's especially when it comes to this hobby and trying to remember when I bought certain items. 
I always think it was longer ago than it actually was when I find an old receipt or an email relating to the purchase. 

Knut


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