Does anyone know, if back in the Steam Era of Railroading, did the
Pennsylvania Railroad pull the majority of the Pittsburg, Pa. H.J. Heniz
Company's Reefer Cars?

Todd

THEY DID , HENIZ HAD A FACTORY IN PENNSYLVANIA , LOOK ON THE BACK OF THE BOTTLE.
SO IF YOU WANT TO MODEL A PRR FRIGHT WITH HENIZ REEFER CARS IT WAS A POSSIBILITY THAT IT HAPPENED BACK IN THE HEY DAY

Yes they did. My dad who worked for Heinz for 40+ years has some pictures of the cars Heinz used to transport merchadise. Altho photos are B&W, they were probably very colorful to attract attention. The plant was right next to a heavily used Pennsy branch, I believe.

Sam

If you're really interesting in the Heinz and pickle business as it related to the railroads and modeling them, there was an NMRA SIG (special interest group) that used to exist (now defunct...) that put out a newsletter call "Pickles in Miniature". Photocopies of most issues are available from the NMRA library for a small fee. Lots of information on pickle and vinegar cars and general information as well as plans for building your cars if that flaots your pickle.....

Does anyone know how accurate the MTH Heinz reefer cars are?

If the graphics and the construction of the MTH Heinz reefers I saw for sale on e-bay are typical then I would have to say both graphics and car have little in common with the prototype. The HO kit manufacturer Westerfield made a series of very accurate kits which were based on extensive research of the prototype. The cars were 34' in length, had truss rods, and a very unusual car truck. Also the dry transfer manufacturer, Clover House, made (still makes??) a series of accurate transfers in both HO and O scale.

If you can get a copy of the April and May 1988 issues of Model Railroading (note: not Model Railroader) there is a good article on the cars in the April issue and some great pictures of car models built by Byron Rose (one of the major members of the defunct NMRA group).

I do know that in the past MTH did turn out a couple of Heinz cars whose paint scheme was at least prototypical but, as mentioned, the cars bear little resemblance to the prototype in terms of physical appearance and scale.

According to the current Clover House catalog, there are dry transfer sets available for several of the Heinz reefers in O scale but some are also only available in HO. Did not see any sets for the Heinz or any other owner of pickle or vinegar cars...

Rails Unlimited used to sell a resin body of a coffin style pickle car and also stocked the decals for this car.....

K-Line used to have the Heinz car license. Other than their use of 40' instead of 36' wood refers, the paint schemes generally followed those from Clover House. There's a small, one guy decal source that has several Heinz car sets. Unfortunately, I'm having a senior moment and can't recall his name. I also have the Heinz cars Lionel has done.

I think I have the K-Line cars, and several custom painted ones using either the Clover House transfers or the decals. (The K-Line cars were a bit of a problem because I'd order them from my dealer and they'd never ship from K-Line. Later I'd find them in stock at other dealers.) The roster, including the MTH cars is approaching thirty cars the last time I took a count. Some of the variants are close duplicates.

I've also gotten those from MTH because they're attractive cars even though I don't know any prototype that could be used as a base. To add to the fun, I also have one of the AtlasO O-6-0's lettered as HJ Heinz and road #57. There's also an AtlasO F3 A-A set in the works. Who needs a prototype? Another bit of confusion, since I'm mostly CB&Q with some western roads thrown in, I don't have eastern motive power. But, then, it's my playpen.

Of course, I'm biased.

Thanks, Carl - I confused MTH and K-Line - it was the K-Line series of paint schemes I was recalling as being correct.

Thanks, guys.

My source for the decals was:

"Art Griffin,
2734 Floral Trail
Dept. GD
Michigan City, IN 46360
voice: 219-874-4865 fax: 219-874-3561
send E-mail to Art Griffin artgriffindecals@comcast.net"

The URL for the web site is
http://www.greatdecals.com/Griffin.htm

As I recall, the sets were around $15 each. They were of excellent quality.

We used AtlasO 36' wood refer undecs. My preference, for operational reasons was the one without rods. I'f you're trying for something more prototypical, I'd suggest using the type with rods. Norm's O Scale had both.

Your post on Art's stuff struck a memory of something I had read on another forum/group. To awhile to track it down..

As I understand it, Art is closed from June thru Sept and has also stopped printing O scale stuff (and N scale as well) except that interesting to the line......

Not sure if that means that whatever he had in stock or on hand is available or not....or whatever. But, I would not count on this source....

Either way, a big loss for the scratchbuilder or custom finisher.

I don't think he stocks them. When I talked to him, he said that it'd take a couple of weeks before the order worked itself through the queue. I ordered several different ones, so don't know if that made a difference.

This was about a year ago IIRC.

I, too, would be sorry to lose this resource.

Had a feeling that was his process; print them to order, 1st in, 1st out...

I went back to that other site and apparerntly initially he had announced that he was retired, the end, doors closed.

Apparently he had a change of heart and came back and when doing so announced he was eliminating N and O scale...

Another huge loss along with Champ decals attriting themselves into oblivion....and Clover House also being for sale. An era coming to a close...

I called Art and he confirmed that he's only doing HO, TT, and S. He's also on vacation.

I was sure lucky to get them when I did.

Sad to hear that confirmed...

Let me guess. there were 57 types of cars....

Not quite, but MTH is working on it.