OK peeps, I know that the billboard era died in 1934, but I truly love the artwork of the cars. Arrowhead painted a tank car for a publicity shoot, but never used it. The Famous Hills Bros. Coffee cars were real, and I just got one in N. What are other real billboard cars that existed?
I have one of those Hills Brothers coffee boxcars too, in HO. Beer! I have oodles of those cars. Schlitz, Pabst, Coors, Miller, Old Heidelberg, Olympia, Heileman, Goetz, Tivoli even Narragansett Ale. And more. Enough for a train long enough to keep Possum Lodge stocked for at least a week. Also meat packers. Dairy. Cocoa. Weiners. Wine. Pickles. Pet food. Fruit. Chewing gum. Grocery stores (IGA!). Cleaning products... Not to omit the named passenger trains, like the Super Chief, Scout, 400, Zephyr, Hiawatha, etc. If there's one kind of car I like, it's billboard freight cars, reefers, hoppers, boxcars, etc. Adds color and variety to trains. And fun!
Unsure if Tyco's "DC Comics" boxcars were 'real' but the 5-yr-old sure likes them. Spoiler: Click To View Am confused why does following boxcar say "Indianapolis" when Baltimore defeated Dallas in Florida? Spoiler: Indianapolis Colts?
Billboard cars were never banned, it's just you couldn't put commercial logos on general service cars. Technically the Hills Brothers Coffee car would not have been banned. HBCX reporting marks suggests the car was owned/leased by Hills Bros Coffee and it was perfectly legal for a company to put their logo on a car they leased or owned for exclusively their service. If you see a company logo on a car after the 1930's, that means the car is owned/leased by that company and is being used in that company's service exclusively. If a tank car has the Texaco logo on it, it has to be hauling stuff to or from a Texaco company. Here is a modern "billboard" car: There used to be a decal maker, Art Griffin, who offered hundreds of billboard reefer decals, all of which were made from pictures of actual billboard reefer cars. He has been out of business for over a decade and his company's website is not longer around. There is also a book on just billboard reefers, "Billboard Refrigerator Cars" by Hendrickson and Kaminski (it's available on Amazon).
Several years ago in a hobby show someone was selling a Wonder Woman covered hopper. When I came back around to buy it, someone had already snapped it up. That would have made a great conversation starter.
There is a book out there called Billboard Refrigerator Cars that covers this very topic. Don't have it in my collection but it's on my someday list as I understand it has some really cool stuff in it.
I also like the billboard reefers and have too many to admit to. The book BNSF Fan refers to is called Billboard Refrigerator Cars by Richard Hendrickson and Edward Kaminski. I have a copy and it is an excellent resource for these cars. I must have 30 or more billboard reefers that are real cars and pictured in this book. I often refer to the book before purchase to see if the car is real and if I can match the car number.
Found a similar .pdf one can read/download here. Used to drive for C.R.England suppose most reefer units today are via "piggyback trailers/containers"? lol "Baby Ruth" cars were for "real" . .
