Need Help!

[snick]

I am trying to find a HO boxcar I had when I was a child late 50's early 60's. I am not sure of the make or road name. All I can remember is that is was all metal with working doors, spung trucks and was blue & gray in color. it could be an American Flyer HO, Mantua, Roundhouse or Athern. any help would be great.
Nick:-D

 

[doctorwayne]

Sounds like an Athearn HO car that I had at one time: it was a B&O "Timesaver" service boxcar. I still have the car, but it's been repainted for my own roadname. I believe there was also a blue and grey Train Miniature boxcar (now Walthers) which was lettered for Missouri Pacific Merchandise Service.
Edit: I should've read your question more carefully, as both of these cars are plastic. Still could be these roadnames, though. Athearn did originally offer metal boxcars, as did Varney, and my Varney catalogue from the '50s shows that the B&O Timesaver Service was one of the paint schemes available.

Wayne

 

[steamhead]

Hi...You might try looking in eBay...I've found the Athearn Silver Streak line of metal boxcars from the 50's/early 60's.

 

[Russ Bellinis]

I think that when Athearn started to make their cars out of plastic, they sold the tooling for the metal cars to Varney. That tooling is now owned by Bowser, but at last report they had no plans to offer the metal cars. You will have to find a used one on e-bay or whatever.

 

[doctorwayne]

Russ, I think that the Varney metal cars pre-date those of Athearn. I believe that the Athearn tooling went to Menzies, which was later acquired by Bowser.
Gus, as best I recall, Athearn and Silver Streak were never affiliated. I still have an Athearn metal flatcar, a Varney metal boxcar, and a Silver Streak wood and cast metal caboose, all from my very first HO scale trains. Only the Varney car is still in limited service.

Wayne

 

[steamhead]

Wayne, you're right...Athearn & Silver Streak were not associated (got carried away, I guess....). I have a couple of Silver Streak cars that were once my ol' man's from the late 40's/early 50's. Sadly, the flat car is slowly turning to dust - the metal is just crumbling away, as is a little 0-4-0 switcher, that was his first engine. I also have 3-4 Athearn metal cars from the same time period, a tank car, and a Varney hopper. These are all in service with the exception of the flat car.
Bowser did make a run of the Athearn metal cars, in the early 90's, as I recall, and marketed them under the English Model Supply line. I've got 4 of those. All great cars..!!