The 9035 came only in blue with white markings the 9037 could be either blue or brown with white markings. What differentiated the latter pair, besides their product numbers, was the color. Both came with Symington-Wayne trucks and had one operating and one dummy coupler. 90 used the same body shell familiar to collectors because of the non-opening double doors molded into it. The same year two virtually identical O-27 short boxcars bearing Conrail graphics joined the line. Variations were based on the shade of brown, with both Tuscan Red and Boxcar Brown being reported. It was assembled with the same shell and trucks. 9400 came painted a plain shade of brown and lettered in white with the Conrail logo. It was a blue porthole-style model.Ī second near-scale boxcar arrived in 1978. According to the authors of the first volume of Greenberg’s Guide to Lionel Trains, 1970-1991 (Greenberg Publishing Co., 1991), that car “was not a normal paint variation, but an attempt by Fundimensions to correct the car’s color,” resulting from the paint chip provided by Conrail being too dark.Īlso in 1977, Lionel added the Conrail lighted caboose (No. A variation of the basic car, a bit lighter in color, has been reported. 9400 near-scale boxcar in 1978.įundimensions introduced the 9785 boxcar in 1977 it was part of the line through 1979. Lionel paid further tribute to Conrail with the No. The O gauge model was equipped with a Type IX body shell and Symington-Wayne trucks. 9785 featured the blue scheme adopted by the new railroad. They quickly added Conrail paint to a boxcar. Product designers and sales executives at Lionel line paid close attention to what was happening in 1976. Learn more in the book Conrail and its Predecessors. It had almost 4,600 locomotives and more than 140,000 freight cars.Ĭongress awarded it $2.1 billion in stock and assistance, and it was off and running.
#Fundimensions line of lionel trains plus
Included in it were the previously mentioned railroads plus Lehigh & Hudson River and Ann Arbor, a Midwestern road that had fallen under control of Penn Central. Eventually it created what became known as Conrail, which started service – no joke – on April 1, 1976. The United States Railway Association was incorporated to rationalize the 17,000 route-mile system and keep rail service fluid in the region. 9785 was the first piece of Conrail rolling stock in 1977 and remained in the catalog through 1979. Lionel introduced a Conrail boxcar a year after federal authorities created the railroad. Others followed, either into insolvency or precipitously close: Central Railroad of New Jersey, Lehigh Valley, and the Reading Co. First to fall into bankruptcy were two of the biggest, Penn Central and the Erie Lackawanna. The short version is, railroading in the northeastern United States was on the ropes in the early 1970s due to a variety of factors including regulation and a bloated network. The formation of the Consolidated Rail Corporation is well documented in books like The Historical Guide to North American Railroads.
The historic merger left no mark at the old toy train maker.
Not even the highly publicized marriage of the New York Central to archrival Pennsylvania RR could get Lionel brass off the dime.īasically, Lionel and its rivals just shrugged their shoulders at the resulting railroad, Penn Central. Earlier mergers that had created the Erie Lackawanna, and Seaboard Coast Line railroads in the 1960s had spawned no rolling stock.
But it wasn’t the first locomotive to appear for the new railroad. One of the more popular early models Lionel produced in Conrail paint was the No. Fundimensions, the division of General Mills then licensed to manufacture and market Lionel trains and accessories, announced an O gauge boxcar with Conrail graphics in the 1977 consumer catalog. The first Lionel Conrail cars and engines came shortly after the federal government created the railroad in 1976.
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