Crown Freight Cars

[Grand Junction RR]

Hello all: Another newbie here. A little about me. I have been buying freight cars for at least fifteen years, I think it's a disease. I am now producing a line of custom dec cars.  Biggest problem with the custom dec is supply of blank cars considering Horizon Hobby's policies. But, that's another topic for another day.  I am trying to gather information about Crown Products. They put out a very nice line of freight cars about forty years ago. They were supposed to be a line of inexpensive cars. The couple of cars I have right now are as good or better than Athearn was at that time. They were almost a duplicate of Athearn with a couple of improvments. The box cars had much better door and door track detail, the stirrups were finer and the graphics were as good or better than Athearn at that time. They were sold in blister packs off hanging racks. They seemed to drop off the face of the planet. So far, I can not trace them beyond their last address at Woodbury Heights NJ. Any information about this company would be appreciated. Thanks for any help. Regards, Al al@customrail.com

[cmgn9712]

Crown was the old Varney tooling moved to Hong Kong. They only lasted a year or two. The cars  were sold on blister cards for less than a buck. They were not very good and quickly went out of business. The tooling eventually ended up as Lifelikes train set (poor) quality stuff.

[Paul M.]

I consider them to be pretty good models. I think they were made in the 1980s.

The best thing about Crown :

They made T&P gondolas!!!!!

[MrMunchkin]

I have one of those old Crown cars, always wondered what became of em. What do you mean  by Horizon Hobbies policies? I know that they don't sell through any other wholesalers, a guy from  Walther's told me that they tried to negotiate with them but they wouldn't budge. Quite some years back a hobby dealer told me that a big part of Athearn's production was sold, undecorated, to aftermarket decorators such as Bev Bel et al and I've wondered if they still do that. Thanks, P.M.

[jayl1]

BevBel is now out of business.  Horizon buying Athearn killed the free market for Athearn kits.  CM Shops & Robin's Rails are also a few other "painters" of Athearn kits.

[cmgn9712]

Please post FACTS. Bevbel is not out of business, though they don't have a large line because most of the cars are now Athearn RTR.
Robins Rails had some of their own cars and did paint jobs on Concor. They have been out of business since the 1980s. CM shops is out of business for several years now.
Horizon did not kill the market for anything. The fact is they have the capacity to use all their production in house and do so. Much of the Bevbel and CM lines would be redundant since  the same cars are better done in the RTR line.

[tonycook1966]

Crown was the old Varney tooling moved to Hong Kong. They only lasted a year or two. The cars  were sold on blister cards for less than a buck. They were not very good and quickly went out of business. The tooling eventually ended up as Lifelikes train set (poor) quality stuff.

I believe there may be some confusiong here regarding which Crown line is being discussed.  I think the ex-Varney/ex-Life-Like Crown boxed cars sold by Horizon Hobby in the last few years are different from what is being mentioned originally in this post.

There is/was a line of Crown boxed/carded freight cars that do match current Life-Like toy train/train set cars.  Similar to the Industrial Rail ho-scale freight cars, they are nothing more than Life-Like cars in different packages.

The Crown cars first mentioned are from around 1970 or just prior.  The tooling resembles the Bachmann ho-scale freight cars that would arrive on the market shortly after these Crown cars were issued.  Examples I've seen or currently own include the 40' 3-Dome Tank Car; 40' Sliding Door Box Car; ATSF-style  Off-Center-Cupola Caboose; 16-wheel Heavy-Duty Flat Car with Log Load; and the 40' Gondola.  Again, my close inspection of them finds that they are all extremely similar to tooling that would appear in the Bachmann ho-scale line in the early '70s and in some cases remains available today.

Of note, these early Crown cars have their metal weights painted black, which was rare for RTR cars of that time.  They also feature trucks with actual springs, which too was somewhat uncommon by 1970 on this level of product.  Origin marks feature a lined-globe with "OK" inside the globe. 



The above image is from an AHM Delaware & Hudson 16-wheel Flat Car with Logs that resembles the one offered in the Bachmann line for many years.  This AHM example has the OK-Globe origin mark on its underframe.  This matches marks found on other Crown freight cars I have examined.

I have some pics of the Crown cars and will post them soon. 

[jayl1]

Excuse me - I am a dealer.  They (BevBel) closed down as of a few months ago - and are dumping remaining stock -.  Get YOUR  facts straight.

[Atlantic Central]

Jayl1,

You talk as if athearn should somehow be obligated to sell their product to companies like BevBel? The fact that Athearn did sell to companies like BevBel for many years has nothing to do with the current market.

One of the first, way before BevBel was in the late 60's early 70's. a company called KarLine sold custome decorated Athearn cars and their work was all done by hand with decals.

Over the years, Athearn has sold their product to lots of people for this kind of marketing, but short of any long term contract agreements, it is their product and they are under no obligation to continue to sell it to people who are basicly their competition.

Sheldon

[jayl1]

Sheldon,

I did not intend to imply that Athearn/Horizon should be forced to sell to everyone/anyone.  Their dealer policy speaks for itself.  It was  a direct quote from BevBel that that was a major reason for them to shut down (as well as the age & medical condition of the owner).  If I recall the last 40' box cars BB did was a PRR 40' Merchandise box car.  A statement was issued at that time that it would be the last "special run" since Athearn cars would no longer be available to them (as well as MDC cars).

Jay

[tonycook1966]

Excuse me - I am a dealer.  They (BevBel) closed down as of a few months ago - and are dumping remaining stock -.  Get YOUR  facts straight.

Jayl1 is correct.  I saw Bev-Bel's "Going Out of Business" sale flyer.  It was from maybe 3-4-5 months back.  The first page had a handwritten note stating that they were going out of business and stated "health reasons" for the decision. 

Don't know who got all the goodies on their closeout-list though.  Tried to order about $600 worth of stuff...many things at 75%-off and more...like Kato-Proto-Atlas locos!!!  And got nothing.  Oh well, it was fun entertaining the notion that I was gonna get a Kato SD70MAC in blue and yellow Alaska paint for $25.

[Grand Junction RR]

Tony: You are correct. The version of Crown I am speaking of was a reasonably good quality car for its time. The logo you show is the proper one. The later cars that are mentioned here are junk and are of no interest. The sprung trucks and body mounted couplers are definate spotting features of the cars I am talking about. Too bad about the Kato SD70MAC.  Al