I have purchased alot of N scale Locs and cars in the past 8 months, after getting back into a house, planning a new layout and discovering the new era of N scale and the beauty of it all, I have recently found out the magnificense of the "Woodside Reefer" ! Man, how many of these I have passed up at low prices and now wish I could go back and get them. These are fantastic cars with all the old style art work, advertising, logo's etc. I really like the Atlas & MTL cars but now that I see the prices on the majority of these are approaching $20.00 if not more, I will definetly not be passing these up when I find them for less. Anyone know of any close-outs, or any other ways or places to get these at a reasonable cost ? I have really found myself stuck on these and you know what that means, I am on the hunt. Does anyone have a nice display of these they'd share pics of ? It will give me something to shoot for. fatalxsunrider43
Great, someone else has discovered these. Now I'll have more competition. You'll have even more fun when you realize Atlas has 2 different wood reefer styles with different ladder arrangements. MTL wood reefers are nice but ATLAS sure adds spice. These are not N but they do show that ATLAS has already developed the art work and quite a few of these have already appeared in N. http://www.toytrains1.com/atlas_reefers.htm I hope ultimately ATLAS does them all.
Reefer Madness is terminal. No cure has been found to my knowledge. It is temporarily controlled by cutting up all credit cards or giving them to your spouse. I need to emphasize this is only a temporary control as most have found other means such a pawn shops , collecting bottles ect. to again support the addiction. Therapy has thus far proven totally ineffective. Good Luck, anyway. Papa
I have a mild form of reefer madness myself. I had a reputable collection of older Atlas, Trix, Lifelike, and somewhat lifeless reefers which didn't bother my blood pressure, until MicroTrains came out with their 40' beer cars, and I was hooked, although I don't consider myself a beer drinker. But I always displayed at home layout tours a Hudson pulling my beer reefers with a bromo seltzer car at the end, which provided some entertainment for the visitors. Then in 2002, Atlas introduced its wood side beer reefer, and Vandy, a prolific contributor on the Atlas forum came to the show from NC, and showed me them, and that is where I got the itch. A couple of years ago, one of my LHS's was selling old Intermountain Kits, 2 for $15 and I loaded up, reveling in the precision. I bought up a lot of Pacific reefers and got sold even deeper, particularly on the Santa Fe model where the map was on one side. I still keep my reefers in their own box, and have 5 more IM under construction, and still love them. Meanwhile over the years, I managed to pick up some billboard 36' which delivered cold goods, but did not have ice hatches but when you get reefer madness, it branches out to other areas. Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
You could try eBay, but you have to be patient. Finding anything reasonably priced there (or anywhere for that matter) is a real challenge these days. I finally scored on something I've been looking for over a period of weeks. There was plenty of them for sale, but the starting prices were usually way out of line (and they would never sell - go figure). Good luck with your new addiction. :tb-wink:
Don't neglect the old Con-Cor reefers, if you can find them at swap meets or online. The detail wasn't as good as current models, but they had some nice paint schemes not available from Atlas or M-T.
The prices on some of these are through the roof, makes me feel sad that something I have found a new interest in is so much money, gadds !!!!! fatalxsunrider43
Ah yes, not only is it untreatable, but Reefer Madness is cross-scale contagious. As a modern era modeller, I have the luck of being able to avoif your basic wooden reefer for something with meaning, or flash to it. But it's still there. The Billboard cars are quite something.
