HEINZ 57 boxcar #305, EAST INDIAN CHUTNEY, HO scale printed reefer sides

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Heinz 57 Varieties reefer boxcar pair of sides printed on cardstock, blank on back to glue onto pine, balsa wood or plastic boxcar. EAST INDIAN CHUTNEY, car #305. I had to guess at the car number, someone told me all the 1930s yellow cars were 400 series but I can't find a shipper's directory from the 1930s, the oldest I have is a 1940s repro. This car first listed here December 2011 The product advertised on this car was on at least one of the official top "Heinz 57 Varieties" lists that I have seen from 1912, 1930 or 1934. The Heinz company issued an official list of 57 top products each year from the turn of the century to the 1940s, usually included in mini cookbooks sold or given away at expositions and fairs. The best list was in 1933, which included not only the 57 products but a brief description of each and a color photo of all 57 arranged on shelves. While products came and went, the list for each year (for decades) always included several varieties of pickles and three to five varieties of vinegar. Heinz used their 700-railroad car distribution network to overwhelm the established competitors. Pickles were shipped in bulk in enclosed wooden flatcars that looked like covered gondolas at first glance, and bottled pickles were shipped by the crate in their reefer boxcars. While pickles sealed in jars don't need to be refrigerated, on a hot summer day the jars could explode if not shipped at a fairly even temperature. Soups were shipped in cans. Vinegar was shipped in bulk in wooden tankcars and in individual jars in the boxcars for the consumer market. Heinz even tried exporting canned beans to England, where cooked beans were virtually unknown but shipping costs ended up with beans that cost 2 Pounds per can (about $4 at the time), so it wasn't until Heinz set up its own factory in Britain that the British embraced the low-cost protein. Today, Beans are the most popular Heinz product in England, where half a dozen varieties on beans still sell well with the slogan "Beanz Meanz Heinz". Soups were then added to the list in America starting with Tomato, Green Pea and Celery soups before WW1. There are two sets of sides in black, yellow, green & red. Left of the door it says Heinz 57 Varieties with the Heinz pickle logo, while right of the door it says the product name. The lettering is red and black with white dropshadow. Most reefers were painted black under the door up to the bottom of the door but this one's painted red under the door. This is based on a car Red Ball sold in the 1940s & 1950s. It was one of the first varieties made by Heinz after pickles and was originally advertised on a brown car with white lettering in the years 1900-1907. Before that, Heinz reefers were white with black or green lettering. Starting in the year 1907, Heinz switched to reefer yellow with red lettering and existing cars were repainted in the new colors. By 1919, Heinz had over 700 railroad cars in service and their main Pittsburgh plant could handle up to 52 cars at a time on its 14 miles of track connected directly to B&O and PRR track, as many as 15,000 car loadings per year. One rail car was even built in the shape of a giant green pickle sitting on a flatcar frame, something like a rail version of Oscar Myer's Weiner-mobile. When completed these would be right at home on any steam-era layout. Private owner cars like these were traveling billboards for their owners and were seen from the 1800s until the 1930s, when the government required all boxcars to be repainted in "standard" colors, the end of an era. Billboard reefers were allowed to stay in use for the rest of the decade, but by the late 1950s only Heinz Pickle flatcars were still in service, Heinz vinegar wooden tank cars had been replaced by metal black tank cars lettered only for leasing company URTC, and boxcars to the Pittsburgh plant were simply provided as needed by local railroads. Roof & ends should be painted Tuscan brown, though some prefer to paint them red to match the lettering. If you don't like it, send them back within ... read more

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