The planned, now canceled, convention car would have been a Lionel
scale-proportioned milk car factory decorated for the Chateau Martin
wine company. Chateau Martin
used these cars during the period 1950 - 1972 for bulk wine transport
between California and its bottling plant in New York City. The period
with the most cars in use was between 1952 and 1959. These cars were
seen all over the U.S.
Below is a photo of a car that the
convention converted for
pre-convention publicity purposes. That model is based upon an early
run Lionel car; later run cars exhibit some corrections to the early
run cars: the hand grab location in the photo below was moved to
be closer to the corner, and the brake gear seen under the frame in the
photo below has
been moved to its correct location closer to the floor of the car.
Click
here for a larger image in a new window.
2-rail conversion by Rod Miller,
painting and lettering by Errol
Spangler, dry transfers by Clover House.
Below is a picture of another car
with a more correct color and
slightly differing paint (all the side hardware is painted the body
color instead of black). This car has not been converted to 2-rail;
it is also a later run car with the left hand grab in the correct
position and the brake gear properly located next to the bottom of
the floor.
Click
here for a larger image in a new window.
Painting and lettering by Errol
Spangler, dry transfers by Clover House.
As you will see on the above page and sites to which it links, Chateau
Martin used six different lettering schemes on their former milk cars.
The convention plans to produce over time (multiple runs with time
lapses in between runs) four of the following five schemes (the car
above is the sixth scheme):
The scheme shown in the above images but without the dot between
the word VERMOUTH and the word WINES (CMWX 155).
The scheme shown in the above images but with
the word VERMOUTHS instead of VERMOUTH and and a comma between it and
the word WINES (CMWX 158).
Large CHATEAU MARTIN centered vertically, ANOTHER CARLOAD above
it and WINES below, both in smaller letters (CMWX 108), e.g.,
ANOTHER
CARLOAD
CHATEAU MARTIN
WINES
Large CHATEAU MARTIN centered vertically, OVER 100,000,000
BOTTLES SOLD above and IT MUST BE GOOD - TRY IT below, both in smaller
letters (CMWX 119), e.g.,
OVER 100,000,000
BOTTLES SOLD
CHATEAU MARTIN
IT MUST BE GOOD
- TRY IT
Large CHATEAU MARTIN centered vertically, "FOR GOOD-ness Sake ...
drink" above in smaller
letters (CMWX
141).
FOR
GOOD-ness
Sake
...
drink
CHATEAU MARTIN
CMWX nnn in parentheses above refers to the car number, nnn, that has
the scheme just described. Click here
to see photos in car number numerical order of the various lettering
schemes.
Cost
Not applicable - this car will not be
produced by the convention.
How to Buy the Car
Not applicable - this car will not be
produced by the convention.
Is that color correct?
When
the
Chateau
Martin car became the
leading candidate for the convention car, the first order of business
was to determine the correct color for the car. No cars are known to
exist, but several photos exist. The problem with photos is that the
colors may be inaccurate because of the amount of weathering on the
car, how the paint on the car had faded, the type of film used when the
photo was taken, fading of negatives and prints as they age, the
conditions under which the photos were taken, lighting, etc. To deal
with this the convention received the generous help of noted railroad
artist Mike
Kotowski. Mike's
process was to obtain photo prints and slides of the car from his
sources, and to
then calibrate the colors in those images to known colors. Mike then
suggested two colors, each identified by a standard Pantone number, as
best matches. Since either color could have been correct, the
convention committee then chose the color it liked best to be the color
for the convention car. Note the the two colors are so similar that the
only way to see the difference between them is to put the two color
chips side by side.
Some who have seen the sample
convention car have argued that the color
was much darker, and indeed if you have looked at Jim
Lancaster's web
site (also see the
convention's page
on
bulk
wine transport) you
will note that some cars appear darker. Some cars may indeed have been
painted with
different colors. As explained above, there are many reasons for color
differences between photographic images. However, the convention
believes that the color Mike determined is accurate for the cars in the
images he analyzed. Further, retired
railroaders who saw the real cars and who also have seen the above
sample model have said that the color is
accurate.
Note that your computer's monitor color calibration may be off, so the
real model may be a different color from what you are seeing above.
Help promote our hobby! The O Scale
Kings is a non-profit 501(c)3
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railroading. For more information, click
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