Model Train Journal

Not an expert. I may, or may not, have three of them on my roster.

Carey just sent photos of some of his cars - there is at least one true charmer in the bunch. Not sure if the photo is Careys, for which I have blanket permission to post here, or somebody else's, in which case I apologize in advance.

Here is the charmer -



And the PSC version:



This one is one of my favorites, and gets run as a doodlebug behind a small SP steamer along with a combine. I am not about to start collecting Fischer cars, but would not mind a few brass arch windowed cars in my fleet.

I have not seen a Fisher car up close in years. The ones I saw back when were just gorgeous. I lived near Dayton/Cincinnati from 72-85 and that is when I got into O Scale. There was a local story about Joe Fisher and two local guys, Charlie Schwarm and Doc Fessler. The story was that when Joe delivered cars to customers he would make his return through Cincinnati with any leftover cars. And he would contact Charlie or doc, and one of them would buy them!

As I mentioned, I think they look great, but I would worry that would age, moisture would cause the sides to warp and buckle. As I understand, the sides are layered strathmore board, and well sealed with shellac or varnish. but after 50 years or more, That might begin to crack. It was no matter to me then, because I could not afford at all in those days.

Joe Fischer cars were indeed expensive. Here is an ad from a 1947 Model Railroader. The text is a little hard to read, but the baseline price for a car is $42. It's $82 with interior and lights. That was a lot of jack back then. Note that the version at the link below the photo might be a bit easier to read.


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ikh0araqctsobaswex18s/1947-10-848-Joe-Fischer.JPG?rlkey=gn0tri8l3i0imzj4aui2njl9j

It took me a while to find this in my files, as I had forgot that there is a "c" in Fischer.

R.K. Maroon wrote:It's $82 with interior and lights.

USinflationcalculator.com says that $82 in 1947 is the same as $1,154.87 today.

(Nobody tell GGD Scott this!)

Thank you. I hate to mis-spell stuff. I thought we had this discussion years ago and the result was "no c." The ad is definitive.

This was a gift from a good friend, now departed. He told me that it and a companion baggage car were Fischers.

Carey's posting of his exquisite NYC Fischer cars remInded me of Bob's thread (this one). I have in the last year had the opportunity to acquire three Joe Fischer cars. I usually don't chase these, as they tend to go for a lot of money and are often sold just as a single car, which doesn't interest me unless it fits into a consist I have or am building up. Here first is a Pere Marquette coach:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zf11a78rfciabu3p6g36q/Joe-Fischer-Coach-Pere-Marquette-1112.jpg?rlkey=8spe3h009nsqazk80cbe11hx5

This came directly from a private individual and was reasonably priced. Even so, I had to stretch my rules a bit on this one to justify it. I have a C&O heavyweight consist, most of which are GGD cars. I figured a non-C&O, non-GGD car would make the train more interesting. I don't know how likely it would be for a PM coach to be in a C&O train, but I'm going with it. A couple of the GGD cars are currently three-rail, but I will get the consist into revenue service and get photos and video sometime "soon".

Jim

Beautiful! And Lobaugh trucks!.



This one is purported to be a Fischer car. I cannot say it is my best passenger car, but it is nicely done, in card stock. Note the more common All Nation trucks. Sharper detail, but I prefer the Lobaugh.