(erielack) Erie BW Caboose Ornament

[Hhaines_@_aol.com]

Dear List:

Hallmark, the Kansas City card people, is offering "Car Carrier and Caboose" 
(catalog #QXM5265) as the third and final miniature ornament in the LIONEL 
(c) Norfolk and Western Series. The two die cast metal ornaments are scaled 
after the Lionel Trains flat car with two autos (labeled for Lionel Lines) 
and an Erie Railroad bay window caboose. Yep, the scheme is the Erie "Radio" 
Railroad paint, and a dead ringer for the Lionel model. The caboose is  
2-inches long, sold in the set with a USA SMRP of $12.95.  The trucks are a 
copy of the Lionel Bettendorf with scaled-down Lionel coupler.  

And if "Santa" was not on her toes, I may have missed out on this item since 
it is the LAST in this series.  Years past, Santa has given the other 
ornaments in this series in my stocking on Little Christmas (January 6), 
probably purchased during the after-Christmas half-price sales.  This year, 
our Hallmark stores gave a 40 percent off deal the day after Thanksgiving, 
and many of the ornaments are gone.  A local Hallmark store has called all 
the Hallmark ornament stores within 260 miles of Helena, and this ornament is 
not to be found. They will keep calling.

Not to panic you east of the Mississippi, but this is Montana. That 260-mile 
radius counts a total of almost 19 stores in Great Falls, Bozeman, Butte, 
Helena, Missoula, Livingston, and Billings--Montana's largest towns.  (The 
largest being Billings with a population of 90,000.)  I know, the folks in 
New Jersey are laughing--I recall my best friend coming to Montana from New 
Jersey in 1978, driving from Billings airport to Garryowen (the Little Big 
Horn (formerly Custer) Battlefield) when he wondered where ALL the people 
were as he was 10 miles out of the town.  The whole state has almost 900,000 
in the fourth largest state in the union (behind Alaska, Texas, and 
California).  

Enough to say, there is an Erie Caboose ornament in "Tree-Scale."  There was 
also an NW (J Class) steam engine, and other car in the series in past years.

Howard Haines
ELHS #1447

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