TRAIN TIME: K-Line #K-675203 Hershey's 1998 Holiday Vat Car

Here's one I didn't think would come my way any time soon, but it did and I'm grateful. It's a departure from all the other Hershey's cars offered by K-Line and came out the same year as the deluxe Hershey's Holiday Express Set in 1997. 

Hershey's labeled this a 'vat car', but in my mind, vat cars were more like this Miller Beer car offered by Lionel:

To me, this K-Line car is more like a covered high-side gondola than a vat car, but regardless of what name is tacked on to it, it's a nice car. K-Line's version has eight hatches, all of which open. On the spine of the cover is a metal wire sign on plastic base declaring: "HAPPY HOLIDAYS from THE GREAT AMERICAN CHOCOLATE COMPANY". Be Blessed and Relish Life! Ed

I didn't notice the wonky wheel on the left truck until after the photos were taken. I'll have to look into that.

All eight hatches open.

TRAIN TIME: K-Line HO Scale Hershey's Flatcar Road #45101 - Did I Ever Screw Up!

Welll, I did it again! Thinking this was an uncatalogued car I bought this off of fleaBay and was a bit surprised to see an HO scale flatcar in the box. Following up, I looked at the listing more closely and the photos clearly showed it to be HO scale (the couplers - which fell off during transit and are not shown in the photos - were the giveaway). It's odd that K-Line never made an O-gauge Hershey's flatcar. Oh well, I have an HO scale Hershey's flat now. Be Blessed and Relish Life! Ed

TRAIN TIME: K-Line #K-1112M The Hershey's O-27 Gauge Train Set (1992) - The Set I Don't Have

I was trolling through fleaBay the other day and came across this set and thought - "When the heck did that come out?" I had always thought there were only four sets - all of which I have and which have been posted here on the blog since January. Apparently, this was one of K-Line's earliest Hershey's sets coming out in 1992, yet it's not in any of my catalogs. It appears to have the same engine and cars as the #K-1112 set which has already been posted on the blog, however, the packaging for this is more colorful. Was this perhaps an exclusive available to certain companies or stores, or was it simply a re-working of the packaging??? The set now on fleaBay is NIB, but unfortunately it's simply out of my reach financially. One day perhaps. Be blessed and Relish Life! Ed 

#K-1112M - The set currently on fleaBay

#K-1112 - The set I have and which was posted in February.

TRAIN TIME: K-Line #K-1715B Hershey's Holiday Express Set (1997) - Pt 14 (Final) Track and #K950 17V Transformer

This is the final installment for this particular K-Line Hershey's train set. After this I'll have a couple of odds-&-ends to post and then mostly call it quits on the whole Hershey's thing. Today's post is just a quickie showing the track and transformer. I was out in The Cave and just went ahead and took some snaps to wrap up the series and called it a day. Be Blessed and Relish Life! Ed 

Okay, I'll admit this is a crappy photo. But as the box photo below shows, it's just a bunch of O-27 track (8EA 9" straights and 8EA O-27 curved)

The transformer is the bottom-of-the-line power from K-Line - just enough to run the engine and cars around the oval - there's not even any accessory terminals for lights, etc.

TRAIN TIME: K-Line #K-1715B Hershey's Holiday Express Set (1997) - Pt 12 K-Line Heavy Hauler #K-860035 Cookies & Cream (1995)

Finally, we have an all new piece for Hershey's - this time a new Heavy Hauler. Unlike the other six Hershey's Heavy Hauler's, this one is a COE container truck. The box says 1995, however it's not in my 1995 catalog and no Hershey's products were listed in the 1996 catalogs. Then in 1997, this Holiday Express train set was released which included the truck. As far as I can tell, the truck wasn't listed as a separate sale item in the catalog's, but my best guess is that it was in fact available as a separate sale item. Be Blessed and Relish Life! Ed 

1998 catalog extract

Shown alongside an earlier Heavy Hauler for size comparison