Reply To: ashtrays

[David Boeschen]

I bought one a few years ago at one of those modeling meets in Houston. It’s glass and has the buzzsaw on it, and the art on the buzzsaw is pretty good, looks proper. Only thing I would note is that similar ashtrays, in various designs and shapes, have turned up on eBay since. I feel confident this one is a fake, since it looks new and unused.

Perhaps there are lounge car or diner photos that might show an actual in-service ashtray. The lounge cars probably had ashtray stands, but there must have been some actual glass or metal ones. Reality check — I’m not sure how often glass ones were used on railroad cars of any type, because of what would happen when one went flying off a table during an emergency brake application.

I do have a couple of real ones that I stole from GM&O and maybe Rock Island, but they’re cardboard with a metallized surface so as to be both fireproof and unbreakable, as well as disposable (and I didn’t feel bad about ripping them off, for that reason). Did MoPac ever use those?

Ron Merrick