Not too long ago there was a lot on eBay with a variety of freight cars in it. When it arrived there were actually three rather interesting (to me) cars in the lot, but the one that really caught my eye to make me bid on it was this Hoffman reefer. (I’ll have more on the other two cars soon as well).

Hoffman was a maker of OO in Philadelphia, active from 1938 until WWII. I have more info in my book, with some brief info in this article.

In the book, when I could, for any model with printed sides I tried to include a photo or a scan of that model. This MDT reefer, I could not do that. But now I can!

The Hoffman car is at the top, and the sides below are Nason and Champion. The Champion side is pretty different. The Nason version is similar, but it is easy to tell apart from the Hoffman model.

Next is a bottom view. Not a lot of interesting details! But look at the trucks, that is a key spotting feature, this was the first sprung truck offered in OO (more here).

Finally, here is a good side view. These Hoffman models are not very common and well worth looking for in your collection.