Not a cough in a car load

[jacdac]

What does bolded expression mean ?

‘He’ll find out how big a deal it is the first time Ike Delock throws one at his nose,’ Joe said, and lit a cigarette. He took a drag and started hacking. ‘I got to quit these Luckies. Not a cough in a carload, my ass. I’ll bet you twenty goddam bucks that kid lets Danny Doo’s first curve go right through his wickets. Then Danny’ll be all upset –you know how he gets when someone fucks up his train ride –and Boston’ll be off to the races.’

Source: Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King

Thank you

 

[PaulQ]

"Not a cough in a carload" was a slogan for "Old Gold" brand cigarettes. The speaker has mistaken the slogan for being the slogan for "Lucky Strikes".

I assume that the slogan means that if there were a car full of people all smoking "Old Gold" brand cigarettes, none of them would cough.

 

[Egmont]

"Carload" in their slogan means enough cigarettes to fill a railroad boxcar. The use of carload in this sense was common at the time this slogan was used.

This is a typical boxcar of that period.

 

[Sparky Malarky]

"Carload" in their slogan means enough cigarettes to fill a railroad boxcar. The use of carload in this sense was common at the time this slogan was used.

This is a typical boxcar of that period.

I agree. And the slogan said that you could smoke the whole boxcar-full of cigarettes and they would not make you cough once. Of course this is ridiculous.