Oh
no!!! Not another @#$%^&* # 6464 Variation!!!
by Bob Mintz
In t he
6464 re-issue Series VI of 1997, there was a 6464-425 boxcar #
6-19295.
Lionel issued # 6-21763 in 2000 a New Haven Freight Set, part
of the Postwar Celebration Series. Well, celebrate I did not,
since this set did not include the engine, selling separately
as # 6-18319 New Haven EP-5. The freight set, as the original
Postwar set, included a 6464-425 New Haven boxcar
Although I have the original Postwar version and the re-issue
in Series VI, I hedged and purchased the New Haven Freight Set,
hoping t hat
the freight set's particular boxcar would be different from the
one issued in 1997
My instincts proved correct as there was a slight, but significant
difference between the two.
The variation in the NH Freight set, which I later discovered
to be numbered # 6-29293, says "BUILT 1999 BY LIONEL"
with a "PW" beneath the number; while the version in
Series VI says "BLT 1-97 BY LIONEL", sans the "PW".
To add insult to injury for my find, it turns out that Lionel
was "blowing out" the 1999 Freight Set version of the
6464-425 at its' factory liquidation sale last year. In fact,
since the doors were interchangeable, several were either sold
or rebuilt with red and other door colors.
Perhaps not as significant a variation as the #6464-300 Rutland
solid shield or the #3435 Aquarium Car with the "Tank 1/Tank
2 and large circle "L"", it remains a unique variation
nevertheless, especially in t he
Modern Era.
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