Since this is my first post, I’ll start with a little introduction. My name is James Taylor, aged 38. I received my first Lionel set 30 years ago and played with it and many additions till I went off to college. Now, I have children and get to relive (the best parts of) my childhood again with my Lionel train set.
Now that I have more purchasing power, I’ve indulged myself with buying box cars from my favorite train line, the Santa Fe railroad. Recently, I purchased the box car in the photo off of eBay and discovered it had mismatched trucks. The seller swears her husband bought it new from Lionel that way. I don’t believe it but thought I’d see if anyone else has ever run into this before. According to the markings I think it was built in Jan. 1976. The truck on the right has much more detail, such as the springs, and even has Timken cast on the bearings. The one on the left shows a lot less detail and doesn’t even show the springs.
You can’t rely on the date to tell you when the car was made. Usually it indicates the beginning of production. But in this case the car was made only in 1976 and 1977.
Neither truck looks right to me. The one on the left has the right frame, but the wrong wheels. The one on the right looks like a combination of parts from older trucks. This car should have “fast-angle” wheels, with cone-shaped treads, not the older cylindrical treads that it has. Both trucks should have plastic “thumbtack” couplers like the left one seems to.
As stated the car should have fast angle wheels for sure and the truck on the right has a coupler base plate from the 50s. Looks like a job of make do with what I got. No harm done but not the way it left Lionel.
Thanks for the input. I didn’t want to falsely accuse someone of misrepresenting their merchandise no matter how obvious the flaws were without someone else’s opinion.
Looking closer I see what you are saying about the shape of the wheels. Also looking at the one on the right it appears that the rivet that holds the coupler assembly together may have been drilled out and replaced/repaired adding further evidence that it’s been worked on. In the photo you can see the rust around the rivet where the paint is missing and I can see what look like drill marks on the metal.
Do you know when Lionel switched from the [Edit] cone cylindrical shaped treads to the fast angle wheels?
The fast angle wheels were a design brought out in 1970 when MPC in Mt Clemens Mi. began making Lionel trains. Some early 70s cars were made from left over post war parts but by 1976 all cars would have been made with the new parts.
In fact, I have and own one! I bought a still in box MPC era Rio Grande Box car for $5 at some junk store.To my supprise the boxcar came out of the box the same way yours did! It must have been a faily common mistake because I saw the same mistake on a boxcar in a train store in Maine.
The truck on the left is a Modern Era Lionel truck, with the wrong wheels. As has already been written, that truck should have fast angle wheels, and axles with pointed tips. It looks like there are postwar wheels and axles mounted in that truck.The axles do not appear to fit quite right, the truck sideframes look to be bowed out to me.
The truck on the right appears to be a postwar Lionel timken plastic truck, without the coupler arm. These trucks were first used around 1958. Some early MPC items are found with timken trucks and fast angle wheels. In this case, the truck appears to have postwar wheels, It also appears that someone added a coupler to this truck by using an old Lionel conversion coupler. Those couplers were first used somewhere around 1950, and have been available continuously well into the modern era. They certainly were available in the 1970’s and may even be available from Lionel today.
Sorry to say, there is very little chance that your car came from Lionel that way. However, if the car works OK, there is certainly nothing wrong with using, and enjoying it. I have lots of items that were put together from assorted parts.
In response to the original question: “Ever seen a factory Lionel boxcar with mismatched trucks?”
It is not too unusual to find mid and late 1960’s Lionel rolling stock with mixtures of timken and arch-bar trucks. I think it was the 6062 gondola where this mix is partucularly common.
I took a another look and you are right, they are bowed out.
That’s what I think.
I appreciate everyone’s input, especially those who have had mismatched parts from the factory. I suppose this one could be this way from the factory but there are too many things about it that aren’t right for me to really believe that. Everything is resolved with the seller who gave me a partial refund. I’ll take it to my local train shop some time and see if I can get parts for it that match better but it runs fine and I’m glad to have it. If it weren’t for my concerns about it, I might not have found this forum for which I am grateful.
I agree with everyone. The truck on the left is correct with postwar wheelsets shoved in and the metal part of the thumbtack is torn off. The truck on the right is most likely a 60’s truck with a conversion coupler that Lionel made for Scout cars slapped on. The chances of it coming from the factory that way are 1 in 10,000. The seller is pulling your leg. Finding the correct trucks is not difficult. They are cheap and plentiful.
That car had a thumbtack, which is missing. Omitting the thumbtack from that truck would completely disable uncoupling–there has to be something for the magnet to pull down.
I have several 70’s era cars which had no thumbtack. They all came from the same used train set (2-4-2 Nickel Plate Road) and none of them look like they ever had it. I always assumed that the train set didn’t come with an electromagnet uncoupler and to save money the thumbtacks were left out.
My guess is the coupler in question never had it either but I could easily be mistaken about that.
I can see the remnants of the thumbtack on the left truck coupler. The metal part was stripped off. That particular car came from the factory with thumb tacks. The scratch on the right side of the shell tells me the car was played with rough and was obviously cobbled with whatever parts were on hand by the original owner. The ebay seller probably picked it up at a garage sale and doesn’t have a clue. It is not something to get too concerned about unless you paid full book price. The shell is in decent shape, the car is common, and the trucks are cheap and easy to replace with the correct ones.
"I have several 70’s era cars which had no thumbtack. They all came from the same used train set (2-4-2 Nickel Plate Road) and none of them look like they ever had it. I always assumed that the train set didn’t come with an electromagnet uncoupler and to save money the thumbtacks were left out. "
Lionel made a mechanical uncoupler that was finger operated. Your set probably had one.
The first mechanical uncoupler was a diamond shaped piece of metal that lifted up to seperate scout cars (1000 series). Later in the postwar era, Lionel came out with “camtrol” uncouplers. These plastic devices had a set of “wings” that lifted up and grabbed the uncoupling plunger on plastic trucks. Modern era Lionel completely redesigned the mechanical uncoupling device, but it did the same thing, grabbing the plunger, and pulling it down.
