Lionel 2400 series green passenger cars

The two Lionel green 2400 series passenger cars I’ve acquired have different colored roofs. One is almost black and the other is painted a considerable lighter color grey. Does this indicate when they were produced relative to each other or mean something else? Thanks.

Something was done to the black-roofed car.

Jon [8D]

Green cars all had gray roofs only.

agreed, someone painted the roof black.

The Maplewood’s light grey or silver roof looks like it may have been painted. This is the color which you see commonly.

If anything, the Hillside observation car’s roof, which is black or very dark grey, looks to be original and not painted. The color is uniform on both the inside and outside. A test scrape doesn’t remove paint; it’s plastic.

According to my reference books, they say that the roofs were painted dark gray.

Could the silver roof come off a 2420 series car? This series had silver and gray roofs.

I agree. The 242X cars either came in silver with the body-matching silver roofs or silver with the darker contrasting grey. The 243X roofs came in just in the silver I think, roof matching the body. So the silver roof could have come off a 243X car as well. So I agree with these guys…wrong or repainted roof.

Jack

Hillside’s number is 2401 and the Maplewood is numbered 2421. What were the 243x cars? Just like these except for the 10’s digit being a 3 rather than zero? When were they made with respect to these green ones?