Anyone know anything about a teal colored Lionel Alco Boston and Maine 226. I recently acquired one and know they are supposed to be blue plastic painted black with the blue showing on the sides. This one is teal pastic painted black with the teal showing on the sides. It is heat stamped with all the Lionel markings just like the blue ones.
[#welcome] SFDAN,
The pocket price guide by Greenberg’s does not mention any color combination for the Alco A unit.
Maybe “envfocus” can help you on this.
Lee F.
According to the “Complete Service Manual for Lionel Trains,” re-printed by K-Line in 1982, the 226 Boston & Maine Alco FA diesel engine was produced in 1960 in an A-B set with the powered A unit having two magnetic axles, a three-position reverse unit, and a horn. That would make it a pretty high-end Alco FA, since many of them were produced with far fewer features. You might want to remove the shell (single screw in the back of the engine) and check to see if you have a horn in the engine and verify that both axles on the power truck are magnetized.
There seems to be a lot of variation in Lionel’s production in the 1960’s as the company looked for economies in production and used stock (such as shells) on hand whenever possible rather than ordering or producing new stock.
I’ve only got the shells for a normal blue and an abnormal torquoise/teal 226. Both have all the letters heated stamped are identical in every way except the actual plastic on the inside is blue for one and greenish/toquoise/teal for the other. I’m just thinking somebody at Lionel experimented, messed up, or just needed to get rid of a batch of plastic for an uncataloged engine.