For any of you pre-war experts… is the item listed above an original color? Inquiring minds want to know.[;)]
Mitch
Mitch : I have it here in my TCA book, several of them in chrome & red & one looks like it is yellow inside with chrome on the roof & red on the rest of it. It doesn’t say it has yellow on it though & maybe it’s just the way the pictures are looking. Hope this helps !
Oh, it doesn’t look like yellow was an original color, after searching this more.
Thanks,
Originals were not painted yellow and chrome. As he notes its been repainted and the original color was red.
I do belive their was an uncatologed set that was in the union pacific yellow and brown paint. it was sold on this site http://www.classic-collectables.com/index.htm. they may have had a two tone green set also many years ago.these are real smooth runners.
Didn’t see the sellers note about the color. I really like the looks of the 1700 streamliners. I really like the red. I thought I saw one in orange once. I really need to get a preWar reference book.
Thanks for your help.
Mitch[:)]
Yes, my TCA book shows the orange one as a Hiawatha with grey color below.
All of them are pretty neat thiugh !!
Hello Bob! The answer to your question is no! The Train you’re looking at has been restored. Lionel did make some of them with a yellow mustard color. However, They are very hard to find. Red & Silver are the more common colors for this type of train like Magoo’s in his picture above. & Orange is another color that was used although not too common either. Take Care.
One more not mentioned was Black on the silver. I saw one go at auction for a few K. I believe it too was uncataloged, but amoung the rarer ones.
dennis
The bright canary yellow does not appear to be an original color for that train. That yellow reminds me of the yellow which was used on the 0-27 gondola cars in the late prewar-era.
Nice set magoo. My dad just gave me his old 1700 set. Silver and red. 2 of the car are pretty well rusted but intact. I hope to restore the set. My son and I just bought the North Pole Central kit the other day. He is 6. Was really cool buying it together and someday I will be able to pass it down to him. sniff sniff… 
Are you the original owner of the 1700? What do you know about it? Are they rare? What are they worth? Can i use the transformer that came with the new set?
Thanks for the info,
Joe
You may want to go to your public library and see if they have a copy of David Doyle’s Standard Catalog of Lionel Trains 1900-1942. (It is also avaialble in bokstores, I bought mine on Amazon) They show most the variations of the 1700’s. They are part of what was the Lionel Jr. Line that first appeared in 1935. In Like New condition (ie no rust, few if any scratches) the locomotive’s are listed between $250 and $350 depending on color and the passengers are listed at about $50 each The exception is a very rare Armour yellow version which is so rare they don’t even list a price.
I really love the 1700’s too. I was looking for one at York the last two meets, but didn’t find any in the right price range that didn’t need major resorations.
Mitch
Hello Joe. The 1700’s sure are a pretty set.I’m the second owner of these trains. they are fun to run but be carefull their motor is mounted on top buy a ball stud and don’t take the high speed turns well,thats why most of them are all scratched up.their only worth what you are willing to pay for them.restore yours or just clean them up run them and have fun…tony