Daniel thank you for the invitation, perhaps some time I will be lucky enough to take you up on it...who knows! Well Tinplate fans...my personal "drought" is over for the moment. I have been unable to post on this thread for some time since I have not acquired any new tinplate...well a delivery yesterday solved that 
.
I have most of Lionel's "600" series freights from the pre war period and quite a few of the "800" series but what I did not have in either series was a CRANE CAR. That situation has now ended and I have managed to add a Lionel # 2660 Crane Car to my collection. For most cars in this series the "latch" coupler version of the car was designated "600" something (like 657 caboose for example) and when the car went to "automatic" couplers in 1936 in Lionel's quest for realism the number on the car changed to "2600" thus the 657 caboose became the 2657 caboose and so forth. However there really is no "latch" version of the crane car ( Note there is a very rare, version sometimes called the 1660 that appeared in one single set but that is not confirmed in my reference). Thus the 2660 was introduce in 1938 with box couplers from the beginning. However this car is a later version due to a) black journals (another Lionel attempt at realism) and the fact that the cab does not have number plates but is black stamped. The black journals/ stamping vice plates follows the path of the other cars in this series. These two items date the car from 1941-1942.
Here is a full side view, the boom goes up / down via a hand wheel and the hook goes up/down the same way. The cab rotates but just by hand pressure.
Close up side view showing the two hand wheels for control of the hook and boom.
The rear of the cab showing the large wheel for controlling the boom and the black stamped logo and car number
A close up of the cab stamping. By the way this is the only lettering on the car. The base does not exhibit any railroad name or even "Lionel Lines" or a car number.
Well tinplate fans, it feels great to be able to contribute again. Hope everyone has a great upcoming week .
Best wishes
Don
