When originally advertised in the mid-1950’s, Lionel had a much different vision for the paint scheme on their 2240/2367 Wabash F-3’s. The plan was for them to be much more like the real-life loco’s with black underframe, silver trucks, white nose, long bottom and short middle white stripes, and tapered upper gray area. The Lionel prototype was painted this way and used in advertising (see images below). Interestingly, the prototype A unit had the number 2240 on one side and 2367 on the other side.
The actual Lionel production units had a much more bland paint scheme and the Lionel prototype went into the archives. In 2017, the prototype surfaced again when rock star Neil Young auctioned off part of his Lionel train collection. The prototype was part of that auction.
METCA is now offering this loco as a Custom Run F3, similar to the ones in Lionel's 2020 Big Book. This is your opportunity to get a never before released Postwar Archive Prototype inspired F3 A-A set. You get the Postwar look and modern operating features with the LionChief+2.0 system.
Stu
