Factory error?

The opposite side should be gray with standard CN lettering.  You got a factory error.

Rusty

Neat.

Thanks Guys!  Super fast response.  Got my answer! 

It happens from time to time....

Hold onto it for 50 years and Roger Carp's grandson will be around to take pictures and give it a value in his "MTH 21st Century Factory Errors and Other Rare Items" book.

My first one was a MTH GG1 the front keystone herald missing both ends, MTH reply was sorry can't help.

The second another MTH this time a UP '49er with one side set of whiskers missing.

James

IMO these examples are "blems" and should be discounted or replaced by the manufacturer.  That is, unless you like this sort of thing.

Tom B

This appears to me to be a variation, rather than a error. Note the red plate was used to print both versions.

DHA, you might want to call them up. Can you also take a picture of the car and post it? Thanks

I need to dig out the picture but I have a Chessie System safety caboose with the "System" missing on one side.   Not common but factory errors are kinda cool.

Yes, factory errors are appealing, as always.

Of course, it depends on what they are - and your own personality. The Keystones missing from the GG1 or the whiskers from the 49'er (have the RK version - a good model that should be in their "Imperial" category) are just fine. Entertaining.

If you want to see "variations", just go to one of your local real RR yards.

But, generally, when a Factory Error moves away from mere decoration to pieces, parts and functionality, they get a lot less entertaining (unless it was a better feature than you paid for, naturally...).

I don't find factory errors appealing at all.  I buy model representations of locomotives, not factory mistakes.

The yellow pin stripes were missing on the left side of this Flyer U33C...

I immediately sent it back to Lionel and they replaced it.  (Although it took 3 months because the parts hadn't caught up with the production units...)

A year later, lightning stuck again, this time on the CC passenger set...

Back to Lionel for replacement.  This time it only took about 2 weeks for the replacement to show up.

Rusty

I have had several other "errors," a postwar gondola heat stamped on  one side only, and an MPC ear circus car imprinted only on one side.

Do not have either anymore.

OK, now the confession, CN car IS imprinted with CN logo on grey background....NOT black and blank. The car is at a friends house, and I was mistaken when I said it was blank on the one side. I should have had him check the car before I posted...I just "mis-remembered!"

On the other hand, it's been enjoyable for all respondents to share their "factory errors."  Especially enjoy the pictures. 

So, please forgive my "error."  And, if incinded, keep sharing the pictures!

I bought a case of MPC 6464 type box cars in the 70's with one side blank on every car. I sent them back to Lionel and they replaced them. Now I wish I had kept them. Don

How is this one?

NH needed the loco before accident damage was fullyy repaired.

Don, Aven a nice name for the loco.

Chessie spelled wrong.

This is a 3665 postwar Minuteman Boxcar.  Notice the hole in the middle near the roof for the 3619 Helicopter mechanism. 

The car looks white, but is actually tan, through and through.

The correct 3665 white minuteman and 3619 orange recon cars are on the right side.  I got the two cars on the left years ago from a collector/dealer who owned a LHS / Lionel service station in the 50's and 60's.  He traveled the country in his real job and collected a lot of strange stuff.  He had two small dutch barns floor to ceiling with racks of stuff.  It was quite an adventure going through all of the tons of parts, decals, partially assembled pieces and things I had never heard of before.  It was a real trip just listening to his stories of what and how he found stuff at other service stations, from Lionel, and from LHS around the country.  At the time I was really into military cars and thought these two would fit in.  Later, I described them to a Lionel "expert" and he said he could do the same thing putting a white one in the sun.  His eagerness to buy them at a name your price scenario, made me suspicious of his evaluation.  The fact that there were two of them and totally uniform color in the screw holes and edges made me think they were actually prototypes, probably shot before the 3665 mold was done.  At the time I didnt care cause one was mint and the other had been rolled on the track some.  They were the nicest 3665 pieces I have ever come across even if they weren't the correct color.