Inspired by the recent article- Let's see your 6464 series boxcars

I sold my entire series of Lionel (LTI-era) 6464 boxcars a couple of years ago here on the forum.  Those were the reissued boxcars released as ten 3-pks over a period of several years... followed by a few over-stamped boxcars as 2-pks.

Shortly after selling them, I purchased the few scale-sized PS-1 boxcars that Lionel produced as Postwar 6464 look-a-likes.  But after only two 2-pack offerings, it appears Lionel has tabled that series.  If they ever resume the scale series 6464's, I'll buy them.  But I'm not holding out much hope, since dealers ended up blowing out the two sets of 2-pks thus far.

Oh well...

David

 

 

That MPC-era boxcar isn't part of the 6464 boxcar series; it's actually part of the 9700/9400 box car series (I have the same car somewhere in my collection).  And there actually was a prototype boxcar that was painted up & lettered similar to that, celebrating the one millionth boxcar that Pullman-Standard made.

 

Strictly speaking, any Lionel-branded boxcar made after 1969 aren't considered "true" 6464 series boxcars, as that numbering convention was also the catalog # used by the Lionel Corporation from 1953 up until then.  After that, when the Lionel Corporation got out of the toy train business and sold their tooling to General Mills/MPC heralding in the "modern era", the boxcars (and pretty much all Lionel-branded products in general) adopted a completely new catalog numbering convention that started with the 6-xxxx prefix that remains to this day.  The first of the 6464-based boxcars were part of the 9400 series, eventually adpopting the 9700 series and then the 9400 series onwards; each revision due to running out of numbers for those numbering series.  Even the "6464 series" boxcars made in the modern era have a completely different catalog # that doesn't match the car # like postwar did.

 

Having said that, I probably have a couple of postwar & modern era "6464" boxcar pictures lying around somewhere in addition to MPC & LTI era traditional boxcars based from the 6464 molds; I'll post them if I find them.

quote:

The first of the 6464-based boxcars were part of the 9400 series...

 

I think you meant to type 9200 series,

 

 

Correct, 9200, thanks for the correction (I should know better owning a number of cars from each series). 

I still have all of mine, including the Western Pacific 6464-250 (6-39236) which was the last car released in the postwar remake series.  I also have several of the special issue 6464 cars such as;

 

6-29203 Maine Central Boxcar #6464-597

6-52051 TCA B&O Sentinel Boxcar #6464095

6-52058 TTOS ATSF Boxcar #6464-1895

6-52081 Chicago & Northwestern Boxcar #6464-555

 

Along with a few other two and three packs;

 

6-29282  6464 Archive 3-Pack Set

6-21756  6464 Overstamp Boxcar 2-Pack

6-29281  6464 Overstamp Boxcar 2-Pack

6-29286  6464 Overstamp Boxcar 2-Pack

 

 I was obsessed, can't for the life of me remember why?

 

 

 

Here are my LTI remakes......I love them and they make a nice display....

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm glad I waited out the series....

 

Peter

I have no originals.  I did have most of the LTI series remakes, but sold all but one set.

 

Jeff Davis

Here's what I have in my collection. The Santa Fe is LTI and the Missouri Pacific has a repro door. They are fun to collect and they are great runners.

franktrain

 

Nice collection. I enjoy collecting the postwar 6464 series also. I have 22 of them....all with original boxes. Finding the boxes was the hard part!

I only have a modern one in the "6464 style", the Eagle Scout boxcar.  I really want a State of Maine one though (the full stripe door, not the red door), I remember seeing a couple of the real ones when we use to vacation in maine when I was younger.

NOW THEN...This is what it is all about, Toy Trains! What scale? There is no scale. Gotta love it.... Thank you!

At one point I had just about every 9700 series boxcar. The best part of the collection was the best part of collecting. The fuel the drove train show attendance through the roof, the hunt finding them.  I searched out local shows , TCA meets and just about every venue where I thought  those last few missing numbers could be found. When I had them all I sold the collection and never looked back. 

Not much remains of that era but I still own the LTI 10 set 6464 series cars..

Pretty cool set.

Joe

Just curious how many cars/and variations were part of the post war 6464 series?

 

Simon

Peter, I really like the display you've created.  I have about 6 of the reissue sets; very casually hunting the remainders.

Thank you, Carl.....I have always loved those cars....and the re-issues made them made them affordable enough to be able to get them all. I love looking at them!

 

Peter

 

 

Here is mine, with about 20 more to display.

Fantastic, Jim

 

Peter

Nice Jim. I like your display. I have to come up with something similar. I have 6 of the originals, the 30 car set of repros, most of the variations, many of the convention cars and few of Robert Salerno's variations.

 

My name is Pete and I am a collector.

 

 

Since this thread almost immediately skidded away from the "true" 6464 BC's, I'll post this one (again). It says "9700", and has been re-trucked, obviously. And other stuff.

 

love the realism!

...along with my collection of Lionel postwar 6464's, I also have a small collection of K-Line copies.

Great, another "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" thread

Love the 6464s and their various reissues through the years... I doubt I'll ever get tired of seeing them at shows and on layouts.  They're definitive to the hobby, from my perspective.

 

I've often considered putting together a complete set of 6464s, but I prefer to stay within my roads so I took this approach instead.  As you can see, I added sprung trucks to several that were either damaged or plastic.

 

First column

6464-50 (1953)

6464-525 (1957)

9742 (1973)

9775 (1976)

 

Second column 

6464-50 (1993)

6464-525 (1999)

6464-525 (2004)

6464 (2012)

 

Feel free to correct my dates if they're off.  There’s also a “Season’s Greetings 1973” version of the 9742 I've not had the opportunity to pick up. 

 

Over time, 6464's just sorta eluded my collecting efforts until I got one of these in a bunch of PW stuff earlier this year. At this rate it'll take 5 lifetimes to complete a set.

 

Pic thanks to franktrain

Bruce

45 according to my price guide, but I'm sure there are many more(variations).

 

Richie

Simon,

Most collectors go with the number of 29 original 6464 box cars.  If you count the 2 more in the Girl's train then it's 31.  There are about a dozen variations, some very subtle and a few that have really big differences.  They were produced from 1953-1966.

 

Paul Edgar

Paul.....interesting.......the LTI remakes total 30.....which one of the originals am I missing in the picture?

 

 

 

Peter

Peter,

 

I only see one Western Pacific boxcar (orange with blue feather) in your picture.  If the one you have is 6464-100 then you are missing the 6464-250 version of this car.  The Lionel item number for the 6464-250 car is 6-39236 and it was sold individually, not part of a three car set.  I no longer have my catalogs so I can't quote the catalog text verbatim but IIRC it went something like, Here is the last of the Postwar 6464 remakes to complete your collection.

 

 

I will take a photo of mine and add it to this thread later today.

 

Interesting.......this will be a project for me this weekend......I thought I had them all!

 

Peter

Pictures from inventory file of my PW 6464 cars.  I also have two complete sets of the Lionel reissues.  One complete set of 30 were flooded in Houston from tropical storm Alison in 2001.  They are now "runners" and have replaced all sets that stay in boxes and cartons for collection.   This is not all of them, need to learn more of posting pics, seems not all are included....sigh.....LOL!  Also, captions not under pics I posted.....  The B&O Tuscan Automobile car was included because of size and how well they fit in with the 6464 cars to make a consist, though I do not run this version.

With having the number of all boxcars I do have in collection, runners, I recall use of my Big Boy pulling a 50 car consist of boxcars.  These were from all manufacturers and did so on the North Central "O" Gaugers modular set-up in Antioch, Illinois.  We formed this club in 2000 and also included members from Milwaukee RR Club, and CLRC, while I managed construction in Great Lakes Naval Center.  

I found this in the 2001 Lionel Classic Trains Volume 2 catalog regarding the WP 6464-250 boxcar.

 

quote:

Western Pacific 6464-250 Boxcar

When we first reissued our classic series of 6464 boxcars, we overlooked  one, the Western Pacific 6464-250, originally cataloged in 1966.   

 

Own this new 6464-250 in its original glorious colors. Wrapping up our reissue series with this car seems appropriate, since we began this series 48 years ago with another Western Pacific boxcar, 6464-1. Don’t miss it!

Features:
• Die-cast sprung trucks and operating couplers, Stamped metal frame, brake wheels and door guides, Detailed molded body
• Scale: O-Gauge
• Minimum Radius: O-27
• Length: 10 1/4”
(6-39236) $44.95

***Edited the quote section to fix formatting issues***

 

IMO there are 31 cars in the reissue series and a collection is not complete without this second WP car.

 

Edited to add photos of car and original box. 

 

I am certain this was the first time the car has been removed from the box.

 

 

Yep, looks like another BC I need to locate and make it 31!!  Or need to get two?  LOL

Last year of 6464 production by the original Lionel Corporation was 1969; the green RI, Pennsy, B&O Timesaver and Timken cars were brought back for one last hurrah...

Always thought this one was a real stretch.

 

 

 

 Lionel item# 6-29252, if anyone is interested, hint, hint.  lol

There was a point where collecting the 6464s and various versions was the best you could do and find for colorful boxcars. However, today given that cars now have multiple numbers and the incredible vast array of colorful ones available, the 6464s are sort of the boxcar dodos.

 

Not that I would not like to have a complete set mind you!

 

 

And then there is this one, that I KNOW has never been out of the box. 

 

 

 

In some box, somewhere, there is another one that was at least removed from the shipping carton.  Wonder what it looks like.