I recently picked up one of these nice reefer cars without knowing too much about it. I was pleasantly surprised at the detail, quality, and substantial die-cast chassis it was built around. At 11.5" it seems to be a good scale match to my larger steam engines as well. I'd like to get more of these types of cars, but I've not been able to find out what production series this car came from. Did Lionel make a whole series of larger, die cast chassis reefers / box cars or was this Rutland reefer sort of a one-off? Thanks!
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They were made in 2000, I suspect a lot of them were produced. Hard to imagine this is the only one.
Rutland Std O Reefer #395 SKU: 6-19552
I have about a dozen of the 6565 cars, they're really nice for semi-scale cars.
Well, the bottom frame or chassis on this Rutland car is heavy, detailed metal. The Lionel page John provided states that this is a 9800 style car, but other 9800 series reefers I found don't have a die cast chassis like the Rutland car. In fact the only other car I could find in this size with a die cast chassis is a Lionel 6-27346 PFE Woodsided Reefer that doesn't seem to be widely available anywhere. I was hoping to find more cars with this nice, heavy frame in some different road names, but it seems to be a bit of an oddball I guess.
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According to the Lionel website link posted above, it's a reefer.
Here's a TCA publication that list all the 6565 boxcars w/diecast chassis for all interested in obtaining same. I collected mine from e-bay. All at good prices and in excellent condition. e- Train - TCA, Toy Trains, Train Collectors Association
That link doesn't seem to work.
Apparently these larger 11.5" cars are from the 9464 series, a modern upsize and re-issue of classic 6565 cars. Only some have die cast metal chassis, but all have separately applied top walkways and die cast sprung trucks.