need info on MPC 6464-500

Well, all I know is what I found in the Greenberg's guide. It lists an orange-on-orange Timken car with type VI body (no rivets, blank end boards) with either bar-end or AAR trucks. These are attributed to Glen Uhl, as are the yellow/white Timken cars. Considerably more cars were made in orange than in the yellow/white scheme. The desirable variation is an orange Timken car with "9200 Series" on the end - only 50 of those made.

Joe,

You indeed have one of the legit "Glen Uhl" Timken 6464-500's from 1971. The following varieties were produced:

1) Yellow, die-cast metal trucks, blank end plates.
2) Orange, die-cast metal trucks, blank end plates.
3) Orange, plastic Timken trucks, blank end plates.
4) Orange, plastic Timken trucks, 9200 end plates. This is the tough one of the standard production pieces.
5) At least one one-of-a-kind in an unusual color scheme.

You also have the properly stamped early MPC box. Not all the boxes have the rubber-stamping on the ends.

Hope this helps.

TRW

thanks for the info guys....

As an aside, and it may be an explanation for the varieties of this car, I've read about Lionel's early 70s production after General Mills took it over. Apparently there were bins of leftover parts from the Postwar period, and workers would grab parts out of the bins and put cars together with a combination of new and old parts. Nothing wasted. Thus, there were a lot of interesting variations - particularly in boxcars, I think - during this period.

As an example, I have three of the 9204 Northern Pacific boxcars, from 1970, and each has a different style body, different door guides, and color variations. One is a considerably lighter shade of green - it looks like a completely different car. This kind of thing was not uncommon back then.