Recently I've been looking at Postwar Lionel 6822 Night Crew searchlight cars. These cars came with either grey bases with black searchlight hoods, or black bases with grey searchlight hoods (all on red flatcars)
On all of the black base samples I've recently seen, there are streaks of grey in the black base that look like they are either stress marks or flow marks from the mold.
I don't think they are stress marks because there is absolutely no visible distortion of the plastic.
In addition, I think the black based ones have two operating couplers with riveted knuckles, and the grey based ones have one operating coupler with rivetless knuckles.
This makes me wonder:
Are the black based ones earlier production than the grey based ones?
Do all black based ones have the grey marks?
Did Lionel reverse the colors because the marks were not noticeable on the grey bases?
Does anybody have a black based 6822 with a nice, evenly colored base, or with rivetless knuckles, or with a single operating coupler?
