Here’s a question that comes up from time to time on train forums. What do the build dates on Lionel trains mean? In the Lionel postwar era, not a lot. At least not if you’re looking to figure out the actual age of the model.
The build dates on Lionel postwar trains, and largely for MPC-era trains as well, indicate when the model was first released, not when the example you hold in your hands was built.
Build dates were a step in the direction of realism
In the postwar era, Lionel’s competitors were taking a step toward making their toy trains more realistic. Real railroad cars have markings on them indicating, among other things, when they were built. But Lionel didn’t change this number every year. Unlike their competitor Marx, they changed the road numbers from time to time, but even when they changed the road number/model number on a car, the build date stayed the same. They just changed the number.
For example, take the Lionel 2476, 6456 and 6476 Lehigh Valley hopper cars. All have build dates of 1-48. But only the 2476 specifically dates to 1948. Lionel discontinued the 2476 after a year. The 6476 went into production more than a decade later in 1957, and remained in production until the end of the postwar era in 1969. The 6456 was in production from 1948 to 1955. So there’s perhaps a 1 in 7 chance that a particular 6456 actually dates to 1948.
Lionel’s competitor Marx would have just kept the same car in production as model number 2476 and called it the same thing for 20 years, maybe changing the color from time to time. Lionel’s approach saved money, but Marx’s approach saved even more money.
In the MPC era, the build dates continued. They also didn’t change over time, and sometimes they were wrong. MPC-era Lionel lettered some cars for CSX earlier than CSX’s July 1986 founding date.
So if you have a family heirloom Lionel train set that you know was originally purchased in 1955, but the build dates on the cars are all different years, some going back to the 1940s, now you know why the dates don’t match.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.