3435 Traveling Aquarium

Production: 1959 - 1962

History
The 3435 Traveling Aquarium Car is a highly imaginative freight car. The concept is based upon a boxcar being converted into a large mobile fish tank!! Obviously, a real-life counterpart to this car does not exist. Rather, the car is the result of Lionel engineers using existing parts to create a new Lionel product.

Features
The 3435 Traveling Aquarium car included the following standard features: green painted shell with gold or yellow lettering, two clear, wave-like windows on each side, single brakewheel and AAR trucks with operating couplers.

The interior features include illumination with a continuous loop of decorated plastic film -- painted with sea-like illusions. The illumination permits the images to be seen through the clear sides on the car. Lionel's Vibromotor performed the constant rotation of the film.

Additional Detail, Photos & Box Information
The length of the 3435 box car is approximately 11 1/4" long (coupler to coupler). During it's four-year production run, there were several rare variations produced by Lionel.

Yellow Lettering - Shown in the photo above - The most common variation.
Gold Lettering, no Circle L or Tank Designations - A hard-to-find variation has gold lettering instead of the common yellow lettering.
Gold Lettering & Tank Designations - A rare variation has gold lettering and gold tank designation of 'Tank 1' and 'Tank 2' respectively listed below the tank windows.
Gold Lettering, Circle L & Tank Designations - Even rarely than the above car, there is a version with gold lettering, gold tank designations and a circle of gold around the "L" near the middle of each side.

To purchase quality Lionel Box Cars from our sponsors, click on either website:

Dave's Trains Inc.