3665 Minuteman

Production:  1961 - 1964

History
Somewhat surprisingly, the 3665 Minuteman box car is based upon a real-life freight car. The life-size missile-launching box car was developed by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950's. It's safe to say the Lionel version of this car has seen significantly more firing time compared to the real-life car.

The missile-launching Miniteman Car is a complicated car. The box car is frequently found with the missile either damaged or missing as well as damage to the opening roof sections. In either case, locating a complete and undamaged box car is difficult plus the diaphragm to operate the car is generally dry rot and will need replacing to operate properly.

Features
Standard features on the 3665 include: unpainted white body with red and blue lettering, two-piece unpainted blue roof, plunger operated launching mechanism plus a brakewheel and AAR trucks with operating couplers.

Original rockets are always two colors -- red and white -- with a dark blue rubber tip.

Additional Detail, Photos & Box Information

Dark Blue Roof - Shown in first photo above - This is the common version and was produced from 1961 - 1964.
Light Blue Roof (Second photo above) - Although exact production dates remain unknown, this variation was produced later in the lifespan of the 3665 -- probably for a brief period in 1963 or 1964. This is a very hard variation to locate.

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