6342 New York Central

Production:  1956 - 1958 & 1966 - 1969

History
The 6342 New York Central (NYC) Culvert Gondola was introduced in 1956. It is basically a standard 6562 gondola with a metal platform mounted to the inside of the car. The metal platform allows the car to function with the 342 and 345 Culvert Loader and Unloader accessories.

The 6342 was included with each accessory as well as being available for separate sale. A separate sale box is extremely difficult to locate for this freight car.

Features
Standard features of the 6342 include: unpainted red body with white lettering, the 'N' in 'NYC' placed in the third panel from the left, operating couplers and a black metal platform mounted to the inside of the gondola.

The 6342 had two distinct production runs. The first was from 1956 until 1958. These cars are easy to identify as they have bar-end trucks. All culvert gondolas produced between 1964 and 1969 have AAR trucks.

Additional Detail, Photos & Box Information
The 6342 is not a common gondola. Although production lasted for many years, they are not easy to locate.

Bar-end Trucks - Shown in the photo above - The more common version.
AAR Trucks - Although production lasted for more years, this car is harder to locate than the bar-end truck version.

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