6501 Flatcar w/ Jet Motor Boat

Production:  1962 & 1963

History
The 6501 Flatcar with Jet Motor Boat is a unique freight car. Lionel's engineering team took the popular 6801 Boat Car and added an ingenious 'motor' to their boat. The result; young children could now place their boat in the water and see it move under its own power! Very clever -- but the mixture of electric trains and water does seem a bit unusual in today's safety conscience market.

For collectors, the real prize of this freight car are the original fuel pellets and its foil packet. The freight car and boat are readily available, however, locating a Jet Motor Boat with it's original, unopened foil packet is a rare item. Even the original box and instructions are difficult to locate in collector condition.

Lionel included the 6501 freight car in two sets, both offered only in 1962. The first was an 027 gauge diesel freight set and the second being a Super-O steam freight set.

Features
The 6501 flatcar has the following standard features: molded red flatcar with white lettering and no number on the side of the flatcar, gray boat cradle, AAR trucks with two operating couplers plus a brakestand and brakewheel.

The boat was always produced with a white hull, brown deck and a jet nozzle protruding from rear of the boat. An elastic strap was used to secure the boat to the cradle. The foil packet contained approximately 40 fuel pellets -- which was simple sodium bicarbonate.

Additional Detail, Photos & Box Information
The length of this flatcar is approximately 11 1/4" long (coupler to coupler).

Only Known Variation - Shown in first photo above - All examples have a molded red flatcar, no number on the flatcar nor boat and a white hulled boat with a brown deck.

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