6560 Bucyrus Erie Crane

Production:  1955 - 1969

History
The 6560 Bucyrus Erie operating crane car enjoyed the longest run of any postwar Lionel crane car. At first glance the 6560 appears to be a carryover of the 6460 with simply a color change on the exterior. However, when you begin to look at the individual components and related manufacturing process, the 6460 and 6560 are totally different with relatively no interchangeable parts. The redesign of the 6560 was to incorporate many cost savings components.

Features
Standard features of the 6560 include: rotating cab, fully functional boom and hook, usually an unpainted cab, a plastic frame and white lettering. The first few production years of the 6560 had bar-end trucks but this quickly changed to AAR trucks in 1958.

Prior to the introduction of the 6560 crane car, all Lionel cranes came with off set hooks (the hook was perpendicular to the rails of the track). When the 6560 freight car was introduced a new straight hook was incorporated into the design for this crane car. The word 'Lionel' was always printed with arched letters while the word 'Lines' appeared on a horizontal line. The cab, while available in different colors, always contained a smokestack molded into the top rear of the cab. The die-cast hand cracks were the open crank version through 1957 and closed version from 1958 to the end of production. Lastly, the common problem of stripped and broken screwholes frequently found on the cab of a 2460 or 6460 was corrected with a better and more reliable tab-fastening system on the 6560.

Additional Detail, Photos & Box Information
The length of the base of a crane car is approximately 8" long (coupler to coupler), while the length of the car including the boom in the lowered position is approximately 12 1/2".

Molded Red Cab - Shown in first photo above - Standard production version of the 6560 in 1955 & 1956, included a molded red cab, open hand cranks and bar-end trucks.

Reddish-Orange Cab (Second photo above) - Assumed to be the first production run from 1955. This always came on an unmarked frame -- no number and no lettering -- and is a hard variation to locate.

Painted Red Cab - Assumed to be a very limited run during 1955. It also is a hard variation to locate.

Red Cab, Numbered 656025 (Third photo above) - Molded red cab, open hand cranks and bar-end trucks. Has the hard-to-find '656025' numbers on the frame. This is a one-year-only item from 1956 and is hard to find in collector condition.

Red Cab No Number (Fourth photo above) - Molded red cab, open hand cranks and bar-end trucks. This is a difficult version to locate. There is no number on the side of the frame. It's assumed to ba a very small production run from 1956.

Gray Cab (Fifth photo above) - Molded gray cab, open hand cranks and bar-end trucks.

Molded Red Cab (Sixth photo above) - This is the most common variation of the 6560. It included AAR trucks, a molded red cab and either open or closed hand cranks.

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