6572 Railway Express Agency Refrigerator Car

Production: 1958, 1959 & 1963

History
The 6572 Railway Express Agency (REA) Refrigerator Car was a continuation of the 6672 Santa Fe Refrigerator Car, but with an new roadname and exterior graphics. It is a near-scale model (1:48 scale) of its real-life counterpart and continued to support Lionel's effort to produce accurate and prototypical trains from that era.

The 6572 was listed in the Lionel consumer catalogue in 1958 and 1959. However, for 1963, the 6572 was manufactured as an uncatalogued offering. This is one of the very few exceptions where the catalogued version is much harder to locate compared to the uncatalogued version! The later version from 1963 was readily available from Madison Hardware well into the 1980's and even the 1990's when it moved to Detroit!

Features
The 6572 REA refrigerator car included the following standard features: green painted body with gold lettering, red and white REA decal to right of door, two operating couplers, functional sliding plug-door, single brakewheel plus a simulated control panel with sliding door on one side of the refrigerator car.

For 1958 and 1959, the REA refrigerator car was produced with a slightly darker green exterior as well as having bar-end trucks. For 1963, Lionel decorated the exterior in a lighter shade of green and included AAR trucks as the standard for the freight car.

Additional Detail, Photos & Box Information

Bar-end Trucks - Shown in first photo above - This is a hard version to locate.
AAR Trucks (Second photo above) - This was the uncatalogued variation and is relatively easy to locate.

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