6817 Flatcar w/ Scraper

Production: 1959 & 1960

History
The 6817 Allis Chalmers scraper flatcar is based upon a typical freight car seen on the rails in the United States throughout the 1950's. As America began to expand from local cities into a suburban America environment, construction companies used the railroads to transport their heavy equipment from the cities to the suburbs.

In their continued effort to remain current with the times, Lionel introduced several flatcars in 1959 and 1960 with construction-themed loads. They include:

• 6816 Allis Chalmers Tractor Dozer
• 6817 Allis Chalmers Motor Scraper
• 6827 Harnischfeger Power Shovel
• 6828 Harnischfeger Construction Crane

The 6817 motor scraper load is extremely fragile and truely rare to find unbroken and in complete condition. Like most postwar flatcar loads, the flatcar is easy to locate, however the value with this freight car is with the motor scraper.

Lastly, this freight car was included in two outfits during it's production cycle. For 1959, the flatcar and scraper were included in one Super O set while in 1960, the 6817 was included in one 027 gauge outfit. Interestingly, Lionel included a Prairie steam locomotive as the choice of power for each set.

Features
Standard features of this car include: unpainted red flatcar with white lettering, a brakewheel stand with metal brakewheel, corner footsteps, AAR trucks with operating couplers and a motor scraper. There are a few unpainted black flatcars stamped 6817 -- these are scarce.

The motor scraper is molded in dark orange and has four rubber wheels with metal axles. The motor scraper is generally broken in one, or several areas. Items commonly broken or repaired include:

• Exhaust stack.
• Tractor to scraper attachment pin.
• Missing or broken hydraulic cylinders.
• Wire windshield -- only on early 1959 models. This feature was eliminated by mid-1959.

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

Red Flatcar - Shown in first photo above - The common version.
Black Flatcar - A scarce variation.

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