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. Externally this looks to be correct, internally it is very different. The 6560 was redesigned to incorporate many cost savings features.

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 straight hooks. The 6560 incorporated a new straight hook. The word 'Lionel' was always printed with arched letters while the word 'Lines' appeared on a horizontal line. The cab, available in different colors, always contained a smokestack. The die-cast hand cracks were the open crank verison through 1957 and closed version from 1958 to the end of production. 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".

Reddish-Orange Cab - Assumed to be the first production run from 1955. This always came on an unmarked frame -- no number and no lerttering -- 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 - 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 - 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 - Molded gray cab, open hand cranks and bar-end trucks.

Red Cab - Shown in the photo at the top of this page - Molded red cab, open hand cranks and bar-end trucks.
Red Cab - Molded red cab, open or closed hand cranks and AAR trucks. This is the most common variation of all the 6560 crane cars.