Welcome to The Lionel trains Library – a website created to assist you in understanding differences in variations of engines, rolling stock, cabooses, passenger cars, and accessories sold by Lionel in the postwar era (1945-1969). Our objective is to construct a website that is robust, easy to use and informative as you learn about the products made by one of the most famous toy companies in the world during a glorious but challenging era.

We invite you to stroll down memory lane as you are rewarded with thousands of photos of the wonderful trains and accessories that you may have had as a kid – or wished you could have had when growing up.

Please note that the items described in the underlying pages are not available for sale. Please go to both of the websites shown below to view what is currently for sale by the authors . We also encourage you to e-mail us with feedback as to how close we are achieving our goal.

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6430 Twin Piggy Back Vans

Production: 1956 - 1958

History
The 6430 is the second -- of several -- flatcars produced by Lionel which carried two tractor trailer vans. Although the flatcar remained basically unchanged for three years, the vans for the 6430 freight car have at least four different production variations. Trying to collect one set of each van will require some time as not all are readily available.

Features
Standard features of the 6430 include: unpainted red flatcar with white lettering, two operating couplers plus a brakewheel stand with metal brakewheel and four corner footsteps. A metal rack was mounted on top of the flatcar for the purpose of holding the vans in place as the train traveled along a layout. As with most rolling stock from this era, the early production flatcars (1956 thru early 1957) have bar-end trucks while later flatcars were changed to AAR trucks.

The collectable part of the 6430 freight car centers around the different van variations. While the flatcar always carries two vans with a single axle and dual wheels on the end of each axle, the vans are the most interesting part of this freight car. In order of production, the different vans found with the 6430 include:

Green vans:
- Color: green
- Roadname: Lionel Lines
- Nameplate: Aluminum nameplate with black lettering
- Decal: Two decals on the rounded end; top decal is printed with "Fruehauf / Dura Van" while the lower left decals simply has "Fruehauf".
Gray vans:
- Color: gray
- Roadname: Cooper-Jarrett
- Nameplate: Aluminum nameplate, light-colored cooper arrow, aluminum background, black lettering
- Decal: Two decals on the rounded end; top decal is printed with "Fruehauf / Dura Van" while the lower left decals simply has "Fruehauf".
Gray vans:
- Color: gray
- Roadname: Cooper-Jarrett
- Nameplate: Aluminum nameplate, dark-colored cooper arrow, aluminum background, black lettering
- Decal: No end decals.
White vans:
- Color: white
- Roadname: Cooper-Jarrett
- Nameplate: Aluminum nameplate, dark-colored cooper arrow, black background, white lettering
- Decal: No end decals

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

Green Vans - Shown in the photo above - The first version produced had green vans and is somewhat hard to find.
Gray Vans - The common version has gray vans.

White Vans - The white vans are the hardest color vans to locate.

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