Production:  1962 & 1963

History
The 6502 Steel Girder Transport Car is one of Lionel's most basic freight cars produced during the postwar era. With a plain, unlettered flatcar and a single orange girder, this was certainly an example of Lionel engineers using existing products to create a new and inexpensive freight car.

The 6502 was only catalogued in the 1962 consumer catalogue and the 1963 advanced consumer catalogue. Additionally, it was never offered as a separate sale item and was only included in two Lionel sets. Due to these two factors, this freight car has become rather hard to locate, especially in collector condition.

Features
Standard features of this car include: unpainted flatcar without side lettering, non-operating couplers, metal brakewheel (on the red and black version only), corner footsteps plus a single unpainted orange girder. An elastic band was used to secure the girders to the freight car.

Finally, an original box by Lionel does not exist for this flatcar.

Additional Detail, Photos & Box Information

Black Flatcar - Produced in 1962 and usually included a metal brakewheel mounted on the brakewheel stand. The black flatcar is a hard color to locate.
Red Flatcar - Also produced in 1962 and usually included a metal brakewheel mounted on the brakewheel stand. The red flatcar is a hard color to locate.
Blue Flatcar - Shown in the photo above - This is the most common color of the three flatcars and was produced in 1963. Additionally, it generally did not include a metal brakewheel.