About This Freight Car

The 3494-625 Soo Line Operating Boxcar was introduced by Lionel in 1957 and was sold for two years (through 1958). The car is extremely hard to find for the following reasons: it was only made for 2 years, it was unattractive and therefore not popular, and it was never included in any of Lionel's catalogued sets. Because this item is scarce, some fakes have appeared in the marketplace. An original 3494-625 and an outright FAKE are shown in the following photos.

Photos of the 3494-625 Soo Line Operating Boxcar
ABOVE: Original (brown) version. BELOW: The masquerader.

Additional Details

The fake is more reddish brown compared to the original and the bogus car appears to have been decorated using a decal and then a clear but hard-to-detect coating. The lettering is bigger and not as white as the original. It also does not have "BLT 5-57 by LIONEL" and the weight & capacity data are not as crisp as the real one. This fake also has single-block doors instead of the correct multiblock doors. An interesting attempt to mimic a real one.

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This page is an information document only; nothing on this web page is being offered for sale. This page and all of the other pages from Our Archives were developed to assist you in understanding differences in variations of engines, rolling stock, cabooses, passenger cars, and accessories sold by Lionel in the postwar era. We have used pictures from our old files and personal collection to construct this area of our website to show the characteristics of collectible variations. If you are interested in buying something, please go to one of our inventory listings to see what we currently have for sale.

This web page was last updated on September 6, 2005. If you have suggestions for improving this page or if you see any errors, please contact us.