The Odd Lionel Boston & Maine 6464-475 PURPLE boxcar? When is purple really purple?
One of the fun things in collecting is learning about and trying to own the many variations out there of your favorite pieces.
Lionel's 6464 series boxcars are one of the more collectible series in the history of Lionel. What style of trucks? What body style? Mold color? How many rivets? What does the build date say? What shade is it? Wait, what?
That is right. The SHADE of a car can make it collectible.
That brings us to the odd story of when purple is not really purple.
In the 1960s, Lionel reissued the popular blue Boston and Maine 6464-475 boxcar. There were already lighter and brighter shade variations of the blue, but when Lionel decided to paint the blue body mold a darker blue, they wound up with a very odd shade of blue.
I think collectors really did not know how to describe it. It is a dull matte-like blue shade. Under certain light, it appears to have a purplish tint. So purple it became. Even though it is really blue.
This has lead to many misidentified "purple" versions. Everyone wants their B&M boxcar to be the rare one. So if you hold it up under a full moon and squint...
We have one of those rare purplish blue specimens right now.
But WAIT. There's more to the variation game...the BOX.
That is right. You want to know what box the item came in
This car isn't just the tough shade to find, it is also in a very interesting BOX that has its OWN collector value!!
This car and box date to the mid 1960s as that is the era of this non-perforated orange picture box. BUT CHECK OUT THE NEAT PAPER LABELS ON THE ENDS. The BOX itself is numbered 6464-930 on the inside of an end flap. That tells us it was mostly used with the New York Central 6464-900. So when Lionel wanted to use this box, likely leftover, for some 1960's B&M cars, they printed the label as a sticker with blue print and put it on the ends of the box. More than likely, if you were to peel the sticker back, you would see the info for the 6464-900. But I do not recommend it!
We have this car for sale right here at www.lonestartrains.com/
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