Lionel pw-2378-01m.r.f3ab

2378 MILWAUKEE ROAD AB F3 - RARITY 4

 

Built in 1956 only. EMD F3 AB units: unpainted gray body with red-painted stripe and yellow hear-stamped detailing stripes. Louvered roof and closed portholes; yellow heat-stamped lettering; large wraparound Milwaukee Road decal on nose; one piece ornamental horns, molded cab door ladder, window shell, number boards, and headlight lens;black chassis with black-painted pilot and chemicallyh blackened side frames; twin vertical motors; Magnetraction; three position E unit; lighted; horn: operating coupler on pilot and die-cast self centering fixed couplers at all other ends. A's and B's came with and without a yellow rubber stamped roofline stipe. Original decals will gradually detoriate and vanish over any place where there was an air space under the decal, such as the door outlines and the air intake louvers
  • Regular Milwaukee Road AB's were produced without the yellow stripe along the edge of the roof. Substantial numbers of B units were also made with the Yellow stripe on the B unit, and quite a few AB's left the factory with no yellow stripe on the A but with a yellow strip on the B. A's with yellow stripes are very, very unusual. The yellow stripe is rubber stamped on and must be grainy as characteristic of rubber stamping. It rubs off very easily with handling, so very few are found without some detoriation of the yellow stripe. Units are identical in all other respects to regular Milwaukee Road AB's and include magnetraction, 2 motors, horns, and all the best that Lionel ever offered. The cabs are unpainted Dark Grey plastic, with red painted stripe and heat stamped lettering. Counterfeits are made with light grey plastic cabs, painted dark grey, originals are molded in the dark grey and the grey is unpainted
  • Decals on A units without the yellow stripe have a dull finish; decals on A units with the yellowe strip are quite glossy and have a slightly different size letters. This makes sense becuse the 2 loco variations were manufactured at different times and decals could have been from dye/paint different lots from the same manufacturer, or from different manufactureers. Who knows? In either case the color of the decals closely matches the color of the rubber stamped red stripe. Differences in the sheen of the red stripe have been noticed on A units - some being dull and some shiny

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