6-19817 Virginian Ice Car Repair Questions

[Anonymous]

Came across what I thought was a good deal on the only ice car at a train show. The car was NIB, no eveidence of the box ever being opened, no marks on the wheels, inserts present, ice blocks present and sealed but.... It appears the car left Lionel missing one door and one door guide. There is no eveidence they were ever installed. The opposite side door and guide are present. The price paid does make repair a viable option.

I've checked the Lionel web site and the only ice car parts diagram is for a 6700 series Ice Car. If this is correct then I need a 9715-012 "Door Black" and 9700-015 "Door Guide". Can one of you confirm this as correct? My concern is the design has changed over the years as the parts information is from combined guides 1 - 9. Comparing the illustration to my car the parts look right.

Lionel list the parts for sale in their online store. Has anyone ever actually ordered parts from Lionel as opposed to Olsen Toy or The Train Tender? I wonder if Lionel list parts for sale wheter they are in stock or not?

This car is blue and I have checked Walther's web site and there does not appear to be a specificly bottled "Virginian Blue" any thoughts on a good color match? Of course I could paint the door rust and call it a repair in progress until the car is scheduled for repainting in the car shop.

I could take the car back to the show to get my money back, maybe, but heck this is starting to appeal to me as a quick rainy day project.

Thanks for the advice.

Steve

[mpzpw3]

This probably won't be much help, but here goes. I am assuming that you have one door and guide on the other side of the car. Do you have any way of matching the door and guide up with another Lionel boxcar to determine if they are the same? I don't think the ice car is much different than an ordinary Boxcar, except for the roof hatch. If you can find a point of reference on other cars, then you may be able to solve the problem, by looking up the part# for those cars also. I have a postwar and modern era Lionel parts and repair manual, and may be able to match something up for you. The stock # for the car may help, as I don't have any way of looking for a Virginian ice car. The best thing to do would be to take the car to a parts dealer, and just have him match up the door and guide to the other side. I know that where I live this isn't possible most of the time, and your case may be the same. I have never ordered parts directly from Lionel, so can't help you there. Seems like I looked there, and decided the shipping was too high or something. I have heard good things from both the other parts dealer you mentioned, and they might be able to help you get the right parts. I might be able to help if I have the stock # off the car, or someone else here might be able to figure it out. Sorry I don't have any more info., but will help of I can.

[mpzpw3]

Okay, I've been work 6 ten hour days for months now, and I did finally see the stock # in your post. Don't know what I was thinking... I will post if I can find part #'s. Must be more worn out than I thought.

[Anonymous]

mpzpw3 -- I went ahead and ordered the parts as I needed some spare bulbs and a mint car window insert. I'll see what happens. I had the same thoughts about comparing doors and checked a box car, there are some detailing differences. I compared the ice car to the drawing again and am fairly confident they will fit.

Anyone have thoughts on matching the color?

I've been on that work schedule myself in the past and it will make you punch drunk with fatigue, be careful.

[mpzpw3]

I know that the doors can be bought in different colors, as different colors have different part numbers. Your part number for the door guide appears to be correct for a plastic door guide. As far as paint goes, you might try your hobby shop for Floquil or scale-coat railroad paints, you might find something that comes pretty close. I haven't had much luck with Testors paints for railroads, but they may have something close.

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Just thought I would follow up with the results of my parts order. The order was placed online with Lionel on May 2 and was received on May 15 by Priority Mail. At the completion of the on line order process an order receipt containing the order number was offered for printing. May 3 an order acknowledgement was received by email containing the simple statement " Your order has been received by Lionel." No information such as available or unavailable stock, ship date or other information was offered. From that point to order recept no other comunications from Lionel were received. Reminds me of the days when you filled out an order blank, put it and your cash, check or money order in an envelope and dropped it in the mailbox. Then you would patiently check the mail every day. Well anyway, it did get here.

I went ahead and ordered some extra ice car doors and door guides so the blue Virginian Ice Car sports matching black doors. Leaving me an original blue door to carry around to find a paint color match or orginal blue door.

Detailing of the ice car door is the same as 6464 box car doors so they are interchangeable. Indeed the mold mark on the inside surface of the door is 6464-7 The door guides are interchangeable as well. I will be checking the Lionel parts list for blue box car doors to try.

I do have one question why does Lionel have mutiple parts numbers for the exact same item? For example:

Part # 6-00-9715-012
Desc: BC DOOR PNT BLK 475

and

Part # 6-00-9715-014
Desc: BC DOOR MLD BLK 693

Refer to identical doors with identical mold marks -- guess thats another Lionel management mystery.

Take care,
Steve

[mpzpw3]

For some reason this post seems to be mine to answer. In answer to your question, The different part numbers are for the same door, only painted or molded in different colors. The examples you give are possibly for different shades of a black door. My parts list ends at roughly 1998, and didn't have your ice car in it. The 1st 3 digits mean nothing important (modern production), the next 4 digits are the model (97-- indicates the 9700 hundred series boxcars which also includes the 64 series, 94 series, 92 series, basiclly all the modern versions of the postwar 6464 series), the last 3 numbers denote color. If you know the codes, you know the color. I don't know the codes, so I couldn't help you with the color. Just to make this a little longer winded, another example would be say trucks for a postwar style aluminum passenger car. For a postwar car the part # is 492-1. For an MPC era car, the part # is 492-1 for black, 492-25 for silver, and for a modern era car, the part # is 600-492- whatever code is used for the truck color, hence the different last digits. All of these are the same truck, just with different part number suffixes. The root # stays the same throughout (492 for the passenger car truck, 9700 for the boxcar door). The suffixes change due to color or some other slight modification, but usually color. I think I will stop here, because I'm starting to get confused... Hopefully someone out there can write better than me, and make it a little more clear.