Lionel CP Baby Madison Observation Car 6-81744 - I received a coach car!

[trestrainfan]

I just received my order of the Lionel Canadian Pacific Baby Madison cars, and noticed a problem with the observation car. It's part of the 3 car set, 6-81744: an observation car, coach, and combination car, individually boxed.

The observation car is 6-81748. According to the box, the car number is 6612, and that is the number on the car, and it has the correct interior for the observation car. The problem is: it looks like a coach car, not an observation car! No platform on one end. I looked at the catalog, and it shows an observation car with a platform. As someone explained to me on another forum, they put the vestibules on both ends rather than the end railing on one end.

If this was a general problem, I figured I would have read about it on the forum by now. Anyone have any experience with this item, or similar Baby Madison observation cars in other road names? This is from the recent run of about 2013 or 2014.

I haven't been able to find much in the way of photos of the newer Lionel Baby Madison cars. All the dealers show the Lionel catalog picture, which doesn't show the platform end of the car. Looking at ebay, I see a dealer selling break ups of some of the cars from different railroads. Some of the observation cars like the Santa Fe and New York Central have non-illuminated drum heads on the end rail, while the Pullman does not have a drum head. I haven't seen any pictures, so I don't know if the Canadian Pacific observation car comes with a drum head or not. Does anyone have this particular car, 6-81748 Lionel Canadian Pacific Baby Madison observation car? What does the platform end look like? Does it have a drum head?

[tch1213]

Perhaps it might be a factory error? I recall reading in an old Greenberg book that there was a Baby Madison set in the 80's that also had some observations that ended up with passenger car bodies (or it may have been vice versa).

[trestrainfan]

Well, it's definitely a factory mistake since they built the car incorrectly. As far as whether it is a "factory error", I've never really paid much attention to that area of collecting, so I don't know what constitutes a factory error, although I've read articles in the magazines about people who collect trains with factory errors.