year ID

[Anonymous]

on some of the cars I've purchased recently on the side was printed "blt 1-49". is this the date the car was built?

[spankybird]

yep

[Chris F]

Do you mean the date the prototype car was built, or the date the model was built?

[Big_Boy_4005]

It used to be the date the model was built, especially with Lionel. Now that the manufacturers are trying to be more realistic, I'm not so sure they aren't prototype built dates.

A quick visit to the train room yielded these results. Lionel and K-line use model dates. Atlas and Weaver use prototype dates, and I'm not sure about MTH.

[Anonymous]

Also, in the case of vintage trains, it is often the date that that particular car was first manufacturered. For example, the Lehigh Valley hopper car was an item that Lionel first produced in 1948. On the side, it reads, "NEW 1-48". This car became a staple of Lionel's postwar line and was made until the end of the postwar era in 1969. However, during that 21-year period, the "NEW 1-48" was never changed. It would certainly not have been worth the effort to do so.