Made around 1998 to 2000 Std O caboose, bunk and tank car. final item in the program was a Thank You boxcar. On the the Std O caboose, bunk and tank car, there are actually 3 different numbers for each, a bronze, silver and gold edition which were respectively the Ambassador Award, Engineer Award and JLC Award. Bronze (Ambassador Award) are most common, the silver and gold versions are extremely rare to say the least. These cars were part of Lionel's short lived Ambassador Program, in which fellow hobbyist would volunteer to promote the hobby and be awarded points for different activities. based on the number of points earned, these cars would be awarded.
fellow forum member PaperTRW wrote an article about the cars which appeared in the TM Books Modern Era price guide, off the top of my head Im thinking it was around 1999 ?
Listed below are all 10 items that were made:
PN | DESCRIPTION | CLASS | CAT |
16817 | Ambassador "1999" Ambassador Award, 1d | Tank | 2000Unc |
16818 | Ambassador "1999" Engineer Award, 1d | Tank | 2000Unc |
16819 | Ambassador "1999" JLC Award, 1d | Tank | 2000Unc |
16820 | Ambassador Thank You | Box | 2000Unc |
19664 | Ambassador "1998", Ambassador Award | Bunk | 1999Unc |
19665 | Ambassador "1998", Engineer Award | Bunk | 1999Unc |
19666 | Ambassador "1998", JLC Award | Bunk | 1999Unc |
19957 | Ambassador "1997", Ambassador Award | Std O | 1998Unc |
19958 | Ambassador "1997", Engineer award | Std O | 1998Unc |
19959 | Ambassador "1997", JLC award | Std O | 1998Unc |