lionel milk car

you can't go wrong with the milk car.   Visitors to my train room always marvel at that little milkman

Here is a good source of info on most PW Lionel items-

http://www.postwarlionel.com/

your milk car included.

LIONEL 6457

It's one of Lionel's best and works great.  The original cars had magnets in the bottom of the milk cans, the newer ones do not.  You have one of the newer models made 55-60 and 64-66.  The first ones made in 47-48 had unpainted aluminum doors.  You are lucky to be given such a nice accessory.  

Yes, that's a postwar #3662 Milk Car set. I have one and it works very well and is a real favorite with the kids. These use the non-magnetic cans, which you should find readily available from most postwar parts vendors.

I converted the 36621 Milkcar like the one above to TMCC control, it works great anywhere with no operating track.  A bonus of TMCC control is the voltage to activate the solenoid is programmable, so you can get just the right amount of power to properly eject the cans but not launch them off the platform.

gunrunnerjohn thats really cool i would of never thought to do that what did it take to do that.

The photos seem to show metal truck sides. This would mean your car was made before 1957 or 1958. The later 1960's version came with plastic AAR trucks.

Yes it does have metal trucks so this is a really old piece and i cant believe the condition it is in wow i got lucky getting this for free

thanks lionelbob

Lionel's Milk Cars are everybody's favorites.  As Tom Snyder says as he quotes Frank Sinatra on the 100 Years of Lionel video, " If you don't like that, you don't like vanilla ice cream".

Milk cars are the greatest.  That is the late PostWar version.  It also came in a Bosco chocolate syrup livery....the Bosco one is the most collectible of the PostWar milk cars because of its scarcity.

Lionel has made many reruns based on this model in the modern era with a host of liveries....even a clear plastic one to show the mechanism.

Enjoy.

Peter