Lionel’s No. 520 Lionel Lines Boxcab Electric stands out among other postwar O-27 locomotives because there is so much about it that’s different from what you find on other models from that celebrated era of production. The 520 is far from scarce and so is commonly overlooked by avid collectors and operators of postwar trains. Yet it has enough unique traits that it deserves their attention. Indeed, the 520 Boxcab Electric makes a dandy conversation piece in any collection.
Background
Lionel’s talented crew of engineers studied the various kinds of diesel locomotives being made by American manufacturers in the years after World War II. They needed to do so if Lionel was to keep bringing out successful O gauge models of the latest and most powerful motive power.
The Electro-Motive Division of General Motors had supplied inspiration, along with blueprints and photographs, of its F3 cab unit, GP7 road diesel, and NW2 switcher. Fairbanks-Morse had provided information about its Train Master road diesel, while the American Locomotive Co. (Alco) had shared data and diagrams about its FA cab unit. Little wonder that Lionel had been able to expand its roster of O and O-27 diesel locomotives so rapidly between 1948 and 1955.
Engineers at Lionel tried something unprecedented for 1956. In addition to different F3s, FAs, and less-expensive NW2s, they looked around at what other kinds of locomotives were being developed and seized on a design that was both familiar and strange. Familiar in that it was a boxcab electric that looked like a bulky rectangle with trucks. Strange in that it was based on a full-size prototype of an 80-ton electric-profile locomotive produced by another company – General Electric – for a market far from North America. It was made for the Chilean Exploration Co., a copper mining enterprise located at the southern end of South America along the Pacific.
Odd qualities
Now the questions begin. First, why did Lionel search so far from its factory in northern New Jersey when selecting a prototype to fulfill the internal demand for a simple locomotive to use in a low-end, introductory train set in 1956? For there was no doubt that the 520 was a fairly basic piece of equipment. It featured an unpainted red plastic body shell with minimal heat-stamped lettering. The most prominent of the white markings were “Lionel Lines” and “520.” In much tinier type were “New 9-54” and “Built by LIONEL” at the bottom of the right side of the cab.
Other noteworthy details on the 520 boxcab included a single plastic pantograph, a chemically treated sheet-metal frame, and die-cast metal knuckle couplers at each end: one operating and one non-operating (“fixed”). Inside was a motor controlled by a three-position directional unit. Its lever, states a source on the Internet, “is adjustable from the top of the cab.” Not added to the unit were any sort of sound device or a functioning headlight. There wasn’t even an interior light.
To the credit of the engineering team at Lionel, the boxy electric-profile locomotive accurately replicated the 80-ton prototype. Key details copied neatly were the four portholes on the side and the air tanks on the roof. The number followed what the Chilean Exploration Co. had used; no other Lionel model from the entire post-World War II period came numbered in the 500s.
The plastic pantograph proved to be extremely fragile and typically was broken or lost. It might be black or copper in color. As such, that part made two variations, and the latter one with the copper-colored pantograph has a higher value.
According to the latest edition of Greenberg’s Pocket Price Guide to Lionel Trains, 1901-2025, the 520 with a black pantograph is valued at $31 in good condition and $69 in excellent. The model with a copper-colored pantograph is $39 and $81, respectively.
Train with no box
Lionel used the 520 in 1956 as the motive power for a starter outfit priced at a mere $19.95. Set No. 750/1542 came with the boxcab electric, along with Nos. 6012 Lionel gondola, 6014 Baby Ruth boxcar, and 6017 Lionel Lines Southern Pacific-type caboose. Also packed in the two-tier basket-weave type of set box were eight pieces of O-27 curved track and one straight as well as a No. 6029 uncoupling section. A No. 1015 45-watt transformer handled all the electrical juice.
In the estimation of Paul V. Ambrose, the author of the third volume of Greenberg’s Guide to Lionel Trains, 1945-1969, the set was “a late addition to the product line … promoted to meet buyer demands for a train outfit that retailed for less than $20.” As proof, he cites the odd set numbers, stating that both 750 and 1542 were out of numerical sequence and price order.
A final point worth remembering about the 520, one that adds to the impression that Lionel wasn’t quite sure what to do with the boxcab, is that it never had its own component box. In other words, when packed inside the 750/1542 set box, the engine, like the rolling stock, was placed unboxed inside. Only a fragile cardboard insert held the 520 and the cars in place.
The 520 was not offered for separate sale in 1956, so there was no real need for it to have its own box. But a year later, when Lionel failed to use it to pull any set, it was advertised in the consumer catalog for 1957 as available for individual purchase. A box would, therefore, have been essential. Yet no such box has ever surfaced, so Lionel almost certainly decided not to offer the 520 for separate sale in that year. Then the strange boxcab disappeared from the line.
