The Lionel Boston & Maine FA No. 217 was produced in 1959 on a BLUE body that was painted BLACK with a WHITE stripe at the roof line. It was equipped with a light in the A unit, but did not have a horn. A three position directional unit whose control lever was adjustable from the top of the body controled the direction of this diesel. A single vertical worm drive Type IIC motor powers two axles that utilized Magnetraction. The lettering was heat-stamped on these units and the sheet metal chassis have solid non-operating couplers. The BLUE color of the plastic is susceptible to fading when exposed to direct sunlight and will turn a shade of TEAL. This accounts for the only variation:

Variation B: TEAL BLUE color on one of the units. This variation has mis-matched colored pairs and has been found to exist this way from the factory.

All of the Lionel Alco FA units are designed to work on the tighter radius of O27 gauge track, but they will run equally well on O gauge track.