The Searchlight Car No. 6520 was built on a cast metal depressed center chassis that were painted GRAY with BLACK rubber-stamped sans-serif lettering "3650 LIONEL LINES 3650." The DARK GRAY searchlight housing was held in place on the car by a RED magnetic base, that could be placed beside the car as the cable was cranked out from the RED cable reel that was located in the center of the car. The crank that worked the cable reel is often missing. This car came with two brake wheels, bar-end trucks equipped with tabbed couplers and was available from 1956 until 1959.

There are two variations: Variation B has a LIGHT GRAY painted chassis, and Variation C has a OLIVE DRAB painted chassis. These variations are harder to find.