The Lionel Gondola Car No. 6142 was issued from 1963 to 1966 and again in 1969. All of these gondola cars have the detailed under carriage and have a cast in brake wheel. The body mold that was used was No. 6112-86. See No. 6042 for a detailed view of this under carriage.

Lionel used a number of different shades of plastic for these cars and they assigned individual suffixes to these variations that are listed below. The lettering was in WHITE and was imprinted with a heat-stamp. Issued with both AAR and Arch-Bar trucks these cars usually have one operating disc coupler and one solid non-operating coupler. When Lionel included a load with these cars this load usually consisted of unmarked RED or WHITE canisters or ORANGE cable reels.

There are eight variations:

Variation A: BLACK body and listed in the Lionel Service Manual as No. 6142-25. Load consisted of two unmarked WHITE or RED canisters.

Variation B: GREEN body with no lettering and was listed in the Lionel Service Manual as No. 6142-50. This car did not come with a load.

Variation C: TRANSLUCENT GREEN body with no lettering.

Variation D: BLUE body that was cataloged as No. 6142-75.

Variation E: GREEN body that was cataloged as No. 6142-100.

Variation F: BLUE body that was cataloged as No. 6142-125. This car came without a load.

Variation G: BLUE body that was cataloged as No. 6142-150. Load is two ORANGE cable reels.

Variation H: OLIVE body with no lettering. Listed in the Lionel Service Manual as No. 6142-175.