The Gang Car No. 50 was first produced in 1954 and was a big hit with Lionel’s customers. The unit would run in only one direction depending on where the sliding directional plate on the unit was located. When it came to the end of the track, and struck a bumper, the plate would move, and the unit would reverse direction until it hit another bumper at the other end of the track. The crew man closest to the rear of the unit would also move when it reversed direction. The Gang Car would do this perpetually until the power was turned off.

Most typically found with an ORANGE plastic body and top brush plate with DARK BLUE heat stamped lettering, ornamental horn and three rubberized crew members seated on top.

Because this unit was in production for eleven years many variations occurred. The major variations are:

Variation A: Has a centered two-piece horn, fixed position crew men are OLIVE and rotating crew man is DARK BLUE. This is the earliest production in 1954 that has GRAY bumpers.

Variation B: Identical to Variation A but has the more commonly found BLUE bumpers.

Variation C: Has the centered two-piece horn, however the fixed crew men are DARK BLUE and the rotating crew man is OLIVE.

Variation D: Has a one-piece horn that is positioned to the right side of the brush plate, BLUE bumpers, and fixed crew men that are DARK BLUE and the rotating crew man is OLIVE. This is the most common variation.

Variation E: Identical to Variation D except with inverted "L" shaped bumper plate.

Many different instruction sheets were issued over the eleven year span of production of the gang car. Below we’ve shown one from 1960: page 1, page 2, and page 3.

Note: The number "50" does not always appear printed on the side of these units. There was only one electrical center rail pick-up on this motorized unit so it would not negotiate switches or crossovers at a slow speed.