The Lionel Lines Searchlight Car No. 6520 was available from 1949 until 1951. Produced on a die-cast metal depressed center flat car chassis that is painted LIGHT GRAY with BLACK rubber-stamped serif lettering "6520 LIONEL LINES 6520" on the car sides. The searchlight could be remotely turned off and on with the use of a No. 6019 or UCS remote control operating track section. The car has one brake wheel that is located opposite the searchlight and there are steps at the four corners. These steps are often found broken. This car came equipped with staple-end trucks that have magnetic couplers.

In addition to the variations that are listed below, there were other distinctions like the color of the fiber switch unit that would allow the light to be turned off, and the finish of the searchlight housing. There are three types of searchlight housing:

  1. Crinkled DARK GRAY finish. This is the most common.
  2. Smooth glossy GRAY finish. Relatively Scarce.
  3. Smooth glossy BLACK finish. This is a rare variation.

The variations listed below have to do with the color of the generator. Note: These generators, and to lesser extent the searchlight themselves are easily changed.

There are six variations:

Variation A: GRAY generator (production prototype).

Variation B: TAN generator (production prototype).

Variation C: GREEN generator with smooth glossy BLACK searchlight housing.

Variation D: GREEN generator with either style of GRAY searchlight housing.

Variation E: MAROON generator with either style of GRAY searchlight housing.

Variation F: ORANGE generator with either style of GRAY searchlight housing.

There are two instruction sheets for this searchlight car. The first, No. 6530-23 RDEX 5-49, was printed in 1949 and the secont No. 6530-23 QDEX 5-50 was printed one year later. We’ve shown pictures of front and back pages of the 1950 instruction sheet below. Both were printed with BLACK ink on WHITE paper. If you have any information concerning other instruction sheets for this operating car we would like to hear from you. Please use the "Contact" link at the bottom of this page.