The Lionel Trains Trailer Car No. 3460 was produced on a RED 6511-2 mold between 1955 and 1957. It came with bar-end trucks that were fastened to the frame with the use of metal plates and used magnetic couplers. In addition, the 3460 – Twin Piggy-Back Van Car was only sold with the 460 Piggyback Transportation Platform and was never offered as a separate sale item. Because the 460 Platform had poor sales in 1955, Lionel soon ended production. It is assumed the appearance of the 460 accessory in the 1956 and 1957 catalog was simply an effort to sell old inventory.
The 3460 – Twin Piggy-Back Van Car came with two Type 1 or Type 2 vans that have a decal across the front of the trailers that reads, “FRUEHAUF DURAVAN,” and another on lower right hand side that says, “FRUEHAUF.” These decals are often missing.
TYPE 1
DARK GREEN van that have removable roofs, dual rear wheels and slots for the signs. The side sans-serif “LIONEL LINES” signs were printed in BLACK ink on an ALUMINUM background. These trailer vans have two small painted RED squares on each side that were used to locate the lift truck of the No. 460. Often this RED paint has faded, or was removed by previous owners who did not know the purpose that they served. These trailer vans were used on the No. 3460 Flat Car.
Two adhesive backed embossed foil signs came with this trailer. One was embossed “FRUEHAUF / Dura Van” and mounted top center on the front end, and the other smaller “FRUEHAUF” sign mounted at the bottom on the left curved front when looking at this trailer from the front end. These signs have raised BLACK letters on a SILVER background. We are looking for a visual record of these stickers. If you have one of these vans with this sticker please use the contact link at the bottom of this page to let us know.
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TYPE 2
DARK GREEN vans that have removable roofs, dual rear wheels and slots for the signs. The side sans-serif “LIONEL LINES” signs were printed in BLACK ink on an ALUMINUM background. These trailer vans have two small painted RED squares on each side that were used to locate the lift truck of the No. 460. Often this RED paint has faded, or was removed by previous owners who did not know the purpose that they served. These trailer vans were used on the No. 3460 and No. 6430 Flat Cars.
The two embossed foil signs came with this trailer have the colors reversed from those documented in Type 1 above. These signs have raised SILVER letters on a BLACK background. As production continued of these signs the stamping of the colors became blurred and indistinct. Some of them show only the predominant color of BLACK.
Standard features of the 3460 include:
unpainted red flatcar with white lettering
bar-end trucks with two operating couplers
a brakewheel stand and four corner footsteps.
The Twin Piggy-Back Van car always included two green vans. The vans had a metal nameplate on the sides with the lettering Lionel Lines. Additionally, the front of each van contained a small sticker with Fruehauf lettering. Additionally, the vans were always the variety with a single rear axle with a single rubber tire on each end of the axle. A black metal rack was attached to the top of the flatcar to hold the vans stationary as the flatcar traveled along the rails.
The length of this flatcar is approximately 11 1/4″ long (coupler to coupler).
No Known Variations