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Lionel 220 Floodlight Car with Serif Lettering Here is a strange car that has no evidence that it has ever been fooled with. Nor has it ever been waxed. I have owned a lot of floodlight cars and rewired many. This requires taking the Green floodlight base off of the frame. This car has never been apart. What's so strange? The rubber-stamped lettering is in Serif font, not Sans-Serif (no tails). The literature says that all Floodlight Cars have sans-serif lettering. Not true. The frame is sprayed Black, not dipped. It has a satin-gloss finish rather than a gloss finish and there are no runs in the paint. Here are a bunch of photos with commentary. The car came with this undated box. The tape is the last pre-war style. The car is in beautiful condition.

Here is an end view of the box and car.

Note the serif lettering. Also note the bottom-most center of the Green base. You can see part of the tab that holds the base to the frame. You cannot unbend these six base tabs and reassemble the car without losing the paint on the bend point of the tab. This car has full paint on all six tab bend points.

Here is the underside showing the original Lionel wiring. It is getting stiff. The couplers are original and their latch springs still work.

Here is a close-up of the wiring.

Here is a shot where you can see the tops of all three tabs on this side of the Green base. Cars that have been apart exhibit a tiny Silver streak at the three tab bend points. This car does not have these streaks.

Note the factory flattening of the brake wheel rod. You cannot get the brake wheels off without squeezing out most of this flattening. When you put it back together, the flattening never looks bone-stock original like this car. Also the brake stand and coupler pockets look like factory installations.

Here is the other end. This car has never been taken apart.

If you are still skeptical, here is another Serif-lettered 220 that was listed on eBay Nov. 2, 2002. The auction listing was an original owner, complete nickel-trim 400E Work Train with a Yellow 219 derrick. My Serif 220 and box are in much better condition. Subsequently I've seen a third Serif car.