The Silver Dawn Observation Car No. 2531 was produced from 1952 until 1960. There are left and right side people silhouette inserts on the interior of the windows. It came with Type VIII die-cast four-wheel passenger trucks equipped with magnetic couplers. This extruded aluminum observation car has SILVER painted end top and skirt and vestibule end. The variety of ways that Lionel used to attach the name plates account for most of the variations, of which there are six:

Variation A: Ribbed channeled car with the name plates attached by hex head screws.

Variation B: Ribbed channeled car with the name plates attached by small SILVER rivets.

Variation C: Ribbed channeled car with the name plates attached by large SILVER rivets.

Variation D: Ribbed channeled car with the name plates attached by large BLACK rivets.

Variation E: Ribbed channeled car with the name plates glued to the sides.

Variation F: Flat channeled car with the name plates glued to the sides.

This car was designed to work on the larger radius of O gauge track only.