The Rock Island Box Car No. 6464-175 was available in 1954 and 1955 and was typically produced on a Type I SILVER painted body with SILVER painted Single-block doors. Only the number "6464" appears on the car that has R.I. to the left and the Rock Island logo to the right. This car uses the same printing arrangement as the No. 6464-75. Came with bar-end trucks equipped with magnetic couplers. There are four variations:

Variation A: With BLACK heat-stamped lettering on a Type I body.

Variation B: With LIGHT BLUE heat-stamped lettering on a Type I body.

Variation C: With MEDIUM BLUE heat-stamped lettering on a Type I body.

Variation D: With MEDIUM BLUE heat-stamped lettering on a Type IIA body.

This car is plagued with fading of the SILVER paint that is found in many other Lionel engines and cars. Collectors will usually pay a premium for SILVER paint that is not faded.

The Overprinted 6464-50 Box

Lionel wanted the SILVER Rock Island box car to be available for the Christmas season of 1954, but they didn’t have the time to have the boxes printed. The result was that they overprinted the Minneapolis & St. Paul No. 6464-50 boxes and included them in set No. 2217WS that was headed up by a No. 682 Steam Turbine Locomotive.

Lionel would traditionally include these overprinted boxes in sets because customers were much less likely to purchase boxes that were so marked off of their dealer’s shelves. Note on the picture below the addition of the text "SILVER" on the sides of the box. Printing of the box descriptive information on the sides of the boxes ceased after 1955, and mark the dividing point between middle and late classic boxes. In addition, after this date much of descriptive information, especially on the 6464 box car series, like the road names were eliminated from the box ends.