Not model planes but a fun hobby!

[steve pagano]

Hello All,


     When i was about 9 or 10 my grandmother asked me to help her take down old boxes from the closet and while helping her i came upon a box filled with Lionel trains. They were a gift to my father from his father back about 1958 (at the time my father was 8 ) I guess my father had forgotten about them and they just sat there for about 40 years!


     I have them now in my closet and every year my father and i put them up on a lay out and add to them (mostly through ebay).


     I was wondering does any one here on the forum collect these, I'm not looking to sell, Just looking to find some info on them like exact years on them and if they could possibly be worth something?

                          T.I.A
                                -Steve

[peabody]

Hi Steve...
Windy makes videos!

[Joe Messinger]

Hello Steve,

I have the American Flyer train set that Santa (Dad) brought me on Christmas day, 1950.  I was 6 years old then.  It still makes laps around the Christmas tree every season.  Brings back lots of good memories.

There are many books available that offer information and values for Lionel trains.  Most hobby stores that sell trains have those books.  Search the internet for Lionel. Lots of info there.  Ebay has pages of Lionel trains, accesories and repair parts.  Look under "Toys & Hobbies."

Lionel is still in the model train business.  Thay also own American Flyer and produce a limited number of Flyers each year.  Most are sold to "adult" kids these days.  Youngsters are into the electronic games, I guess.  When I was a kid growing up in the 40's and 50's, electric trains were considered to be "State of the Art."

Regards,

Joe

[Bill Hodges]

Joe:

I have a Marx train set that my parents gave me for Christmas 1950.  I was five years old at the time.  Actually, it is not the same train that they gave me.  That one went who knows where many years ago.  Over a period of several months, I managed to find the exact same engine and cars on EBAY and now have all the components of the original train set and it runs.  It doesn't mean much to anyone else, but it sure brings back some good memories for me.

Bill Hodges

[Joe Messinger]

Hi Bill,

Although I somehow managed to hang on to my 1950 American Flyer train set, the engine gave up somewhere in the mid 1960's.  The train set remained inoperable and unused until the mid 80's when my 7 year old son (then) saw a friend's train set and wanted one.  That was good reason for me to fix up the old Flyer.  I located the parts I needed and read up on repairing electric trains.  Rebuilt the motor and it actually ran! 

I remember the first time I set up the track after I made the repairs.  I filled the smoke box with cedar oil.  Turned up the transformer and away it went.  What a rush of memories! The smell of cedar in the air, the clatter of the wheels on the track and the choo-choo sound from the engine.  For a moment, I was 6 years old again.  Still get a kick out of all that today. Model trains and planes seem to bring out the kid in most of us.

Regards,

Joe

[john e. holliday]

Model trains are great while the glue is drying.  I think my sister-in-law still has my American Flyer.  DOC Holliday

[Richard Entwhistle 823412]

Steve
I sold only "O" gauge trains out of my train store in Fairbanks Alaska from 1994 to 2001.  I collected a lot of the postwar Lionel from people showing up with "grandpops Train" to sell.  I would tell and show them what they were worth using the Greenberg price guide.  I would do the grading and offer 65 percent of that value so I could resell and keep the doors open.  I alway made sure to tell them to think about what they were doing.  Those were "grandpops" trains and had been in the family for 40 years or more.  If they sold them they were now my trains and they, in most cases, now had enough money to take the kids to the movies and Micky D's three or four times.  "Do you really want to sell them?"  Ninety percent said yes and the others still have the old family trains.  Keeping family trains in the family would always make me feel good.  My Christmas trains mean a lot to me.

Tell me the numbers and condition (rust and broken parts send the value way down. boxes are a big plus) and  I will value them for you.  We can get a ball park range of their worth without me seeing them.  The doctor's kids are the ones that got the high priced stuff.  Most of us got the cheap stuff.  Top of the line Lionel was expensive and still is expensive.
Later
Richard

[bill marvel]

Mine was a Pre-WWII Lionel train that I got for Christmas in 1939 or 1940.  It was a logical choice for a little boy.  My grandfather was a Frisco engineer.  My father was (at that time) a freight brakeman for Missouri Pacific.  We ran the train up through high school.  After I finished my hitch in the Air Force, my mother presented me with the train.  The engine was in excellent condition except for a side rod that was broken in the first year or two that I had it.  The tender and cars didn't survive the storage and were rusted junk.

I took the engine to a LHS that had an excellent Lionel service person.  He cleaned up the engine, lubricated it and replaced the damaged side rod.  It ran like it was new.  I gave it to my younger daughter a few years ago.  The Lionel engine is displayed on the mantle in her living room.

regards,
bill marvel

[steve pagano]

Hi Richard,

The main stuff I'm wondering about is

1. Texas special A and B unit # 2245 Mint! no box

2. Union pacific # 1065 slight rust, no coupler

3. New Haven A unit with matching ''Dummy unit'' and three cars

4. a good condition zw transformer the only problem with it is one of the lights that goes on when you plug it in is burnt.

                            -Steve

[Richard Entwhistle 823412]

Steve

Personal message sent.

Richard

[Bill Little]

I still have my '50s American Flyer *Work Train*.  It came with a 0-4-0 (IIRC) and 4 cars: Combination baggage/coach, search lit car, crane car, and work caboose.  I got an E-(??) Union Pacific diesel engine later, and I have one switch , the transformer and a whistle *box*.  Everything works now, but it could all use a good cleaning!  (I set it up at Christmas a few years ago, and it *smoked* after all these years!)

Bill <><