PREWAR PASSENGER TRAINS

[CNJRR]

LIONEL JUNIOR, #'s 1673/74/75

Save from the dump.


 

 

 

 

[pjdog350]

It’s really amazing what folks will through away. I just bought a two car set of these on ebay. They are not here yet.

Back in the mid 1980’s I way on my way to work in southeastern Louisiana. As I went by a neighbor’s a few blocks away I noticed a piece of three rail Lionel tube track sticking out of a large plastic bag. I stopped, backed up and went up and knocked on the door of the house where the bag was. It was pretty early in the morning. A lady answered the door and she was not happy. I asked if I could have the bag with the track in it. She said yes and I took it.  Went straight home and opened it up. Got many Lionel postwar cars, a 2025, and cheap alco diesel and a 726. Also a ZW transformer and two little transformers. I Louisiana it’s against the law to take trash off someone’s property! You have to ask!

That was when I first started collecting O gauge trains. That stuff in the 80’s was worth allot of money and they where in the trash.

I had a good friend that was getting divorced when I lived in Indianapolis. His soon to be X-wife put his trains in the trash. It was a postwar NY f-3 ABA. He was really upset with her. Caused allot of trouble. I thought he would end up in jail.

Your cars are real nice. Wish they where mine!

[starfire700]

In the "old days" there used to be a lot more stories of trash finds. Mine went the wrong direction. It involves the shop where my wife worked, eventually to become the shop that produced Marx Trains between 1992 and 2004.
When the owner discovered her interest in trains, he asked her about a large Lionel set from the 1930's that was dark green with passenger cars that had names of states on them. She told him that was a Lionel State Set, made about 1930 and one of the most valued sets made. He admitted that the set was his fathers, stored in the attic of the shop, and was finally thrown into the "trash" just a few months before she started to work there. He learned a valuable lesson and a respect for toy trains on that day!

[CNJRR]

Around here we used to have a junk day, toss out whatever and the town would pick it up.
We still have it, once a year you can schedule a pickup at your house.

I had a German Shepard who went everywhere with me, he took an interest in trains when I worked and ran them.
When I walked him he would stop at piles and sniff, if they had a train in them he would give me a little bark.
I guess from being around trains he sensed the odor of the train oil or smoke fluid?
I did go through those piles and picked out train items.
I guess when Grand dad passed folks didn't know what to do with his trains and toss them?

One pile we walked by the dog stopped and sniffed but didn't bark, he just looked at me.
I went thru the pile and pulled out a 101 Standard gauge bridge, complete with the box.

I will add the bridge at a later date, as I have to dig it out.
The box is not in great shape but for being maybe 100 years old it is a save of a piece of Lionel history. 
 

These were offered from 1920 - 1931.

[Terry]

I have a trash story. . .

Years ago I looked at some postwar. A Lionel Wabash F3 and some cars, accessories, and a ZW. Everything was well scratched and dirty. The loco had the battery in it and extensive corrosion. I always try to get the seller to name a price. He wouldn't, so I offered him $200.

He whipped out a page printed off the internet offering a mint boxed Wabash F3 in  the LTS carton for $3200. I said that is overporiced and you don't have the boxes and look at the different conditions. He thought I was trying to rip him off.  I left.

About a year later he called and said he'd sell me the trains. I told him I'd call the next time I was in his area. When I called he told me his wife had thrown everything out except the ZW. I'm not driving 30 miles to get a ZW so I told him to give it to goodwill.

Speaking trash on the street. We have it every 5 weeks here. It's this week. Here's a view down my driveway:

 

Some of that is me cleaning out the garage, but most is from the neighbors remodeling the house next door. My house has the same wall lamps and door knobs so I grabbed a bunch for parts. If a glass shade is broken you have to replace the whole fixture because the replacement shades don't fit. Now I can just pull a shade out of a box.   

The dog and I went through the whole development last night looking at the piles.

[Terry]

Here's another garbage story. . .

A few years ago I was on my way out the door to see the dentist when the phone rang. It was a woman saying she was cleaning out her dad's stuff and there were lots of trains. He'd worked for a train company in the 1950s, and when the closed he took everything home with him.

She said he had it all stuffed into a few rooms in the house, and she had a dump truck coming to haul it all off. I told her I'd be over as soon as I got done at the dentist.

After having my teeth cleaned I went to the house. The carport was packed with boxes of trans and crap they were pulling out of a storeroom.

It was the Laconia company in California. Laconia had bought the Binkley company a few years before. These were HO companies who made the wood kits with printed cardboard sides.

The woman told me I could take whatever I wanted. I filled the van up with boxes on the asumption I could throw it out later. Most of it was later thrown out. Some was sold on eBay. I didn't get any production records or neat paperwork. Just boxes of parts. One box had 20 pounds of diecast horns for Globe or Athearn F7 diesels.  There are still a few hundred car sides sets in the garage, but the rest is gone.

The woman gave me everything. She wouldn't take any money. Before I left she mentioned that they'd also found her dad's old Lionel.  It was a well used Lackawanna FM with some cars. I gave her $125 for the boxcar. She took the rest to the nursing home for him.

[CNJRR]

I have a trash story. . .

Years ago I looked at some postwar. A Lionel Wabash F3 and some cars, accessories, and a ZW. Everything was well scratched and dirty. The loco had the battery in it and extensive corrosion. I always try to get the seller to name a price. He wouldn't, so I offered him $200.

He whipped out a page printed off the internet offering a mint boxed Wabash F3 in  the LTS carton for $3200. I said that is overporiced and you don't have the boxes and look at the different conditions. He thought I was trying to rip him off.  I left.

About a year later he called and said he'd sell me the trains. I told him I'd call the next time I was in his area. When I called he told me his wife had thrown everything out except the ZW. I'm not driving 30 miles to get a ZW so I told him to give it to goodwill.

Speaking trash on the street. We have it every 5 weeks here. It's this week. Here's a view down my driveway:

 

Some of that is me cleaning out the garage, but most is from the neighbors remodeling the house next door. My house has the same wall lamps and door knobs so I grabbed a bunch for parts. If a glass shade is broken you have to replace the whole fixture because the replacement shades don't fit. Now I can just pull a shade out of a box.   

The dog and I went through the whole development last night looking at the piles.

My dog had the Lionel train scent nose.
He was a good old dog, looked like he was part timber wolf.
We used to hike the Appalachian trail in NJ, that crosses the Delaware river into Pa.
Many weekends were spent up in the wilds.
Plus we hiked all the side trails off the main trail.
He used to lead the way if he went around a corner in the trail and could not see me he would wait for me.
One time I rounded the corner and there were two terrified hikers frozen to the trail.
I yelled out the dogs name and he came right to me, man were they relieved ha ha ha.
They told me that they thought he was a Timber wolf.
Great views of the Gap way up high from the Jersey side.
I bet no one knows what I named him.

[CNJRR]

Now a day it is becoming harder to find discarded train items.
Today everyone thinks he has gold.

[Terry]

That's not true. There are still lots of trains out there. I had a woman give me a Lionel train and a set of K-line budd cars last month. She knew I'd find it a good home.

If you're a newer collector, the easiest way to find trains is to just tell everyone you know you're now playing with trains. Some of them will offer you trains they no longer use. That's where the 763E Hudson on my layout came from. One of my dad's business customers gave him a trunk full of trains.

I got the BuddyL loco that sits over my TV because some freinds saw it at a yard sale and went inside the owner's house and called me. (This was long before cell phones.)

Oddly, 20 years later the freind who found the BuddyL for me told me one day he wanted old sleds so he could take his grandkids sledding. Here in the AZ desert we see sleds about never, but I saw one in a garage a few days later and grabbed it for him.

The real estate agent that helped me with my house sends trains my way at least 4 times a year. He's been doing that for at least 10 years.

[CNJRR]

I was not saying that there were not trains out there, I was saying that a lot think they have gold, reflective in their pricing.
And with the internet and shows like American Pickers a lot less is being tossed to the curb.
Everything today is collectable.