Here's a set I've never heard of before that includes a loco that I've never seen before. There is a picture of a similar loco in the latest Greenberg O gauge book.
Outfit 1296 Special with a Macy's Sticker on it. Cars and loco are not marked for Macy's. This is a GORGEOUS set. It doesn't appear to have been run much.
Here's the box and the paperwork. The locobox is a 252 box that was printed for a different colored loco and was overstickered. Note that there is a second square of tape over a red letter on the top edge label end. Maybe this was a 252E box?
Here's the paperwork. Generic transformer instructions, a blue layout sheet, and the instruction booklet.
I think this set is from 1932. Lionel started using this busy set box label in 1929, the bottom half of the box is labeled 294B which was a 252 in olive with matching 529/529/530 cars made in 1929 and '30. The instructions book and paperwork are not dated, but the instruction book back cover offers The Lionel Magazine with a 400E on the cover. The 400E was new in 1931. The loco and car boxes all show a type B transformer which was new in 1932. In 1933 Lionel started using the Ex-IVES trucks with two triangles on the side in place of these trucks with the single large rectangle.
Here's another photo of the set:
I still have the regular cataloged versions of this set and will post pictures in the near future of them for comparison.
