Introductions

[Terry]

New members introduce yourself here.

I'll start.

My name is Terry Gibbs. I currently collect Lionel trains made before 1925. My dad, Cole Gibbs, got his trains out when my older brother was born in 1961 and never put them away. He started buying trains and adding to the layout. I grew up with walls of train shelves.

My dad sold the postwar trains when I was 12 to concentrate on prewar Lionel. He joined TCA in 1977 when I was 14, and we went to the TCA convention in Texas.

Over the next 30 years my dad and I attended many train meets all over the country. We built a large collection of prewar tinplate. We collected variations, and had much of the Lionel production from 1925-42.

After my dad died in 2008, I sold much of the collection to concentrate on the earlier trains. I kept some standard gauge brass trim trains made between 1924 and 35 and O gauge nickel trim trains from 1935-42 to play with.

Today I collect only Lionel trains made before 1925. I'm still putting the trains out in my new house, but here's pictures of some O gauge trains, and a few of my standard gauge 33 locos.

[romiin]

Hi all!  Great story Terry, love your collection.  New to the site, I got an invitation in the box, with a great 831 lumber car I bought from jdpltd  . Never got a first name, but sure appreciated how well it was packaged.  I tried to pick a user name train related, so went with Loco.  I haven't played with trains for approximately 50 years, (dating myself right there).  I bought a fairly rough set on ebay for a display piece, It is prewar small cars. I will be able to name the cars by number as I get more educated on these great little trains. I'm hooked, lol.  I knew so little about them,   I ordered a prewar caboose 817, and didn't realize it was twice as big as the set I got. It was a great mistake, because I love the bigger cars, just ordered a 810 crane to go with that caboose, I need a bigger locomotive to match.
   I haven't got any track yet still working on buying some cars. I bought a 253 locomotive and three passenger cars from a fellow locally. I'll post some pictures when I figure that out. Looking forward to participating on the site, probably ask more questions than answering them.
  If your looking for suggestions for the site, I would love to see a forum on paint restoration. I might try to restore some cars, some I will leave original. Thanks for the invite, and thanks to the people that make this site possible.  Loco

[starfire700]

Hi Loco, this is Jim of JDPLTD. I sent you the invitation to the forum and info on our YouTube videos in the package with your 831 lumber car. I try to pack items like I would want someone to pack something he was sending to me. Welcome to the Forum, and check-out my Youtube videos when you get a chance. Just published a Winter Holiday Special.
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCUfhIqTj6nbDLmY3rXzvn7g
Above is a hyperlink, easy way to find the videos.

For those who appreciate early Lionel O Gauge, my 156X, 610, 612, maroon outfit No 169 is shown running in the Winter Holiday Video that I just published. 

[romiin]

Thanks for the welcome Jim.  Wouldn't hesitate to buy from you again. I will check out your video's. Thanks for doing what you do. Loco

[starfire700]

My history, in condensed form, is I got my first train in 1955, a Lionel 2338 freight set. Started "collecting" prewar Lionel in the early 1970's, joined LCCA, TCA and TTOS, went to most conventions and TCA York shows until the early 2000's. My wife Debby and I licensed and produced tinplate Marx Trains from 1991 to 2004, then sold the company. Now we are retired, live on the lake in KY. I have recently shifted my emphasis from collecting to operating, and do so in front of a GoPro camera, to share my collection through video stories with anyone interested. Welcome to the Forum!

[early0electric]

Check out "In the Beginning" under Collector Corner for more info.

Mike

[starfire700]

Right, that is the best place for history.

[pjdog350]

Hello everyone. I'm pjdog350 (jack). I've been running Lionel trains sense 1948. My father gave me my first Lionel  train December 25 1948. It was a 224. It took 4 or 5 days before I got to play with it my train finally when my mother told my father to give the kid a chance. A couple years later I got a 2026 that smoked. I still have them and they still work great. My father bought my uncle Dick a Lionel Jr streamliner in 1937 (red & Chrome). My uncle gave it to me in the late 1940's. Somehow the Jr got lost in one of my many moves. So I bought one from Train99 the other day a got a notice that this forum was here and ask that I join.

I have lots of O gauge trains mostly post war but I do have some modern Lionel & MTH. I have a small layout in my garage. Most mornings you will find me out in the garage working on or running my Trains. I should say that I'm a toy person. I've had Radio control almost everything. Even submarines.  But my real thing are the Lionel Trains.

I love to find a beat up something and restore it as best I can. Currently I restoring two Lionel Jr streamliners.

Jack

[Terry]

Welcome aboard!

The 1700 you bought from me is a rarer one with the aluminum nose. I got my first one at the 1977 TCA convention for $35. At one time I had all of them. I remember the rush of buying the yellow and brown one. It was beat badly, but so rare I'd never seen one. Those are fun little trains.

[CNJRR]

 Hello all.
Came across the site while searching Prewar.
I guess the forum is fairly new?
Reading some posts I see no dates to go with them. Why is that?
I have G scale for under the tree, a bunch of O scale in my basement. (on a small layout).
A bunch of HO, all packed away for many years now.
And a bunch of N scale I got in a deal, along with a small N scale layout.
Oh, I have one S scale locomotive too. 
I did have another but gave it to a friend.

 

[Terry]

We started in late April or early May 2020.

The idea was this would fill in for the inabilty to go to train meets. Right now the majority of posts are about Lionel trains from before 1925 because that's what the people I know collect. Hopefully as time goes by, more people with other interests will join.

I have a New One CNJ camelback imported by GHC on the table downstairs. It's oversize for HO and I was thinking I could widen the drivers and run it on the 00 layout, but I think it's too small. The same thing was imported in the 1950s by Polk's under the Aristocraft brand.

[CNJRR]

The more Prewar the better, the older too.
There are not too many sites for Prewar info.

Someone started a site and a few of us got it going by adding pictures and fixes.
Then after a year the guy who started it went AWOL.
After some internet sleuthing we found his email and emailed him.
Still wouldn't answer the emails, someone found his phone number and got a hold of his sister.
She said he just lost interest and abandoned the site.
We did try to buy the site but he didn't want to sell, don't know why it was strange the way he just went MIA.
We all were making the site come alive.

I have little Prewar. I am mainly Postwar, I have very little new fangled electronic trains.
Most of mine are saves from the dumps or buy and fix it's.

[starfire700]

This forum is dominantly Prewar Lionel, because that is the main interest of the early members. We have been trying to expand into postwar LL, American Flyer, Marx, Ives and others, but need the help of new members to make their contributions of information, experiences and pictures.

[cndctr111]

Hello my name is Dino and I live in Rhode Island,
     I'm delighted to be labeled a "newbie" here because I just turned 60. I only started collecting Marx around 2014 or so. When I was young, my dad had an inexpensive Marx 400 set with about 6 tin litho cars and a few basic Plasticville structures. I don't ever recall seeing it in operation as a child, but my older brothers did. As a youngster I was an avid model builder and accumulated well over 100 by the time I became more interested in other things (driving cars & girls). I did set up that train set when I was 13 or so, it was a basic 4x8 layout, and I used the same plywood that my dad used the last time he set it up. The thing I remember was he let me do it all on my own, I guess he had enough faith in me.
     When he passed in 1993 I inherited that set. By that time I had been married 10 years, had a 4 year old daughter with a son on the way. Those trains remained boxed all through my first marriage, followed me for 10 years as a divorcee, and was still boxed in my second marriage, never assembled since the last time I put it together when I was 13 or so.
     Then one pivotal day I believe around 2014, my darling wife Lori asked that infamous question, "when are you going to get those trains out of those boxes and set that thing up?" Within days I did so, and set up a 4x8 layout similar to what I remembered when I was younger. Do you know that Marx 400 locomotive, though sluggish, ran on the first attempt after being boxed for over 40 years, with the original transformer!
    And then of course as we all know there was no going back.  I read about collecting and scenery and discovered Ebay! My old layout came down, I took over an entire room in my basement, started collecting and you know the rest.
     I learned to repair just about any issue with any Marx train through trial and error, YouTube and my bootleg copy of Repair Manual for Marx Trains by Dr. Julio Castillo.  I have slowed down a bit with the collections though, the one's I don't have are hard to get or very $$. But I have loved every minute of the work and play that I have put into this hobby and continue to do so. I'm so fortunate to have a wife that understands my passion for this hobby as well. As she always says "I always know where to find you."  The best part is she can never blame me, it was her fault that I got back into this hobby in the first place!

I'm blessed and honored to be part of this group,

Dino Ferro, Feb. 2021

[early0electric]

Great to have you. My wife would have said "When are you going to get RID of those trains?" Just kidding!

Mike