Well Tinplate fans, Fatman has introduced you to his latest finds,both fabulous like the HWN carriages and the Kirbi destination board and the less fabulous, Louis Roussy engine. With his opening, I feel I can present my also NOT fabulous Lionel passenger outfit #98 from what appears to be 1925 or1928 or both (It is a mixed bag). I purchased this outfit at a very reasonable price from photo's (Lesson learned, don't do this ). It appeared to be the 1925 outfit 98 with a green 253 loco and two green 610 Pullmans and a green 612 observation. When I got it home and was able to closely examine it I found that the engine has a strap headlight which does date it to NLT 1925 if it is correctly green - OK so far. Now my loco is also missing one strap light and one pantogaph, which came with it but I have yet installed it. However the cars I discovered have Type 5b trucks with rectangular support bars to fasten the light pickup which were not introduced until 1928. So the cars and the engine are of a slightly different vintage...well not too serious. Then comes the big problem, If you have 1928 trucks and are the 1928 set you can't be green because that is the color from 1925...so you are the wrong color! You are supposed to be Mojave not Green. Now the cars and the loco as far as external bodies are concerned are in fine shape ...so I begin to look carefully at the paint. What I discover after removing the roofs and exposing the interiors to intense inspection is that the inside of the car is (or used to be) ...guess what Mojave! So the cars have been re-painted green at some point in their life. Perhaps to match the loco??? So I have a 1925 green loco with strap headlight and 1928 cars that used to be Mojave but have been repainted green. Well at least the make up of the outfit is OK...outfit 98 with the 253 engine and two 610 Pullmans and a 612 observation was offered from 1925 to 1928. Its just my parts were not made at the same time and someone decided to match the color. The cars are lighted as they were supposed to be and one even had a "gift" for me...an ancient Christmas tree light bulb in the socket (you know those old pyramid shaped bulbs with the creases in them...from the strings where if one bulb went out the entire string went dark ). However most of them are missing the "frosted" plastic window inserts. OBTW the paint job was well done, it is obvious that the trim pieces were removed before painting and they are intact and the paint is smooth with no runs or over spray, so whoever did it was skilled. However he did cover over the rubber stamping which should read "The Lionel Lines" in black over the windows. SO....long story!
Here is my 1925 or 1928 Lionel outfit 98 that is the wrong color...WOW you don't get too much worse than that!
Well the collector in me is horrified...but the operator in me is happy. I have an early Lionel passenger set that looks fine going around my layout .... even if it is the wrong color...
Don
