Anyway to know how many of a certain locomotive were made?

The only ones I ever saw were the Weaver engines with the numbered certificates enclosed.

Only the Shadow knows. 

As far as Lionel production, they generally put the number on the factory ship label that a particular unit is number XXX of total # XXX. An example would look like "143 of 175". Don't know if they are still doing this, but it was fairly standard procedure until recently...(my H24-66 diesels and recent SD40 diesels do not have this info on their labels.)

D&H 65 posted:

As far as Lionel production, they generally put the number on the factory ship label that a particular unit is number XXX of total # XXX. An example would look like "143 of 175". Don't know if they are still doing this, but it was fairly standard procedure until recently...(my H24-66 diesels and recent SD40 diesels do not have this info on their labels.)

I never quite knew the rhyme-or-reason behind those "XXX of YYY" notations on the label.  However I assumed it had more to do with the number of boxes/units in a particular dealer's shipment than the grand total units in any given production run.

David

The number of units produced is proprietary information. Manufacturers don't want you or the competition to know how many units were made, except to market a product as a special limited production.

That's true in most cases in manufacturing, not just for trains.

And those shipping labels were not indicative of units made.

Tough to say. When I missed out on the a re-release of the Legacy H7 which sold out in a couple weeks. There was another run 6 months later, and I was able to purchase at a blow out price 3 months later.

With demand for some items being so high like the Lionel Hybrid EVO you cannot go on price.

I believe some of the limited items disappear quickly, like the Vision Line items, GS6's, and the PRR M1b... other hard to find items are the spin off numbers like the S-3 265 and 267.  Road specific locomotives are tough to find too. 

Then there are the elusive sets like the Legacy C&O empire builder train set...

Other over manufactured items seem to sit on the bay allot... 

Jim R. posted:

The number of units produced is proprietary information. Manufacturers don't want you or the competition to know how many units were made  ...

Back in the 1980's, I visited Madison Hardware while on a business trip to NYC.  While there, I purchased a Lionel 5712 woodside reefer which was marketed as VERY RARE, and print ads only often listed the price as "CALL FOR PRICE".  

When I inquired about the car at the store, the gentleman brought me toward the back of the store where he grabbed one from stock.  There easily must have been DOZENS in his inventory.    Suffice it to say they had plenty of them!

So much for the item being VERY RARE.     But that's how it was advertised everywhere you looked at the time.  That's when I learned all the talk about hard-to-find, rare, whatever... was usually a ruse that played into the collector mentality of the day -- only to snag a premium price from enthusiasts at a given moment in time.   Today, you can't give that car away.

Just sayin'.... do your research carefully.  Every once and awhile something truly is rare and hard to find.  But that 5712 reefer wasn't one of them. 

David

Any item becomes rare when you want it but can't find it.

NH Joe