Greatest Finds

My 'pearl of great price' came a couple of years ago when I spotted this USA Trains 1:29 scale Hudson #5344 on 'the Bay'. Have always wanted one of these and it now sits atop my mantle - all 50#s of it!

Great Picture and setting.

I have a wife who likes trains - "G" and Standard. Everything else is gravy.

@c.sam posted:

My 'pearl of great price' came a couple of years ago when I spotted this USA Trains 1:29 scale Hudson #5344 on 'the Bay'. Have always wanted one of these and it now sits atop my mantle - all 50#s of it!

Yeah, looks familiar....last year, when we visited, if I could have only figured out how to get it to the car without you knowing....

A couple of greatest finds. . .

First one was a reproduction Canadian Pacific 2373 A unit shell for $ 10 in C9 condition.  Got the sound equipped B unit and another A shell, plus an LTI A-A set so I have a Canadian Pacific ABA to go with my 11 car Canadian consist.

Second one was a reproduction Williams (early) 2341 Jersey Central Train Master.  Missing handrail stanchions - early Williams - and a cranky reverse unit.  Knew the seller; he sold it to me for $ 30.

Third one was a 6460 crane I bought from a friend for 75 cents when I was 9 years old.

My greatest find was a very rare 1941? Marx 3/16 boxed set that included the Penmsylvania stock car.  Pre-internet, that was very hard to find.  Net, of course, has solved that.

I was visiting a friend Frank in Buffalo and his brother-in-law Tom Gascoigne, who owned Buffalo Creek Graphics, came over to visit. We started talking and he then proceeded to show me a red and black A&A boxcar. I asked Tom about the history of this car, and in 2009 in preparation for the 2009 Nickle Plate Road HTS convention being held in the Buffalo area. Tom wanted to do a special boxcar for the A&A because one of the convention events was going to be riding the A&A.

For this car, instead of using Weaver undecorated boxcars Tom selected Atlas O model X-29 boxcars because that is what the A&A prototypes actually were. And thus this became the first and only B.C.G. car that used an Atlas undecorated model. The run of the cars was limited to 5, and as a result the production costs were high. Another guy named John did the artwork and graphics, and the painting was done by Weaver Models. Frank got one (which I was shown during my visit), Tom got one, one was given to George Ling (GM of the A&A railroad) and the other two were given away as raffle gifts at the convention. I offered to Tom and Frank to purchase their cars, as I collect A&A stuff, but both refused. But wait... there's more!

Fast forward to mid-November and on Ebay the red A&A boxcar showed up. It was being sold by a company in North Tonawanda. How could this be? Would Frank or Tom actually sell their models of this car a short time after I offered to purchase them and not offer me first rights? And it had scale wheels, not tinplate wheels, which was odd. Out of a 5 car run, did one of them have scale wheels? Well, I called Frank right away and we talked some more. This car wasn't his... he again repeated he would never sell his. Instead, it was Tom's car, because his was the only car with scale wheels. As it happened, Tom had previously arranged for some of his collection to be sold by an auction house before I met them all and this car was next up on the auction block. He didn't even realize. Sadly, Tom passed away only a few months later.

But, this is probably the rarest car in my collection as only 5 were made, and only one was produced with scale wheels. For more on my other rare A&A cars: https://dandhcoloniemain.blogs...rare-arcade-and.html

Excellent thread.  It's very similar to the "Centerpiece" thread that @c.sam posted a few weeks ago:

    What is Your 'Centerpiece'? (1/21/23) | c.sam

But's it's not exactly the same.  This a nice alternative view.

Thanks @Lionel/MTH Railroader for starting it.

Mike

One of my greatest finds is, without a doubt, my JAD Lines Hiawatha. Since G-Scale has already been presented, I'm assuming a little latitude will be allowed here.

Back in the 70s, my Dad and I visited the home of the late Bob Hornish; he had a beautiful tinplate layout with T-Rail O-Gauge track and wide-radius Standard-Gauge track that he made himself, using O-72 rails and Standard-Gauge ties. No one was producing wide-radius SG curves when he built his layout, so he made his own. While we were there, he had a Standard-Gauge Hiawatha running on the layout, and I was taken by it as I had never seen one before. It looked just like the Lionel prewar Hiawatha, only a lot bigger; quite a sight for a boy of 8 or 9 years old. Fast forward to 2004 at York, and I went to Bob's table to introduce myself to him. He said, "I remember you; you and your Dad came to visit." After a brief conversation, I asked him if he still had that SG Hiawatha, and he said, "Yes. It's for sale if you're interested." We worked out a deal, agreed on a price, and I picked it up from him 6 months later at the next York meet. So, not only am I the proud owner of a somewhat rare modern Standard Gauge item, but it is the same one I saw as a kid.

My collection started 55 years ago, so there are several pearls.

1. Back around 1979, a little hobby shop in New Hampshire yielded a gray 641 American Flyer gondola for only $4.

2. Five years ago, the collection of a deceased American Flyer collector yielded a gold plated 1946 Hudson.

3. Last year a seller on the forum sold me an S gauge American High Rail Hiawatha class A Atlantic and four cars. A beautiful set!

4. Around the same time, eBay yielded a standard gauge JAD Hiawatha Atlantic and three cars. Anybody have a fourth car to sell?

I have been very lucky in my train collecting.

My greatest find was the trains I ran as a kid.  One day back in 1989 I went to visit my great uncle.  In his kitchen were several boxes I recognized.  They were the boxes we stored the 2 train sets I grew up with.  When I inquired what he was doing with them, "I am throwing them out" he replied.  As I recall, trash day was the next morning.  I told him I would take them and he objected, "they are junk" he said.

Thirty + years later... Christmas morning, 2022.

The 671rr and its original consist as my dad ran it back on Christmas morning 1952 when he got it.

A couple of things that come to mind that are "great finds" from a couple of different perspectives:

1.  Just this past weekend, I picked up a really-hard-to-find MTH Hurricane Katrina Kennywood car for a lot less than people usually ask for the regular Kennywood (park exclusive) rolling stock.  I had only ever seen pictures of it, and have never seen it on eBay, and I certainly never thought I would own one.

2.  About 10 years ago or so, around the time I first started selling at York, I was looking for Weaver custom run Apache Powder outside braced boxcars.  I had one of the three road numbers that were made, but a few years of searching only turned up the one I already had.  I was sitting at my tables during a slow time with not much to do (my brother was out wandering around), so I started looking around at tables close to mine.  After a bit, I sat back down, and as I did, I noticed a handful of Weaver boxes above standing eye level on top of a pile of boxes on the table directly across from me.  Sure enough, two of them were the exact two Apache Powder cars I was looking for, and at a great price even before the "friendly neighbor" discount.

Andy

@Andy Hummell, great finds! I'm still missing Apache # 1311 myself. If I can find that and Hayden Mills # 91344 I will have all the GPD boxcars that were made.

One of the guys in my club and another guy who's a work friend that's a big train collector told me about an antique store that had a section with a ton of modern O gauge equipment. I checked it out around Christmas time and found this old 2005 Proto 2 Christmas Hudson for $175... All it really need is a new headlight as it's current one is close to burning out but other than that this thing is an excellent runner and I'm just mad it's a Christmas engine as I can only bring it out during a limited time of the year.

There are several "finds" in my collection, all were "great" at the time I found them, but I am sure I will find more. 

Here is my 2020 birthday present to myself.

3 factory sealed American Flyer prewar accessories

And the 4th one that the seller opened

NWL

@Tony_V posted:

My greatest find was the trains I ran as a kid.  One day back in 1989 I went to visit my great uncle.  In his kitchen were several boxes I recognized.  They were the boxes we stored the 2 train sets I grew up with.  When I inquired what he was doing with them, "I am throwing them out" he replied.  As I recall, trash day was the next morning.  I told him I would take them and he objected, "they are junk" he said.

Thirty + years later... Christmas morning, 2022.

The 671rr and its original consist as my dad ran it back on Christmas morning 1952 when he got it.

Same 671rr set I received in 1952.  Purchased at Joske's in San Antonio.  Carried it home on my lap sitting in the back seat of my grandmothers 1935 Ford Sedan with my mother constantly saying, 'do not open the box'.

1. A Maerklin Maxi flat car for $20 from a store in Kentucky.

2. Various train sets (1954 Lackawanna FM Train Master set, Prewar #224 loco set, ZW transformer; Marx 666 loco and cars; Black top Flying Yankee set) from clients who knew I liked trains. They wanted to get them to a grateful home. It helped I had trains in display in my office.

Mark

Around Thanksgiving I bought this Right of way B&O 2-6-6-2

8369 Lionel Erie Lackawanna (1983-85)

My best find is this 8369 Lionel Erie Lackawanna diesel with dual motor eight wheel drive. This beast has no problem pulling a 14 car consist. Picked it up in a box of junk trains for $35. The original owner said it would probably never run again but might be good for some parts. After cleaning the mud, hair and tinsel out of it and replacing the broken couplers it became one of my best runners and my favorite locomotive to run.