items found while taking trash to the dumpster.

Interesting find. How many hudreads of thousands of collectibles of one type or another are buried in the dump? Too many to count. Nice of you to offer to museum...very nice indeed. 

A Lionel Blue Streak was found in dump here  few years ago.   I gave it a tidy up, the motor only needed cleaning & oiling.   I did need to get a replacement cab (as usual).  It runs very well and looks great.

 

I have found baseball cards, model car kits and Hot Wheels in dumpsters, but never trains, doggone it!

 

A buddy who worked on municipal garbage trucks did pick a Lionel 1666 in good running condition off the top of a can once.  No tender though. 

 

And a (late) train repairman/dealer friend once saw a complete boxed Flyer set on top of a can.  He went up to the house and offered to pay for it, but was told, "No, just take it.  We don't want it anymore."

Glad to see there are fellow "dumpster divers" on the forum.  Nice find!  You might discover the old stock certificates are worth more that you think.

 

 

Don

I have found some H.O. train track in dumpsters in the past, one time some N gauge tracks, but never an O or S gauge train. Once I found an H.O. race car set in a dumpster, the tracks were decent but the cars were in need of repairs(Tyco HP-2's?).

 

A freind of mine gave me some old 027 track his wife found in the trash, was good for just scrap metal, too rusted.

 

Lee F.

This sound's like the beginning of a great thread. C'mon guys and gals, drop the online stuffiness and let your hair (if you still have any) down. I'll be the first to admit to having done my share of dumpster diving and have found some neat toys. Let's hear from you on any found treasures.

Dumpster diving is sometime worth. Years ago when I managed an apartment project a new maintenance man I had hired, freah out of HS, got 90% of the items in his apartment from what tenants were throwing away, including a 27"color tv. I still check out things at the side of the road. Getting too old to climb in those dumpsters today.

One of my friends in graduate school admitted to dumpster diving to feed her kids.  If you like train parts, might want to hang around here and wait to see if I croak before my spouse.  I told her to junk it all.

I hope she was selling the stuff to get money to feed the kids, rather than just feeding the dumpster stuff to the kids directly.

Years ago when I was in the army near Ft. Knox, a couple that I got to know went thru Kroger's dumpsters and got day old products that Kroger threw out. How else do you feed three children when foodstamps don't give you enuff?

 

Sometimes when people move away or get tax refunds, their old stuff hits the dumpsters. Even a chandelier was thrown out, needed some re-wiring but otherwise in very good condition, this happened at my parents condo.

 

Lee F.

when our home was being built the construction company would throw away all sorts of plywood , 2x4's and wire. I took advantage and built most of the benchwork from the discarded wood. Money not spent on benchwork = more money to spend on trains.