Ives 3253 Set (Now with Picture)

Hello,

Interesting coincidence I just acquired a 3253 set in orange with a 129 Saratoga coach, a 130 Buffet, and a 132 Observation car. The 3253 was made from 1919 to 1925. The wheels on mine are spoked, painted brown. All the 3253 Locomotives I have seen have spoked wheels.  The cars are Lithographed and are what the Ives Historical Society calls the 130 cars 6th series manufactured from 1923 to 1928. More specifically mine are Circa 1924-1925 - Orange body and roof, M style trucks without journals. About 1927 these style and these number cars ( 130 series ) came with brass journals on their trucks and they were made with journals until the end about 1930. (1929 and 1930 were the 7th series of these cars ) 

If you are familiar with the Ives Historical Society web site you can find a lot of great information there, and in addition there are a numerous photos of these cars in the various series and configurations. If you are not familiar with the site here is a link

  http://www.ivestrains.org

As for whether or not this was a high end O gauge train set, I would say yes it was.

Hope this is helpful to you. Please tell us more about your set. 

Enjoy

Frank  

Thanks for your help. In speaking of observation cars, I also found a 129 Saratoga observation car in olive green with journal boxes. I will be able to find out more later this month.

Got the Ives set today. Runs great too!

Very nice!  A really classic set, and very nice in olive, I must say.  Smart acquisition.

Great looking Ives train there 2056.

I can imagine her zipping around the track....

Thanks guys! I have to say that the olive green is a very nice color. Just for fun, I was looking to see if they made an olive baggage car, but it seems that Ives never did. I didn't expect for it to run through O-27 curves so well!

I believe you are right, the 131 baggage was only in orange 1924-1930, although I could be wrong about that.  Your 130 Buffet car is doing double duty as a baggage carrier, so you're okay there.   However, there was a 132 Observation car that matches your olive set that you could look for if you were so inclined.  There's nothing lacking about the set the way it is, though.  The cars and loco all seem to match nicely both in color and in degree of wear.  They are pretty compact cars, they'll have no trouble on the tighter curves.

Funny thing is, that I also got a 129 Saratoga observation with journals for it. I did notice on the Ives Website that there was a 132 without journals, which matches this set.