Let's see some complete vintage sets!

Jim,  that NP 'North Coats Ltd' was my dream set. Only ever saw one under a Christmas tree in a bank lobby in New Orleans when I was a boy...

Putnam Division posted:

A few more PostWar sets......

Marx from about 1955....

From 1957....

The steam set in the front is an Abraham & Strauss department store special set from about 61.....

Peter

What a NEAT little train set! Love those little litho FM's!  Such simplicity, yet altogether enchanting!

Now THIS is a fun thread!

Andre

Came across these two from the original owner about a year ago. The UP '50th Anniversary Set' is an all-time favorite. The Alco Texas Special is especially nice - the locos are shiny and almost Like New. I may offer this set on the FS board soon if anyone is interested. No display room anymore...

Someone donated these two sets to the club awhile back. The UP M1000 Tinplate is of unknown origin (I don't remember) and the Gilbert NH Alco PA set is somewhat uncommon.

c.sam posted:

Someone donated these two sets to the club awhile back. The UP M1000 Tinplate is of unknown origin (I don't remember) and the Gilbert NH Alco PA set is somewhat uncommon.

The UP streamlined is prewar Marx.

Steve

Lionel Set #1523 from 1954

Here are a few of my older set.

These are the most "vintage" sets I have.  In the rear is the Lionel #1700 streamliner set that my grandfather bought for his elaborate Christmas layout during the depths of the Depression.  I never saw the fabled layout, but my mother and her sisters told me about it in the most glowing terms for years.  The power unit and two trailing cars are in near-mint condition, since Granddad was very careful about taking care of them -- to the extent of not letting his three girls handle them!  For some reason, when I tracked it down, the pickup slider shoes were missing, but once I installed replacements, it ran like new.:

On the bottom is my father's set, a Christmas present in, I believe, 1929.  The #252 locomotive came to me dismembered and thoroughly dead, in a shoebox that my mother nearly threw away.  I put a lot of time into restoring it, and now it gets run every Christmas.

95% of what I put on the shelves were complete, catalogued sets.

American Flyer set 1227. Picked the set up from a forum member. The set had mostly Marx track in it. Did some research and found at what track configuration should be. Had all the banked pieces already, but had to buy the switches and 45 degree crossing.

Steve

Not sure if this counts a mono rail from Woolworths approx. 1960's

My recently acquired pw 400 and 404 Budd sets.

What a great topic !!  I have a few sets that I've wanted to show off but not sure how to go about it.  Now that I know, I'll begin with a real oldie. 

I didn't even know this was a set until I had the good fortune a few weeks ago to read the section about the 152 locomotive in Greenburg's new O Gauge book.  IT's a 152 locomotive with an 800 box car and 801 caboose that I'm refurbishing for a friend.  

The locomotive has to be from 1924, given that it is dark green with a type 4 motor.  According to Greenberg, this is Outfit 261 that was cataloged in 1924.

I'll also show another 152 that I am restoring.  This locomotive has an unusual combination of features that indicates it must have been early 1918 production using a left over frame from 1917.

  It has a type 4 motor which was first produced in 1917.  Look very closely at the photo and you can see that the coupler has the rivet attachment.  In 1918, this was replaced by a coupler attached with a bent tab.  Thus an impossible engine unless we assume 1918 production with an old frame.

And finally, here is a closeup of the 152 that shows the decals.

Putnam Division posted:

A few more PostWar sets......

From 1956:

Marx from about 1955....

From 1957....

The steam set in the front is an Abraham & Strauss department store special set from about 61.....

Peter

The LV  44 Tonner set was my first train set as well. I have about ten different 44 Tonner engines now.

American Flyer set #5. Picked it up from a friend a few weeks before he passed.

Steve

Steve "Papa" Eastman posted:

American Flyer set 1227. Picked the set up from a forum member. The set had mostly Marx track in it. Did some research and found at what track configuration should be. Had all the banked pieces already, but had to buy the switches and 45 degree crossing.

Steve

What a nifty layout!

Here are some of my Lionel Postwar sets in action as they appeared in the catalogs. TJ

Wow!  That is awesome.  A bunch of really nice postwar sets in action.  I enjoyed that immensely.

TonkaNut posted:

Here are some of my Lionel Postwar sets in action as they appeared in the catalogs. TJ

Outstanding! Could watch that all day.

Here is my Lionel 1527 set. On the outside box, it was marked, "1955 Outfit".

I received it for Christmas in 1955.

Here's the same set - one year later

My train book posted:

Here are a few of my older set.

LOL! These sets ARE VINTAGE... as requested by the O.P.!

Lionel 2150WS from 1950 with a 681 turbine and passenger cars

Lionel 1513S from 1954 (my grandfathers childhood set)

I don't know much about American Flyer, but based on circumstances I think this might be a a set. It was given to my father's family by a relative way back when.  Not a great runner, but at nice shelf queen.

One more view of my former office with the shelves of sets, this time at Christmas time. This is the one that made it into the December 2009 issue. 

pennsy484 posted:

I don't know much about American Flyer...

Me neither... except I know I like them! That's a handsome engine!

I could definitely be interested in AF if there was only a connection for me of some sort. When I was but a lad, none of my friends had them (they had Lionel or Marx 3-rail), and I had a Marx 3-rail set way back in my elementary years, so I simply wasn't around AF in order to be smitten with them at the time.

So, though I can oooo and ahhhh when I see them (like your set) or pick one up with my hands to take a better look at a train meet... I don't "feel" 'em. (Does that make sense?)

Not so when I pick up a Postwar steam engine, or a set of PW Alco FA's: Instant connection. The good 3-rail memories waft through my mind and I'm a kid again.

Andre

laming posted:

pennsy484 posted:

I don't know much about American Flyer...

Me neither... except I know I like them! That's a handsome engine!

I could definitely be interested in AF if there was only a connection for me of some sort. When I was but a lad, none of my friends had them (they had Lionel or Marx 3-rail), and I had a Marx 3-rail set way back in my elementary years, so I simply wasn't around AF in order to be smitten with them at the time.

So, though I can oooo and ahhhh when I see them (like your set) or pick one up with my hands to take a better look at a train meet... I don't "feel" 'em. (Does that make sense?)

Not so when I pick up a Postwar steam engine, or a set of PW Alco FA's: Instant connection. The good 3-rail memories waft through my mind and I'm a kid again.

Andre

I kinda feel the same way.  This set has been in the family for many decades. I remember my dad saying  meh, it derails too much, so we pretty much quit setting it up at Christmas.  We were Lionel guys  Today was the first time in probably 40 years that the track has been laid out (I cleaned it too)  ran the engine a bit and yeah the front truck derails and the engine can't pull the train (even with a ZW).  I don't have the interest or time to get it tuned up so to speak.  So I was thinking, yeah, even now same as my dad said, it derails too easily.  Really makes it even more clear to me how amazing the post war Lionel is.  Nice set to look at though. 

Watching TONKANUT's excellent PW Trains video above, I realized that I probably was given the No 2175W Santa Fe freight set from 1951 recently. A fella gave it to me after attending a train show down in Gastonia NC last year and no one would buy it from him. Just thrown into an old cardboard box, it certainly wasn't attractive. A shame as it was his childhood set but had been not cared for or stored properly all these years.  There was a duplicate set of freight cars with it so I kept the 'nicer' of the two and sold the other 5 on eBay as a LOT receiving $29 for them all!

There is a short in the lead motor of the powered chassis but I should be able to get it running fine. The cabs are in very bad condition with paint loss and the dreaded hump very pronounced behind the screens. Interesting that the red paint is still in decent condition as you can see compared to the New Lionel replacement shells that I will be using. I received $11 for the two cabs on eBay. They have most of the parts - grab bars, horns, windshields, screen vents with retainers. Only missing one step and one number board plus all the portholes.

Does appear to be a complete and original set however.

Will hopefully get these cleaned and running sometime in the next month or so.  They are still out there fellas...

70 years of dirt!

Replacement cabs from Lionel on the right and below

Thought I would Show some pics of my NYC Empire State Express set. I have set box and separate car boxes.

Merry Christmas!

Great thread, thanks to all who posted!!

Let's see, Prewar Sears 8102W set, and a couple of 140W sets.

Also, the last cataloged  set with a 265E loco from 1940.

Here's a few Flyer sets, two 3/16ths O and two S.

well well well....look who the Grinch drug in........  

Call this one the biography of a vintage set.

This first pic is NOT of the set which is the subject of this post, but it is related.  Christmas, 1964.  My maternal grandfather insisted that I have a train set under the tree even though I was but 7 months old at the time.  He bought an HO set whose manufacturer is unknown to me.  It included a loop of track, a scenery mat, and paper buildings and signs.  Grandpa glued the mat to a piece of Masonite roughly 3' x 4', and set the whole thing up for me to see on Christmas morning:

Much to his chagrin and disgust, the darn thing wouldn't go.  So, on the morning of 12/26/64, he stripped the HO track and train off the board (but kept the mat and the paper houses and signs) and marched into Sears, Roebuck, & Co. to exchange it for a Lionel (such as he had bought my uncles decades before).  Alas! only one set remained on the shelves by the time he got there:  a Marx #15765 (and this set IS the subject of this post).  Still, it was 3-rail O, and he understood such things, so it came home, and he installed the 3 rail track on the board, and set the train in motion.  Unfortunately, no one snapped pics of the new train that year.

But, the cameras caught it the next year, Christmas 1965: (as an aside, most of the ornaments you see hanging from the tree are hanging from one of the trees in my house this year).

And again the next, Christmas, 1966 (I include this picture because my mother captured my grandfather in it with me; he is setting up a toy car transport truck like the one he helped develop for Shell Transportation in the '50s):

The next two pics show this same set passing by the flag stop in Bethlehem (somewhat the worse for 43 years of wear) on my layout this year, Christmas, 2018:

The next pics show the set boxed--it's not the original box, which, Alas! was lost years ago, but it is the correct box for the set.  The transformer and some of the track are original.  I have a set of logs on the way to replace the ones I lost.  Somehow--and I don't pretend to explain--the instructions are not only original but nearly pristine.

Thus, the life of a vintage set.  I should point out that the double-reduction motor runs like crazy, the reverse unit works reliably, and the cars have held up very well--the only breaks are on the engine (courtesy of a childhood friend's wind-up set.  The front truck of the tender is a bit distorted from my 7-year-old foot accidentally stepping on it, but Grandpa, bless his soul, managed to put it to rights.

Once again, as I do every year, I have to pause and thank my grandfather for getting me started.  I wish he could see my layout today!

Here are my two sets that I took over from my brothers. The 2234W Santa Fe was purchased at Christmas 1954. My grandparents, my parents and my brothers contributed towards the purchase. (I was only 3!) I still have all of the boxes including the outer box with the $89.50 store sticker. Clearly, I don't run it anymore.

I did not know the 2020 engine and our freight cars were from a set. I was in a train store and saw the 1415WS on a shelf. The owner informed it was a set from 1946. It is on the bottom of the next picture. I would like to get a catalog photo of it. Still have most of the boxes. I do not know how we acquired all of the other pieces on the top row.

Charlie

Robert S Butler, Your Set was #1549, but used the 1615 & 1615T for motive power.  I own two 1549’s, & three 1527 sets.

I don't know how to post a picture but I have my dad's set from 1915 its a 704 loco 2 coaches & a baggage I have the track and transformer but no box. I think it came in a wooden box.

Al Smeraldo posted:

I don't know how to post a picture but I have my dad's set from 1915 its a 704 loco 2 coaches & a baggage I have the track and transformer but no box. I think it came in a wooden box.

1. learn "where" the photo is stored on your computer/phone. 

2. As you tap/click the site composer box for writing a reply, an option appears in lower right of the text area; "attachment tool". Set the cursor where you want the photo to be, and open the tool, (granting permissions) find your photo, choose it. Choose another if needed, no need to wait to set up the next one.

3. Do wait for "loading" to change to "processing" then finally "success". 

4. With "success" of all comes a new, 1 choice, option line (not big, but there). Check off the little box for "insert all photos full sized" then "finish" or wait on "insert"(or if you forget to check it)  and later you can choose smaller sizes and better individual placement when you return to the regular composing screen.

 From the bottom of the composing screen you deal with photos individually using the "insert into text" option, also blue, at the bottom of each loaded picture's box.