It recently dawned on me that these handsome reissues of classic PW engines and locomotives are getting quite 'old' themselves. This Southern set is from 2000. I remember wanting the 2356 original Southern F3's for years and did take in a set when I had my hobby shop near New Orleans back in the late 1980's. A young man came in one afternoon with 2 cardboard boxes of 'junk' Lionel trains, Most were hopelessly rusted and corroded from Louisiana's high humidity and had been sitting on the ground in an old shed out back on their property. His family had discovered the two boxes after living there for some time and were not the original owners.
My service man George tackled the mess and was able to salvage about 40% of the stash but much had to go in the dumpster, they were that badly destroyed. Wrapped in several thicknesses of newspaper was an ABA set of Southern F3's with the newspaper images imprinted into the paint of the cabs. Many of the wheels were actually decomposing but the frame and motors were intact and eventually ran again thanks to George's expertise. We sent the cabs to Steve Latta in CA and he repainted them to look like new. Ours were the first set he did and it took 8-9 months to get them back. 1954 Originals in top photo below.
There were several other nice pieces that George restored in that lot that we still have. Here is my set of PWC 2356's. Please show us yours.
Painting from 1954 catalog
2343 Santa Fe & Erie Alco FA's
