I have the opportunity to purchase this two volume set of all the Lionel products from 1970 to around 1990. It has exploded parts diagrams for all the engines, tenders, cars and accessories and also wiring schematics. Any idea what a fair market price would be? Each volume is about 3" thick!! The books are loose leaf and have some moisture issues but the pages look good. They must have been stored in a damp basement.
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Be aware that those books, Service Supplements 1-9 and 10-47, are available as free downloads on the Lionel website in a total of 291mb.
The only reason to buy a set is if you collect Lionel paper.
Have them they are a great reference and having them in paper form is handy if when servicing an item a computer is not close by.
They are the gray covers with white printing published by Greenburg. Lionel has the most confusing numbering and updating system I have ever seen! They should check in with the Air Force for a great system to add changes and updates. I always thought the way our Dash 1s(flight manuals) were updated was excellent.
One of the problems with the updates that Lionel and Greenberg had was the difference in organization between the original Lionel manual (red) and the Greenberg manual(black/grey).
The organization of the Lionel manual (red) made sense to me once I understood it.
As supplements came out, manual owners were supposed to integrate the new pages into the existing manual. I didn't, I kept them separate, and suspect that many others did the same. Keeping the pages separate certainly makes the manual difficult to use.
Maybe I'll go though my set and integrate the updates.
By the way, I agree with dk122trains, I printed copy is nice to have.
Sometimes I use the online manual provided by Lionel, other times a printed copy.
As far as I know, the Greenberg manual is not considered a collectors item.