Lionel o gauge train sets from late 60's to mid 70's

All Lionel catalogs from that period are pretty common on eBay.  Remember that Lionel produced something like 20 different train sets in a given year, so photos and numbers would be helpful.

Jon

Good clues would include, was a diesel or steam locomotive? Large or small locomotive? What color was the locomotive? any accessories with the set. like buildings, trucks, switches?

It was a black steam locomotive with a black tender.  I do not remember what color the car was, but I believe it was a box car.  It had a classic red caboose.  It did not have any accessories with it.   Just the track and transformer.  I don't have any photos of this train, nor do I know the number of the locomotive.  I was between 4-7 years old when I got it.

Ackleplem posted:

It was a black steam locomotive with a black tender.  I do not remember what color the car was, but I believe it was a box car.  It had a classic red caboose.  It did not have any accessories with it.   Just the track and transformer.  I don't have any photos of this train, nor do I know the number of the locomotive.  I was between 4-7 years old when I got it.

So, it was just the steamer with tender, boxcar and caboose, on a simple oval with transformer?

I know this period of production well, and can say that there wasn't a factory-produced set during that time (or even close to it) that consisted of a steam loco, tender, boxcar and caboose.

There are two limiting factors given the information you've shared:

1) I don't believe there are ANY sets in that time period that only have a single freight car.

2) Even for sets that have two freight cars in them (assuming you're forgetting about one), one of them was very rarely a boxcar. In fact, I think the only times this occurred is for the sets made with boxcars produced for Toys R Us and True Value Hardware in 1976-77.

Without more concrete information, that's about all the help I can provide.

TRW

I know this period of production well, and can say that there wasn't a factory-produced set during that time (or even close to it) that consisted of a steam loco, tender, boxcar and caboose.

Wasn't there a 1960's uncataloged set that only had an engine, one car, and a caboose?

C W Burfle posted:

Wasn't there a 1960's uncataloged set that only had an engine, one car, and a caboose?

Yes, there's a set from about 1963 that only has the blue flat car with orange girders. But that's not a boxcar, and it's over five years outside the timeframe provided.

I also believe there's a uncatalogued, promotional outfit containing two freight cars including a red Stokely Van Camp's boxcar, but it would be from about the same early 1960's time period.

TRW

Looked through the catalogs tonight. Closest match seems to be the Cannonball/Wabash Cannonball cataloged from 1970 to at least 1975. The consist varied in road names and designs, but all had a black locomotive and tender and red caboose. Rather than a boxcar they had a gondola and flatcar. Just a loop of track and transformer.

Set 1494, made for Sears and shown in their 1974 Wish Book, had one freight car:

lehigh310 posted:

Set 1494, made for Sears and shown in their 1974 Wish Book, had one freight car:

Thank you lehigh310.  This very well could be it.  The transformer and the caboose looks right.  I would have to get a better look at the tender.  For whatever reason, I remember that and the transformer more than the locomotive.  I thought it came with a box car, but blue gondola car in the picture does ring a bit of a bell.  I don't remember any canisters, though.  I'm pretty sure it only had curved track.  We had a Sears catalog store just down the street.  I thank all of you for your responses.  It gave some me some useful insights into what was out there at the time.