Messing with Some Vintage HO Stuff....

@GG1 4877 posted:

Nice collection!  I am missing the Amtrak single stripe version, the single stripe PRR DGLE one, the "Blackjack 4935" special release, and the Spirit of '76 special release.  Someday eventually I may track these down but my GG1 collecting has slowed down now that I have so many.  However, anytime I am a show and I see a well priced Rivarossi one I still pick it up.

The American Railroads 4902 version was my second GG1 that I got when I was about 16.  My first was a Pemko DGLE five stripe with road number 4828 when I was 14.  I saved my milk money for about a year to come up with the $19.95 to buy that one.

When I was looking for these GG1's, it seemed like the black Amtrak was a little hard to find compared to the other ones.

@taycotrains posted:

Mark what do you suppose this item retailed for back in 61 or 62 ?

My 'brass guide' book says:

1962/3, 21 made, $40, un-sprung drivers.

$40 in 1962 in todays dollars: $362.

1964, 409 made, $80, sprung drivers.

A big fan of the Athearn and Varney all metal vintage freight cars.

This year picked up a few more:

6 for 10 bucks each.

5 bucks each.

Around 8 bucks each.

My vintage HO collection is primarily made up of Tyco boxed sets of the RTR era from 1955 until about 1966 even though the red box era does go into in some cases the very early 70s. I have very little interest in the stuff made with the cheaper frames and plastic trucks post 1966.

So all that being said I have zero interest in anything from the brown box era. But this set has found a place in my collection because it was a gift from a freind. My freind bought it new at the time because he was a conrail engineer who ran the juice train from Pot Yard to the Meadows in South Kearny.

The train was available directly from Tropicana in Bradenton Fla. This one is still in the shipper and still has the cellophane wrapper.

I posted it on A Facebook Tyco group and the brown box guys went crazy with comments about it. I guess it must be something special ???

That's cool must have been a promo item specifically for Tropicana or they bought a bunch of sets and had some custom printing done on the trailers and boxcars. 

Every now and then I still watch eBay for Lindberg Lines stuff, in spite of having a fairly complete collection of their offerings. (There weren't many items in the short life of the Lindberg Line.)

In all the years I've watched and obtained Lindberg Line stuff, I've only seen their flatcar painted in Rock Island lettering with a load of three cast-on crates.

However, all the Lindberg Line literature I've seen (there wasn't but one folded pamphlet that I know of) illustrates a Milwaukee Road flat with stakes, but no crates. However, like the coal hopper w/load and the tank car that's also illustrated... I figured it was vaporware.

Imagine my surprise to see this show up just a few minutes ago:

It was advertised in the auction as "New Old Stock", and it appears to be just that. Even the stakes are still in their sealed plastic bag.

Needless to say, I made an offer. My offer was accepted within minutes.

I think I've just purchased a rare Lindberg Line piece!

You just never know when something truly noteworthy can show up.

I'm anxious for it to arrive.

Andre

Thanks to all for posting their memories of their HO trains, this definitely brings back memories of the ads and layouts in the Model Railroader magazines of the late 1950's and 1960's. I received a Lionel O gauge trainset set in 1955 for Christmas. My dad purchased two manual switches additional track including the Lionel uncoupler/unload track and mounted the track on a 4FT x 8FT sheet of 1/2 Inch plywood. We had a small spare bedroom for the layout, in 1957 he purchased the magnetic gantry crane, I had few Bachman building purchased from Woolworth's. I remember showing him one monthly publication of the Model Railroader  probably from 1958 and asked if HO was possible. Needless to say, I played with the Lionel set and corresponding AC Gilbert Junior Engineer Erector Set occasionally until I started high school in 1963. The layout was taken apart and stored until 1990 when I had a basement to build a large layout, the small bedroom became a study room.

Congratulations on your find Andre! I do think you really snagged a rare one. From my days in HO, I don't remember having any Lindberg rolling stock at all, but I seem to remember that their trucks were very free rolling and I remember buying those in those little plastic boxes.

I began with a piece of 4'-by-8' plywood and Lionel O gauge trains as a youngster. In the mid 1950s I got into HO for a few years and my dad gave the Lionel trains to a friend. I returned to O gauge trains after a lapse of almost 40 years and have been in O gauge ever since.

I don't ordinarily follow the HONGZ forum but I found this discussion very interesting and read it from beginning to end. It brought back memories of my childhood trains.

MELGAR

@Jerry Williams posted:

Congratulations on your find Andre! I do think you really snagged a rare one. From my days in HO, I don't remember having any Lindberg rolling stock at all, but I seem to remember that their trucks were very free rolling and I remember buying those in those little plastic boxes.

Lindberg's were practically the preferred trucks by many in my HO club before Kadee started offering trucks.

Rusty

I made a tremendous score at the spring York last April.I was able to fill 4 Tyco holes in my collection.

Most of my H0 is Marx from the late 50’s to mid 60’s but I have a few modern pieces. From this past Sunday at our TTOS meet, here is my MTH Challenger running alongside what was real low end Marx battery, rubber band drives.

Steve