My new to me Lionel Southern (FARR) Set

Infamous?  What's wrong with it?

Jon  

Its the rarest Farr set, the only set with die cast trucks and tender.......  You should check the greenburg's value on it

Did you open the tender and replace the foam under the electronic SOS board?  You will want to do that pronto or risk the board shorting.

BTW congratulations.  Loved the FARR sets, but #4 is the only one I never owned.  Longed for the green caboose shown in the catalog and never reconciled with the prototypical red.

What, me worry?

Alfred, did yours come with two stock cars? mine has a reefer car with it

RCard86 posted:

Alfred, did yours come with two stock cars? mine has a reefer car with it

As far as I recall, Lionel/MPC never duplicated cars in the FARR sets.  In later years of that time period, there were a couple of unit-trains offered.  But the FARR "sets" all had unique cars.  I use the term "sets" somewhat loosely though, because I'm pretty certain the FARR locomotives and rolling stock were all available for separate purchase.  So it's possible folks could have purchased duplicates of certain cars to suit their fancy.  No set boxes as I recall.

David

Rocky Mountaineer posted:

....But the FARR "sets" all had unique cars.  I use the term "sets" somewhat loosely though, because I'm pretty certain the FARR locomotives and rolling stock were all available for separate purchase.  ....  No set boxes as I recall.

David

Yup, the FARR sets were individual sale items, and had no set boxes.

This is a beautiful set, and a beautiful engine, essentially a quality Postwar Berk made with single leading and trailing truck to make it a "Mikado."  (One of many examples of how a lot of the MPC-era products were of very high quality, just as good as - and in this case virtually identical to - the Postwar versions.)

That Southern Hopper is a very nice car.  I still have one today. Don't know if that set was ever considered "the rarest" but with a Berkshire casting you can't beat it for beauty!

RCard86 posted:

Alfred, did yours come with two stock cars? mine has a reefer car with it

No, as stated I never owned the FARR #4 set.  The pic was just one I saved off the web to remind me of what I missed.  The 7304 stock car was an uncatalogued add-on for the set.  The 9887 Fruit Growers Express reefer is missing in the pic.  Attached another saved pic of lesser quality depicting the complete set.

What, me worry? 

Love it!

I'll look forward to seeing it run!

Peter

Twas better to make a Mikado out of a Berk by swapping down the trailing truck than it was to turn a 736 into a 4-8-4 by installing the world's worst leading truck. 

I still remember seeing that beautiful set in a train store in Beachwood Mall with my grandmother in 1983.  I wore that catalog out that year in record time, although I'd do the same the following year with the Pennsy FARR set and the NYC Hudson (1984).

While I've pretty much gone scale, there is still a place in my heart for that Southern FARR set.  It may yet make it to my mantle or display shelf.

Two of my friends have one each. It's a nice set with a nice engine, but I prefer the scale version Lionel made in 1992.

Still, the MPC equipment is pretty cute and charming, and can be found at great bargains today. If there's one thing that the MPC trains had, it was a lot of bright, flashy, attractive colors to attract consumers. I still have a couple that could use some upgrading...