I have neighbors whose deceased father was a fireman on the Illinois Central his whole career. As an avid rail fan he collected steam locomotives, signs, signals, paintings, and other railroad ephemera. His family had little use for the many locomotives that “littered” the entire house. To help them gain an appreciation for the collection I voluntered to take a dozen or so home, clean them up, photograph them, and make up a book with captions for the family. They saw a big difference between a dusty locomotive up on a dark shelf and a close-up studio-type photograph with a brief caption in a book. In appreciation they presented me with one model “taking up room” in the house. I was bowled over and was hesitant to accept this, but I could see I’d hurt their feelings if I didn’t. So I did.
Taking it home, removing it from its railbed, cleaning it up, and examining it, I find I’m unable to identify its manufacturer or origin. There are no stampings, markings, or data plates anywhere on the model, other than the tender has a marked Kadee coupler. Can any of you experts help me in this? The model’s characteristics are: it’s O-Gauge, a 4-8-2 Mountain type, lettered as I.C.R.R #2411, heavy and probably entirely made of brass based on paint scrapes on the tender coupling, looks like it was professionally painted with an airbrush, is very highly detailed......VERY.....and includes all steam lines, hoses, bell and whistle cords, and a gold eagle on the headlamp. The cab is derailed with seats, gauges, throttle, and all items you’d expect to find there, and the interior is painted light green. The unusual facet of the model is that IT IS A NON-MOTORIZED NON-RUNNING SCALE DISPLAY MODEL!
