Post War FM Set Fans

I had fun putting The Thunderbird set together with purchases from EBay and forum members. The gray hopper was hardest to find in good shape at a reasonable cost. I’ve had the loco and caboose for many years.

This one was always a favorite of mine......from the 58 catalog........

For me, the colors just shouted out.....

Peter

Big John Henry,  To answer the question about a Yellow bodied Virginian, the answer is definitely NO.  The variations of the Virginian were Blue plastic body, with yellow painted on; or both Blue & Yellow painted on to a random color body, for the 2322 issue.  The 2331 issue was Gray body, with both Blue & Yellow painted on, or Blue body, with Yellow painted.

The catalogs number the FM's as nine outfits, but the 2322 had two outfits numbered 12820 & 12850, which had the identical consist of cars, with extra accessories added to the 12850, to make up the total number of nine outfits.

The 2321 Lackawanna had 3 sets; #2219W, 2223W, & 2243W.

The 2322 Virginian had 2 sets; 12820 & 12850

The 2331 Virginian had 4 sets; 2251W, 2267W, 2285W, & 2519W

The 2341 Jersey Central was 1 set only; 2270W

The average minimum price for complete sets start around $1000, and go up from there, depending on which variation.  Certain rolling stock with each set, may be very expensive also, depending on the rarity of a specific piece, to assemble from parts available.  Have fun with your search!!

My favorite:   #2223W (with the orange WP boxcar):

Jim

Putnam Division posted:

This one was always a favorite of mine......from the 58 catalog........

For me, the colors just shouted out.....

Peter

A refreshing pause in a busy Monday!  Thank you.

Lou N

Jim Policastro posted:

My favorite:   #2223W (with the orange WP boxcar):

Jim

And thank you too, Jim, for another break in the day.

Lou N

Big John Henry:

You have a gift when it comes to starting interesting threads.  

I love all these FM sets.  For whatever reason, when I was a kid, they were all the ones that lit me up like a Christmas tree.

An example I cite often when trying to explain rarity to people (even some novice collectors) is the CNJ FM passenger set from 1956.  I normally go through the topic as follows:

• The Silver Dawn, etc. 2500-series passenger cars are reasonably easy to find all by themselves.  Let's say there are tens of thousands in existence, if not a hundred thousand.
  
  
• The 2341 CNJ FM is legitimately rare.  There's no real way of knowing how many exist, much less how many survived, but I have to think the number is in the low thousands.
  
  
• The 2270W set with the 2341 Jersey Central and the 2500-series passenger cars is extremely rare.  While it's within the grasp of many collectors to assemble the components of the set without the original box (i.e., by combining the separate sale items), getting a box to go with it all is one of those holy grails of postwar collecting.  I can't begin to guess how many intact 2270W set boxes are out there.

The idea of assembling these as sets by buying the pieces individually sounds like a fun project.

Steven J. Serenska

Love all the postwar FM sets

I have the 2285w from 57 and the 2243w from  55

All the postwar FM sets were awesome 👍🏼

The Fairbanks-Morse Trainmasters are some of the most reliable locomotives Lionel made, in my opinion.