When, I was 7 years old my parents took me to Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park, Ca. When I walked in and saw these fabulous standard gauge trains (two of them would run around the room three times if you put a dime in the coin box), that was the END of the O gauge right then and there!! Evan did not have any trains to sell, but he directed me to Herb Morley who had just bought a huge collection from Frank Cox in San Diego. Imagine, he mortgaged his house for $10,000 and ended up with Brown & Green State sets, National Limited, Prosperity Special, Olympian, Boucher Blue Comet and about 20 Lionel Trolley's!!! My first Standard Gauge set was a Lionel 390E + 332,337 and 341 plus track and a model K transformer for $35.00!!!!! He had about eight 408E's sitting in a glass display cabinet (like you see in department stores) set in diagonally and he explained to us that they each had TWO Motors! However, they were $45 each, and that was a little steep for us at the time! lol
So, maybe two million dollars and 50+ years later, to paraphrase from Laurel & Hardy: "Here's another fine mess I've gotten MYSELF into!"
These photos were taken in 2013 when I had part of my collection on display at the Cal-Stewart meet in Los Angeles. EVERYTHING you see was in like new or better condition, and most with their original boxes!
