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Every once in a while the train gods smile down upon us and bestow great and wondrous gifts. Last Spring a friend was clearing out his parents house and asked me if I would be interested in his fathers old Lionel trains. Intrigued, and figuring they were pre-war I asked what he had. My friend wasn't sure (not a train guy) so he said he'd take some pictures. 

Well I almost fell over when he showed me what he had. A complete Union Pacific M-10000 set with both vestibules, all the original track and the transformer. A modest fee was paid to acquire the set along with his Scout set from the mid 60's.

The bodies are in fair to good condition. You can tell they were cared for but definitely played with. The motor does run but needs to be fully serviced. The entire set needs to be re-wired. I plan on just cleaning up the bodies for now. Maybe I'll think about re-painting it one day.

I'll post progress pix as I go. I hope to get it under the tree this year. Time is short so we'll see if that happens.

Bob

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Last edited by RSJB18
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Looks nice!  I would definitely re-think restoring them.  Re-painting them would diminish the value greatly.  I would do the electrical and mechanical work necessary and call it a day.  The paint on the bodies of the cars and loco look better than anything i've seen out there lately.  That set needs 072 track to run properly.  I would be thrilled to have the opportunity to purchase a set as nice as that.

Bob,  I have the same that I acquired after someone, long ago, had very poorly repainted a different color.  Had to strip and repaint the aluminum color.  The decals were something else, and will never be as nice as original stamp lettering.  As others stated, I would not encourage a repaint of the M10000.  The original finish is better than many others I have seen, and the lettering shown is really nice.  Yes, a good, careful, cleaning and mechanical/electrical service would be for the better.  But, to ever repaint and have a loss of original lettering would be too detrimental.  Just my opinion, and congrats on a great looking set, sir!! 

Jesse   TCA  12-68275

Bob,

 I'm late to your interesting topic. I would agree on what most or all have said, keep the original paint/lettering. I never even saw an M-10000 in person! Looking forward to learning more on this unique set and seeing its comeback. 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. 

Tom 

 

RSJB18, Bob, great find and until a few weeks ago I had never seen one of those older M10000 sets run, and they do require 072 curves. A good friend of mine, Charles Hearn from Nashville, brought his re-painted and re-wired with TMCC electronics, M10000 over to run on my layout. It’s a fun to run set, colorful, fast and memorable. There are many folks that can re-paint and replace the wiring with the newer electronics, although it’s really your choice. Simply re-wiring and general maintenance is all that’s necessary. Thank you for starting this nice thread, of a great model train from yesteryear. Happy Thanksgiving and of enjoying running your trains on your nice railroad. Enjoy the Holidays.55D7F029-B27B-4CBA-BC04-23159C6C9461DBB752D9-E1F1-4111-933F-780E6EC687229100E1D8-4663-44FD-B8ED-2FF608D3E080

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Gary- sharp eye there. I probably looked at that label a dozen times and never saw that.

Anybody know if this typo was common?

Dave- Notice how its OK to re-paint a classic Road Runner but not a classic toy

Forest- thanks for the info. I will give them a call.

Larry- that's a nice looking set your friend has. As stated previously, I will keep this one original. Just cleaning and re-wiring.

Tom- I would think they ran well. It's a very simple motor and I can't see 072 curves putting much stress on the wheels. There certainly is plenty of space under the shell to dissipate heat.

Hopefully I can get started on the motor this weekend. I want to start cleaning the track too. I'm going to see how a light shot with a fine wire wheel does. I'm not looking to restore it to shiny new, just clean and electrically sound.

Bob

 

Bob, if you "struck a nerve" with the idea of repainting these, I think it is because these are pre-war pieces that are actually in pretty good shape visually given their age. The grading standards for pre-war pieces are after all, a little more forgiving.

Hey, I do a lot of repainting as you know, but I'm always looking for either beaters or very common items made in larger production runs that will not likely ever increase substantially in value. Early on, back in the hobby, I saw some terrible repaints like the ones above, and some really lousy decal jobs too. Those almost made me reconsider doing repaints myself. But then I realized, Hey, I'm an artist... I can do a good job at this. If I'm not going to do a good job, then I wouldn't do it at all. The bad repaint jobs I saw ended up being an inspiration for me to excel.

Anyways, I don't know how many of these M10000's were originally produced, and even more importantly, how many have survived all these years, and are in the condition as the ones you have are in. Personally, visually I'd leave them be outside of cleaning them up.

But then again, it is a personal decision. I've told the story here of how some years ago at YORK, some guy was giving me grief that ALL Lionel trains are valuable collectibles worth money. Given that reasoning, I offered him a Scout gondola for $500.00 and he replied "that isn't worth more than $5-$10." That didn't sound like a valuable collectible to me. Now that I've repainted a few of them, maybe now, they are valuable collectibles .

Yeah, along with SP type cabooses.

 

texastrain posted:

Bob,  I have the same that I acquired after someone, long ago, had very poorly repainted a different color.  Had to strip and repaint the aluminum color.  The decals were something else, and will never be as nice as original stamp lettering.  As others stated, I would not encourage a repaint of the M10000.  The original finish is better than many others I have seen, and the lettering shown is really nice.  Yes, a good, careful, cleaning and mechanical/electrical service would be for the better.  But, to ever repaint and have a loss of original lettering would be too detrimental.  Just my opinion, and congrats on a great looking set, sir!! 

Jesse   TCA  12-68275

Restore with rubberstamps for best affect. I have done several sets

RSJB18 posted:

Gary- sharp eye there. I probably looked at that label a dozen times and never saw that.

Anybody know if this typo was common?

Dave- Notice how its OK to re-paint a classic Road Runner but not a classic toy

Forest- thanks for the info. I will give them a call.

Larry- that's a nice looking set your friend has. As stated previously, I will keep this one original. Just cleaning and re-wiring.

Tom- I would think they ran well. It's a very simple motor and I can't see 072 curves putting much stress on the wheels. There certainly is plenty of space under the shell to dissipate heat.

Hopefully I can get started on the motor this weekend. I want to start cleaning the track too. I'm going to see how a light shot with a fine wire wheel does. I'm not looking to restore it to shiny new, just clean and electrically sound.

Bob

 

My understanding that this mis-spelled plate appears most often on the 752, but is out there. Not an especially valuable error but you think that the plate made to produce that had to go through several hands at least and at on point probably detected but decided to run with it due to the cost of just throwing away.

20170520_144742

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george posted:

Looks nice!  I would definitely re-think restoring them.  Re-painting them would diminish the value greatly.  I would do the electrical and mechanical work necessary and call it a day.  The paint on the bodies of the cars and loco look better than anything i've seen out there lately.  

One more vote for leaving them as is. I'm no authority on these things, but just based on the pictures I agree with George and all the rest voicing concern about restoration. Cosmetically, they look fantastic considering their age. Painting them would ruin their value, history and esthetics (being that philosophy dealing with the nature and appreciation of art, beauty, and taste). (Wow!)  Much of their beauty can be attributed to their age and authenticity. Gently clean them and they'd be good to go, IMHO. If you want a shiny new-looking set, Lionel and MTH have made those in the last number of years.

Last edited by breezinup

Bob,  My restored M10000 has the same misspelled plate on bottom.  from what I have been able to research, the misspelled plate is attributed only to the 1934 production.  There may be information stating otherwise, but all I find say year of 1934 only.  A really great looking set you have there, again, congrats, sir.  And best of a Thanksgiving to you and yours.  IMHO, those of us in the O gauge hobby, with all it's history and intrigue, have much to be thankful for.

Jesse   TCALionel Pre 752E misspelled nameplate 

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A few years ago, I saw a photo of an M10000 that my grandfather had.  I decided to get one.  I grabbed the first one I saw on ebay and it was in rough shape.  Hennings got it running well, but the cosmetics are still wanting.  Saw a nicer one and ended up getting that too.  They are good runners on O72 track.  Also run well on Gargraves track on curves as small as O68.  Has a bit of a problem with Gargraves switches so I installed a jumper from one of the vestibules to the engine.

The ones in brown and yellow like the prototype were more popular, but the aluminum ones can be found.  I like the aluminum ones better.  From the photos, it looks like you have a nice example Bob.  I don’t see any zincpest and the cosmetics are decent enough.

Here’s a few pics of my Granddad’s and one of mine.

 

2015-03-05-33008122_10a_4X6

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