What is the Rarest and Coolest Train Item you own?

Maybe not too rare, but I consider my 1-700e and freight car set my coolest I own. Just a beautifully made train set. Imho.

i have a lionel 628 that is silver instead of black

My favorite is the MTH Aerotrain in Rock Island décor because I rode that train when I was a teenager traveling from Peoria to Chicago, IL in the mid 1950s. The train was then briefly assigned by the RI to the PEORIA ROCKET route, but was soon transferred to commuter service along the Joliet to Chicago route. Named The Train of Tomorrow by the RI PR department, that sleek train never lived up to expectations.

Next favorite (and most expensive train set I ever bought), was the Rock Island TA diesel passenger set made by Sunset 3rd Rail. Only 30 RI train sets were produced, so I own 1/30th of the world's supply.

Attached:
A photo of the TA train set on a display shelf (along with other RI items) in my train room
A video of the RI Aerotrain in action on my layout.

Mike Mottler   LCCA 12394

Rarest?  There are a few that might qualify.

GGD Canadian in VIA.  One of 12 sets made.

GGD El Capitan in Amtrak from the 2nd Run.  I don't remember how many of these sets were made, but it was around 8 or so in the first run and close to the same in the second run.

3rd Rail FL9s.  2 of 25 made in 3 rail.

1 of 1.  K-Line SP express boxcar signed by Maury Klein on one side and Nick Ladd on the other.

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Another 1 off.  Sample GGD Congressional coach with a slight issue that was corrected for the production run.

The rarest train I own is this George Stock HO GG1 kit circa 1946 unbuilt in the box.  While I have run across approximately 10 Stock GG1s in the last 20 years, this is the only one I have found with the original box, instructions and all the parts.  This is an excerpt of an article I authored for my TCA Division Newsletter many years back that shows all three of my Stock GG1s.

Besides my pair of misprinted 3482 milk cars (the ones that have both 3482 and 3472 printed on them, production estimates are 150-1000 pieces made), would be these two 6464 boxcars I got for $5 each. Alaska 6464-825 with the box (behind) and Rutland 6464-300, with the Alaska being much rarer...

For me it's the MTH Standard Gauge 408e turquoise set.

Sunrise

Full length CN Dome car by Golden Gate Depot. Solid brass construction, pride of my passenger car collection.

I was told only 3 or 4 of these were ever made. Given the small market for this item, I doubt one will be made again.

Not surprising but an early and later version of the 700E, both in pristine condition.  1939 or something on the left and 1937 on the right.   And a trio of 763Es.

This is easy. My paps 226e, warts and all. The love you'd expect from a few kids. 1 of 1 and it's priceless.

Second coolest is my ROW 2-6-6-2

A long time ago, I had a original American Flyer Track Gang Set. Its condition was like new.

This would definitely be it.

I have a Lionel Christmas boxcar autographed by Lenny Dean.

I have a restored 2954 boxcar and 2955 Sunoco tank car.  Both modified with postwar trucks.   This modification was common enough to be a "collectible" variation though the cars are rareish.  The Lenny Dean autographed Christmas boxcar was going to be a truck donor until I saw the Dean autograph.

I don't know how rare an engine is when 1 of 75, but I think this is one of the coolest engines, 1:1 or any scale, produced.  The PRR Q1 by 3rd Rail.

Maybe not too rare, but I consider my 1-700e and freight car set my coolest I own. Just a beautifully made train set. Imho

See there Donnie, I got you a cool set there! It is an impressive engine.

While not the rarest but I think it is the coolest engine is the Lionel Veranda Turbine from 2002. It’s a BEAST!
And I have a few cars signed by Lenny Dean, Richard Maddox, Angela Trotta Thomas and Neil Young.

@Ted Bertiger posted:

Maybe not too rare, but I consider my 1-700e and freight car set my coolest I own. Just a beautifully made train set. Imho

See there Donnie, I got you a cool set there! It is an impressive engine.

And I greatly appreciate and thank you for selling the engine to me!

I was visiting a friend Frank in Buffalo and his brother-in-law Tom Gascoigne, who owned Buffalo Creek Graphics, came over to visit. We started talking and he then proceeded to show me a red and black A&A boxcar. I asked Tom about the history of this car, and in 2009 in preparation for the 2009 Nickle Plate Road HTS convention being held in the Buffalo area. Tom wanted to do a special boxcar for the A&A because one of the convention events was going to be riding the A&A.

For this car, instead of using Weaver undecorated boxcars Tom selected Atlas O model X-29 boxcars because that is what the A&A prototypes actually were. And thus this became the first and only B.C.G. car that used an Atlas undecorated model. The run of the cars was limited to 5, and as a result the production costs were high. Another guy named John did the artwork and graphics, and the painting was done by Weaver Models. Frank got one (which I was shown during my visit), Tom got one, one was given to George Ling (GM of the A&A railroad) and the other two were given away as raffle gifts at the convention. I offered to Tom and Frank to purchase their cars, as I collect A&A stuff, but both refused. But wait... there's more!

Fast forward to mid-November and on Ebay the red A&A boxcar showed up. It was being sold by a company in North Tonawanda. How could this be? Would Frank or Tom actually sell their models of this car a short time after I offered to purchase them and not offer me first rights? And it had scale wheels, not tinplate wheels, which was odd. Out of a 5 car run, did one of them have scale wheels? Well, I called Frank right away and we talked some more. This car wasn't his... he again repeated he would never sell his. Instead, it was Tom's car, because his was the only car with scale wheels. As it happened, Tom had previously arranged for some of his collection to be sold by an auction house before I met them all and this car was next up on the auction block. He didn't even realize. Sadly, Tom passed away only a few months later.

But, this is probably the rarest car in my collection as only 5 were made, and only one was produced with scale wheels. For more on my other rare A&A cars: https://dandhcoloniemain.blogs...rare-arcade-and.html

Great thread.

Based on what I model (new stuff post 1995) from Atlas, Lionel and MTH, I am not sure what all that has been produced is rare.  Maybe that is in the definition of "rare" kind of like beauty in the eye of the beholder.  Are special runs rare?  They are limited in production, yes.

Some of the pieces that I have collected that I thought were "rare":

1. The Lionel Odyssey demonstrator units.  I was told that each hobby shop would receive one of these engines and that was it.  At one point, I had three of them.  Sold them.
2. The 100 year anniversary Santa Fe ABBA passenger set, bought it, never took it out of the shipping box, subsequently sold it.

That's it.  The aforementioned were all sold at a loss.

As far as coolest goes, I would say my coolest train items are:

1. Atlas black tanker cars, including the Tabasco hot sauce car.  I love how these look.
2. Custom run Lionel NYC scale Hudson.
3. Lionel B&O TMCC GP-9.  My first TMCC engine.
4. My layout

John

This is a Weaver paint registration test using an HO Athearn DRGW shell, the correct car color was white:

Another Weaver HO test shot:

A friend and I had gone up to his facility to visit and I saw a pile of various shells in a box off to one side and asked about buying an RS-3 hood that was in the pile. He said to take any that I wanted; they were basically scrap. So I got the RS-3  and the two above shells. I later bought the proper Blue-box kits to complete the cars. Oh, and never did anything with the RS-3 shell! I had plans to make either a hammerhead, chopnose, or the one-off no nose.

Growing up, I won the MTH Bonomo Banana Taffy Car (30-74101.) It was a Willy Wonka style contest - if you found the vintage taffy slip in one of the other MTH boxcars (Strawberry, Chocolate, or Vanilla flavors), you won the Banana car. I recall the MTH boxes were sealed from the factory (but were often already checked by the time they went on sale!)

By chance, I found a sealed Strawberry Taffy car for $20 at a train show. I wasn't aware of the contest at first, but to my surprise, found the ticket. The only problem was that the contest ended a year prior. MTH still honored the prize and sent me the Banana car. Someone from their office included a letter about the contest and even remarked that Mike Wolf himself didn't own one of these cars. For a 10-year-old, it was a pretty cool experience!

I kept the Banana car sealed in a box for a few years but later sold it off when I moved toward the scale models. To this day, the Banana boxcar remains a favorite memory (and one of my best investments!)

OGR used to issue special-run anniversary cars produced by Weaver. This one happens to have some OGR staff autographs. Myron Biggar's autograph is on the other side.

I have some other Weaver cars from the series.

Commemorating the 100th Issue of OGR

A Weaver Factory Tour car from 2004

OGR MTH Tour Cars

One last one from an old OGR Forum member, Tony Lash, who had a very large layout. MTH did a special run of cars lettered for his business.

My turn!

A 2454 PRR boxcar with orange doors:

A postwar 2457 caboose in prewar brown, complete with a flying shoe coupler and those odd “whirly” wheels from 1945:

Center decal 2465 tank car:

Enamel red 6456 hopper:

A purple 9011 GN hopper:

A two-level 9123 C&O auto rack:

A 7705 Canadian Toy Fair boxcar:

-Rarest car: Lionel Nevada Southern RR Museum Boxcar; I had to buy one for my layout. I love visiting the museum in Boulder City (a small town near Las Vegas, Nevada, where I live). The boxcar was a limited-edition car made for the museum.

-Coolest Car: Definitely my ATSF Vision Reefers. Need I say more?

That honor, by a mile has to go to this. Can't beat a diecast diesel. Any time I run it at my local club I usually get visitors admiring the charging lights and remarking at it's color scheme. It's also usually pulling my usual 35 car manifest freight (which is probably what else gets visitors the most impressed)

My rarest and coolest item is my 027 Toy Train Layout.

Charlie

Probably the most unique item I have is a Sears uncataloged set, #9674, lead by Sante Fe switcher 616.

It was available in 1961 and based on Lionel cataloged set # 2570, pictured below.

It differs from the cataloged set by switching the flat with crane for the flat with power shovel; switching the Detroit & Mackinac hopper for the Allis Chalmers car; and, adding the highly desirable Boat Loader.

Lionel would make up these uncataloged sets for their big retailers and give them a great price on them so that they could offer them for a similar or lower price and the added value of an extra car over a regularly cataloged set.

I have the set box and all the Super O track. The set box has been covered in masking tape that I remove a little at a time with a hair dryer.

However, the "flagship of my fleet" remains Lionel set # 2507, my New Haven F3 AB freight set, that I received for Christmas in 1958.

Have a great day, folks!

Peter

I will be the first to post something different.  This has to be the rarest item I have ever owned.

Published in 1899, the book is a novel with fictional characters and names yet based on the story of the great railroad strike on the Burlington railroad in 1888.  A CB&Q employee bought this book and made marginal notes attaching real names to the characters and added brief commentary in the margins.  A few of the real names could be found in the great CB&Q books by Richard Overton.

I also, somehow, wound up owning Freeman Hubbard's signed personal copy of Diesels West by David P. Morgan.  Freeman Hubbard was the editor for Railroad Magazine.

An all original, one owner M-10000 set. It belonged to a coworkers father. He was gifted it new as a boy. I have the complete set including track, transformer, and instructions. No set box tho....

Bob

I would have to say that the engineering sample of American Flyer's first electric locomotive c. 1917-1918 is one of the rarest and coolest things in my collection.  It features a number of items that did not make it into regular production and other items that were refined prior to going into production.

I have only seen photos of a nearly identical engine that had a tag indicating it was a c. 1917 sample.  That engine was clearly earlier than the engine pictured below, due to it having wheels from a wind-up engine on it.

Below are photos of a regular production c. 1918 engine

There are several differences between the two motors in these engines, with the most notable being the brackets that hold the armature in place and that the sample motor uses round tube brushes, something that American Flyer would not put into regular production until 1925.

PS I forgot to mention that both engines still run after 105 years.  I just don't run them very often

NWL

I don’t know how rare they are but to me they are pretty dang cool!

William Shatner signed boxcar #1.

If you watch my latest video it explains the differences in the signatures.

William Shatner signed boxcar #2.

My Russian train:

It's currently on loan to the Virginia Museum of Transportation.

Scott Smith

@Nation Wide Lines posted:

I would have to say that the engineering sample of American Flyer's first electric locomotive c. 1917-1918 is one of the rarest and coolest things in my collection.  It features a number of items that did not make it into regular production and other items that were refined prior to going into production.

I have only seen photos of a nearly identical engine that had a tag indicating it was a c. 1917 sample.  That engine was clearly earlier than the engine pictured below, due to it having wheels from a wind-up engine on it.

Below are photos of a regular production c. 1918 engine

There are several differences between the two motors in these engines, with the most notable being the brackets that hold the armature in place and that the sample motor uses round tube brushes, something that American Flyer would not put into regular production until 1925.

PS I forgot to mention that both engines still run after 105 years.  I just don't run them very often

NWL

This reminds me of the Chuck Berry song.  What happens when you really open the throttle?

Here is my rarest and coolest in my collection.   Scrolling down is Lionel's Whitehead's Flyer, MTH Baltimore Annapolis SW9 with calf and B&A caboose, a Lionel 2065 steam locomotive, and most of my modest postwar collection.

First off is Lionel's Whitehead's Flyer made as a special production run for Schweppes Gingerale Co.    I purchased this train set at a train show because the set had my name on it ... my last name is Whitehead.  Beginning just after WW2  Commander Whitehead of the British Navy  became the spokesman for Schweppes Gingerale.  ( Schweppes is based in England )  The set included a pamphlet with the entire back story on Commander Whitehead and how these sets came about.  The locomotive does have a horn and the passenger cars are very lite in weight and are illuminated.  Since the locomotive has nylon gears I only run on rare occasions.  It's a great conversation piece to have in my collection.

MTH Baltimore & Annapolis SW 9 with proto 3 upgrade, calf, and B&A caboose.  These 3 items are all the B&A that MTH ever produced.  I also have another B&A SW9 with Loco Sound and two more B&A cabeese.

Lionel 2065 locomotive which I received from Santa when I was 4 years old.  I still have the entire set fully intact but have not gotten around to taking a photo. The set includes the automatic milk car, automatic log dump car, automatic NYC Pacemaker boxcar, Sunoco 3 dome tank car,  Lionel Lines porthole caboose, and 1033 transformer.  

My modest postwar collection:  218 Santa Fe ALCO AA diesels, 1666 2-6-2 steam loco produced in 1947, 2025 steam locomotive with smoke also produced in 1947, and my 2065 steam loco.  Visible in lower left hand corner is a Virginian Train Master which is a Williams Reproduction of Lionel's Train Master produced int the 1950s ... although I don't count this one as part of my postwar collection.  Not shown is my Lionel NW2 switcher in Santa Fe livery.  

I've really enjoyed this thread. It's been cool to see the odds and ends I don't often get to see or hear about. Unfortunately all my cool stuff is packed up tightly and safely at my parents house so I don't have any pictures to see.

I have one of the early 3462 Lionel Milk cars with the silver doors and a 152 crossing gate with the pedestrian gate. That's about as rare I get for Lionel stuff. I regret to say I had a mint condition bottle of Lionel smoke pellets in the glass bottle with the words printed direct to the glass when I was a kid but I used them in my grandpa's 2020 turbine. I loved the smoke! I never met my grandpa so running his train was my main connection to him at the time.

I have some shareholder's reports from early railroads around the Mahoning Valley and some stock certificates from those railroads. It's interesting how much care was taken into logos and print in the late 1800s. I also have a railroad spike from the Rod and Wire mill at Youngstown Sheet and Tube and a railroad spike from the tracks at Youngstown Sheet and Tube's Hubbard Furnaces (formerly Andrews and Hitchcock Iron Company).

Great thread!

Don't know how much cool factor it possesses for others, but this NIB HO Lindberg Line set I have is very rare and it's very cool to me:

Further adding to rarity, the above was produced in very limited numbers as a promo, I think. I had read about these sets in some Lindberg history, but in the years I had been watching Lindberg Line product on the Bay, I never saw one.  Then, this one appeared on the Bay (over a decade ago) and I snatched it up for something like $60 or less.

Lindberg was one of the most minority of the mfg'ers that offered HO sets. Lindberg actually had great product (for that era), but they just couldn't compete with The Biggies in the business. Some of their product still can hold its own in today's model railroading world.

Andre

Laming, I really like it. Very nice interesting set.

This is probably the coolest and rarest item I have: Railking Coors Light Silver Bullet Operating Reefer Tail Car 30-78061

Not O gauge but my rarest items would be my Tyco clock…I have only seen two others besides mine.

I sure there are others but they don’t come up that often.

Another rare item (of which I have two) is my Lindberg service station kit. I bought these at Tommy Gilbert’s train store in Gettysburg and he was happy to get rid of them.