What Trains do you have you Consider Rare

Hi Everyone,

I have a Lionel Blue Streak headed by a 265-E with "Lionel Lines" on the nameplate. I have no idea how rare it is, but all the other 264s / 265s I've ever seen, regardless of color, have "Commodore Vanderbilt" on the nameplate. How rare is it? I'd love to know.

 

John

• Lionel Union Pacific Boy Scouts of America ES44AC.  Never been ran, only displayed.  Would not consider rare, as much as very difficult to find.  Most are selling for an exorbitant price, due to perceived rarity.
• Lionel Polar RR SD80MAC.  Would consider rare, as I have not seen them on the secondary market, and they seem to command a premium if one can be found.

Thanks Joe (drooling heavily on my keyboard....) as  sweet as that is...I'd have to swap out that rear truck!

I wish I had got to got to Madison at least once.

The only piece of equipment I have that might qualify is my Lionel 2055 Hudson locomotive.  My grandfather gave it to me in 1954.  I don't know if it's actually "rare" but it is old.  It still runs like a champ.

Hi,

   My 1930's Lionel Hudson that I rebuilt, the boiler I put back together and I had to replace 

the chassis and get a NOS Motor but it does run. I just leave it on my shelf, one day 

I'll by the connector for the T-rail track I got for it and give it a proper run.

 

Tin 

CWI rolling stock for Tony Lash by MTH, a total of 14 freight cars for all numbers.

 

We have a sealed pair of the LCCA 'Civil War Generals' that I picked up awhile back to use as 'trade bait' sometime down the tracks.

These are the most unique generals Lionel has made to date with a very low production (600?) run for the LCCA and features not yet found on the run of the mill locomotives. These certainly have a great future as one of the few truly modern collectibles.

Everything I own is rare, sole-owner, Farmer Bill stuff! 

And I was starting to like you Steamer (Its a booster! Experimental prototype)

Yea I find it hard to believe nobody tried it

 

Wells Fargo version of the operating gunfighter car from The General sets.

 

Junky but alive,

Missile carrying flat car(5-6 uprights),

USMC submarine flat,

Range patrol flat,

6804 pyro trucks flat

Big pyro Duck, Half track, 6 wheeled tank.

Auburn Plymouth.

  

Operating milk car..( gotcha!)

 

"62" SFe 633 NW switcher (Blue/yellow zebra cab)

 

MARX CV, copper nameplate, with the welded on headlight visor, (and it once had a forced smoke shroud & long, side dimple, screw base, smoke bulb.

 

Rarest thing I ever owned was a KW with two transformer coils, & gearing like a Z, and right hand handle had reversed operation. Both handles to you was off, away for throttle. Couldn't even fix it when it died (gear snapped). Hopefully it got noticed by whoever bought Gramps stuff.

It came with one of my "Lionel boxed" sets, a fire/work, or one of 4 army/space sets.(?)(67-68 purchase though)(I still mess up today when reaching for the right handle on the "new" one) We figured it was a prototype, grabbed to complete the order. Oh it had one green "L" button, #90, in the set too.

 

 

 

 

 

quote:

"62" SFe 633 NW switcher (Blue/yellow zebra cab)

 

Most people don't appreciate the difficulty in finding a nice 633 switcher, with the correct chassis. I wonder whether the reason is low production numbers / sales, or high disposal rate.
I see a lot of 633 shells mounted on the wrong chassis.

How about.......

i have these extremely rare marx switches.  btw, they work like a charm now!

 

https://ogrforum.com/t...66#40145252320104866

Mines actually a nice chassis, poor body(grill crack). All my NWs are here and orig. (but DT&I has one cast truck) But no bodies are on the correct frames. I moved the best runners to my favs . They swap back if I ever sell one. I know what goes where.

do these little tin toys count.

got one with 2 passenger cars

in a box of stuff someone gave me.

Im told that it came out of a

cracker jacks box.

its about 2" long, 6-7" with the

passenger cars.

This little misspelled guy is not seen to often (75 made) but I'm not sure if its more difficult to find then the PW #193 behind it with black superstructure.

I'm probably holding the only one in existence (unlucky me).

I should have sent this Lionel no name caboose back for credit. 

Joe

 

 

 

That's a good optimistic view of things, but if you try to sell the stuff, your opinion of rare may change. There are so many trains on the market; its getting to the point where you can't give the stuff away. I predict that if it keeps going like this, why before you know it, you will need to pay someone to take them away!!!

I know you've got it, but you omitted the Katrina CWI car.

 

Make it 15 CWI cars!

 

(I'm right behind you, but still need to find a "02" version of the original Boxcar someday... I can dream! )

 

-Dave

 

 

 

Try Dixie Union station for the CWI boxcars

 

rat

I didn't include the CWI Katrina since it was not designed by Tony.

 

I know you've got it, but you omitted the Katrina CWI car.

 

Make it 15 CWI cars!

 

Actually 16 if you count the CWI MTH tour boxcar

 

Before responding, i have to admit I don't have a huge depth of knowledge about production runs and uncataloged this or that.  I can only go by anecdotal evidence, what I see.  So by that measure, here are my considerations (and if anyone has greater knowledge than I about any of these and can shed more light on the topic, feel free.)

 

Maybe it doesn't exactly qualify as rare, but the K-Line NYC Century Green E units are kind of hard to find.

 

 

 

I've been in this hobby for about 15 years.  I've never seen one of these at a train show.   I saw it on eBay once.  That's it below.  It's an MTH Frisco E-8 ABA set.

 

 

 

And the last one....this I definitely have not seen anywhere else.  I first saw it at a Greenberg Show in Edison, NJ a few years ago.  Thought it was too much, I'll find it cheaper elsewhere.  Years went by, I'd see this same engine at same dealer.  No change.  Finally it dropped a little in price.  And then in Oct. at York I broke down.  I don't recall ever seeing another one anywhere else.  It's an Atlas Atlantic &  East Carolina RS-1.

 

 

 

- Mike

Good catch! 

 

I forgot that one, even though I was on at least one or 2 of those tours!

 

-Dave

     Me and dad have Kennywood, Iron City, Islay's, Westinghouse and Harley Davidson. Choo Choo Kenny

Don't know how rare but Post War Berkshire 736 in both boxes never run.

Ive been thinning my pre and post war Lionel and moving more into the current generation. However there are some that took me quite a bit time to find and are I bit on the rare side which I will hold onto. See below a few of them: rare 397 yellow version coal loader, 97 coal loader, rare 3459 aluminum coal dump cars, 3459 green dump car and others. I do have some very nice remote cranes, 165 & 182R.

quote:

Don't know how rare but Post War Berkshire 736 in both boxes never run.

 

Well...... they aren't common.

 

And I was starting to like you Steamer (Its a booster! Experimental prototype)

 

 

Only one built L-105 #3700 with "chevron" on the sand box.



1 of 3 A/B/A sets built 4 stripe ALCO PA



1 of 2 sets built ALCO PA A/B/A 1 and 2 combination #62L/A #78L in 1947-1950 late steam era detailing.

Custom built one of one 2-8-2 double head Mikados. Late steam era with drivers in white for inspection and one in service condition.


EMC/EMD E5 Silver Bullet 9909 only one built just like her 1:1 prototype (CRI&P E6 only one built in early post rebuild after wreck #630) Red nose late E5 Silver Speed just prior to sale to C&S only one built (I sold this one- too modern for my era)
E3 CNW was one of 5 sets produced- part of production run.

Wow that is beautiful!



       

I have a Williams Scale Brass PRR T1, which has a small brass sticker under the rear truck, which reads "PRR T1:1 of 650".  It is not rare since 650 were produced, but the sticker identifies it, somewhat, as one of a kind.  I installed ERR Cruise commander and Railsounds and it runs like a champ.

 

George  

Are you sure it's in the box and not just some big brick?  just a little humor.

 

In all seriousness you if you ever open it you should have Geraldo Rivera come over and film it live. Seeing that come out of the box would be awesome after all this time.

 

By the way, Harry Carry would be proud of your screen name!!

Mine is not painted. It's brass. Was your's painted? As I recall you could get the non-painted one a lot cheaper. Don

This might be one of twelve - kits were sort of ready, but the drawings were dated Dec 7, 1941.  The photo is of mine - the only complete Lobaugh Cab-Forward I have ever seen.

 

I would consider my MTH Electric Trains green Southern Kanawha to be rare as well as the black one.

Does anybody have a good handle on which of the Atlas woodside reefers are the rare ones? I know some of mine are pretty scarce, but I don't know which ones are really rare as opposed to just hard to find. 

First post in two years.

I'd consider my 6-28074 final US production NKP Berk rare. How often does anybody else see one of those anyway? The guy I bought it off two years ago actually worked at Lionel on this project; he said they only make about 250(?) By far still one of the best engines Lionel made.

I really don't have anything I would consider "rare". Maybe the one exception I can think of is I have one of the CWI boxcar. It is the one in the top picture posted by Bill T. I have the last one sold. There were a total of 104 boxcars produced for this run. I called the store when I found out about it and the gentleman said they were sold out. The run was 100 boxcars. However, he told me that 4 extra were produced in case any of the first 100 cars had any type of damage or were damaged in shipping. He already had 3 other people reserve one of the extra cars and said I could reserve the 4th one but if any of the cars were damaged I would be the first person not to get the boxcar. I told him OK. What did I have to lose? Well lucky for me none of the other cars were damaged and I got my car in the mail. Not only have I never taken the car out of it's box but I have never even taken the box out of the shipping box. I did open the box to look at the car.

 

I also have the 2010 CWI OGR Tour boxcar. I guess that could be considered rare but to me it is more of a souvenir. The first boxcar is more of a collectable.

I have a Lionel factory paint prototype C&NW FM Trainmaster that is one of a kind.  Also a 6464 postwar Alaska boxcar in excellent condition.  My Dad bought that for me in 59, a few years after we moved from Alaska to the lower 48.  I noticed that a late postwar period N&W covered hopper (I don't recall the number offhand) is going for a pretty high price on ebay - I have 3 of them.

I also have several different examples of the one hundred car runs produced by Weaver/Buffalo Creek Graphics for our club.

When was the C&NW FM made? Id love to see it.