@Jedderbob posted:I have a three of mine already.
..........6-38000 Century Club 2 Dreyfuss With matching Century Club 2 Consist + Optional PT Tender
..........
I think maybe you mean Empire State Express? The Dreyfuss was not a CCII Engine.
-Dave
@Dave45681 posted:I think maybe you mean Empire State Express? The Dreyfuss was not a CCII Engine.
-Dave
Yes, I mean the Empire State Express consist. The Hudson pulling it all still has the Dreyfuss streamline shroud. But either way it's the 6-38000 CC2 Hudson
@Patrick1544 posted:K line NYC J1e.
Is this what you want ? This is the Williams Masterpiece hudson in brass. If you can find one buy it!!!
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Nation Wide Lines: I had an uncle (my grandmother's half sister's husband really) who had an American Flyer 20th Anniversary clock. He didn't have any tinplate trains to my knowledge and years later never thought to ask if he ever had had any. I am back in contact with one of his grand daughter's (a close but no kissin' cousin) and will ask her if she received the clock when he passed away. She, being the oldest of three female cousins, I assume she may have received it and may still have it to this day?
@Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:Nation Wide Lines: I had an uncle (my grandmother's half sister's husband really) who had an American Flyer 20th Anniversary clock. He didn't have any tinplate trains to my knowledge and years later never thought to ask if he ever had had any. I am back in contact with one of his grand daughter's (a close but no kissin' cousin) and will ask her if she received the clock when he passed away. She, being the oldest of three female cousins, I assume she may have received it and may still have it to this day?
They are tough to find. The estimate is there were c. 50 to 100 of them made. Mine came from the estate of a clock collector.
The "holy grail" items I do not have yet are not too expensive but they are very hard to find or have sentimental value to me.
I back in 2010 I got the MTH 4-car NYC MU set but have not been able to locate the extra 2-car set (30-2846-3). Ten years of searching and only one set turned up but I was not willing to pay $400 for something used that listed for $160 new.
When I was very little my parents used to take me to several department stores that used to set-up Christmas displays. I vividly remember in Nordstrom there was a dept. 56 "Christmas in the City" display of New York City. My first LHS had a deal with Nordstrom and would help set up displays with the condition that they could sell MTH and Lionel RTR sets there. One early Christmas season I went there with my father, Bob who worked at "The Aberdeen Hobby Shop" was setting up this "Christmas in the City" display. He had two beautiful subway sets running: the MTH Premier R-1 subway set and a Premier R32 subway set running on two loops of track. As a kid, I always dreamed of having both. Fast forward 17 years and now they are on my "nice-to-have" presuming I can get them for a good price.
I am always amazed by the beauty of K-line's 18" passenger cars and I have amassed quite a fleet of them but some sets of cars remains elusive to me. I have been looking for a complete set of the 18 inch Aluminum Pennsylvania cars (K-4680R, K-4680S, K-4680T) and the streamlined 18 inch "Phoebe Snow" (K-4638D, K-4638E). I know they are out there somewhere in the ether but I haven't seen any complete sets yet.
I am confident that I will be able to find these sometime in the future.
Bryce
Some of the contemporary holy grail items remind me that if I really want an item I should pre-order it. I know some say that you can always find the item on the secondary market for cheaper. Sometimes not!
Here are the Neil Young purchase cars I referenced in my original post. All four were commercially available, not the super scarce car Dave describes. The flat car does not carry crates, but piles of wood used in guitar manufacture. It was Wellspring that bought Lionel; I believe Young owned 20% of Wellspring at the time.
Jan
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NWL: I will decline to ask how much you paid for the AF clock, but when did you find this treasure?
@Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:NWL: I will decline to ask how much you paid for the AF clock, but when did you find this treasure?
I found it on ebay, under Clocks of all places. I have had it for approximately 10 years. They come up on ebay and at train auctions every so often, you just have to watch.
NWL
I forgot to post this under my list of Holy Grail prewar items. It is the globe to a factory produced store display from c. 1929 or so. Very few have survived and I have never seen the display layout / shelving unit that this would have been attached to.
NWL
@Oscale_Trains_Lover_ posted:The "holy grail" items I do not have yet are not too expensive but they are very hard to find or have sentimental value to me.
I back in 2010 I got the MTH 4-car NYC MU set but have not been able to locate the extra 2-car set (30-2846-3). Ten years of searching and only one set turned up but I was not willing to pay $400 for something used that listed for $160 new.
When I was very little my parents used to take me to several department stores that used to set-up Christmas displays. I vividly remember in Nordstrom there was a dept. 56 "Christmas in the City" display of New York City. My first LHS had a deal with Nordstrom and would help set up displays with the condition that they could sell MTH and Lionel RTR sets there. One early Christmas season I went there with my father, Bob who worked at "The Aberdeen Hobby Shop" was setting up this "Christmas in the City" display. He had two beautiful subway sets running: the MTH Premier R-1 subway set and a Premier R32 subway set running on two loops of track. As a kid, I always dreamed of having both. Fast forward 17 years and now they are on my "nice-to-have" presuming I can get them for a good price.
I am always amazed by the beauty of K-line's 18" passenger cars and I have amassed quite a fleet of them but some sets of cars remains elusive to me. I have been looking for a complete set of the 18 inch Aluminum Pennsylvania cars (K-4680R, K-4680S, K-4680T) and the streamlined 18 inch "Phoebe Snow" (K-4638D, K-4638E). I know they are out there somewhere in the ether but I haven't seen any complete sets yet.
I am confident that I will be able to find these sometime in the future.
Bryce
Second the MU cars and subways. Hopefully one day I'll find them. Especially the R1.
Rule #1 : ALWAYS buy the add-ons when they are cataloged with the set. 
(OK, maybe that's rule #2, behind "buy it when you see it" if you are at a train meet(assuming price is acceptable), or it will likely be gone when you "go back" (because someone right behind you maybe also found the price acceptable) 
)
Sorry, I know that doesn't help people who were not in the hobby when an item came out and are trying to buy them years later. So a modification would be to try to be aware of any add-ons before you buy a set. You are more likely to find someone selling a set including add-ons as a group than you are to find someone selling just the add-ons alone, particularly for a 4 car / 2 add-on type of subway or MU set.
-Dave
MTH SF Blue Goose - The J class with ps/2 and all the matching cars. I think the railking was ps1 only though.
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@Dave45681 posted:I'm not sure if this is what Hiramo meant, but try searching for "Lionel Martin Guitars" and look at images. It wasn't actual guitars, but 4 wood boxes on a flat car meant to suggest there were guitars inside.
I think, or maybe it's pallets of the wood used to make the guitars - there is a sign with a wood type(?) on top of each of the 4 items on the flatcar. While I know what this car looks like, I never paid a lot of attention to studying it. Maybe it's even guitar product lines? I know literally zero about guitars... the signs say Mahogany, Sitka Spruce, Rosewood, and Ebony, and the boxes seem to be colored to coordinate with the names.
-Dave
Never knew about the flat car with wood pallets that are supposed to be miniature Martin Guitars. Very nice. Would love to have one since my most treasured tangible non-living thing is a nylon string Martin Guitar made in the mid-1960s. Arnold
@Dave45681 posted:Rule #1 : ALWAYS buy the add-ons when they are cataloged with the set.
(OK, maybe that's rule #2, behind "buy it when you see it" if you are at a train meet(assuming price is acceptable), or it will likely be gone when you "go back" (because someone right behind you maybe also found the price acceptable)
Sorry, I know that doesn't help people who were not in the hobby when an item came out and are trying to buy them years later. So a modification would be to try to be aware of any add-ons before you buy a set. You are more likely to find someone selling a set including add-ons as a group than you are to find someone selling just the add-ons alone, particularly for a 4 car / 2 add-on type of subway or MU set.
-Dave
Dave,
That is a rule I stick to but sadly no one had the extra 2-car add-on in-stock when I got my 4-car set two years after MTH made them. I did use the product locator and found one but the dealer never updated it saying it was no longer in stock.
I see several 4-car NYC MUs for sale on da'bay frequently but never the 2-car set (either by itself or with a 4-car set). I might end up getting another 4-car set and re-numbering the cars. At least I will have two powered units! 
Bryce
Great thread, very interesting to read the various "Holy Grails".
Mine is a K-Line Tank Car lettered for Colfax Pawtucket Rhode Island. I switched out the Pawtucket yard while working for the Providence & Worcester RR.
I have a tidy sum stashed away to entice someone to sell this to me.
Paul
