Blogging with Roger Carp at Classic Toy Trains

In my previous blog posting, I talked about the important role postwar collector and expert Joe Algozzini has played at Classic Toy Trains virtually from the day the first issue was planned and published – way back in the autumn of 1987. I joined the staff in time to assist Founding Editor Dick Christianson with the second issue, which came out the following spring. Very soon after starting, I met Joe and began working with him.

If you think about it, having at the disposal of the magazine someone who owned almost every locomotive, freight and passenger car, and accessory cataloged by Lionel during the post-World War II period was about as fortunate an occurrence as Dick or I could have imagined. After all, we knew that CTT would be showing and describing the trains Lionel manufactured and sold between 1945 and 1969. That era was the most popular among our growing base of subscribers and newsstand readers. They wanted to see the trains they had grown up with and were now collecting; we had to be able to show them.

Well, Joe was enthusiastic about sharing with CTT readers his incredible research. He would author terrific and fact-based manuscripts that Dick insisted I edit and prepare for publication. When we needed photographs of the sets and other items Joe was discussing, he always made time available to bring those trains to our Photo Studio and devote a full day (about 8 hours) to taking the pictures he needed and thought we should take.

These days, Joe makes the 2-hour trip from his home about three times a year. I talk with him about what he is writing about; very often it is a survey of the outfits Lionel made during a particular year of production. In addition, I ask him to bring specific trains I would like to be photographed for articles I am writing, especially for the special-interest publications on the history of Lionel put out by Classic Toy Trains every year since 2011.

When Joe visited most recently, we were busy planning for the upcoming article on Lionel sets released in 1965. We had finished Lionel sets for 1964 and published it in the November 2014 issue of CTT. Now we were ready to forge ahead with the next year.

It is always so much fun to watch Joe carefully unpack the trains and set boxes. He will spend several weeks preparing what he wants to bring. He makes sure the items for each set are correct. Often, to our good fortune, he owns an original example of an outfit that he acquired from the original owner. No chance of making a mistake with the contents.

Also being photographed that day were gondolas for a comprehensive article I am planning to finish this year. And plenty of Lionel items you’ll soon see as Collectible Classics. Joe shares pristine examples of favorite locomotives and pieces of rolling stock often overlooked by collectors. In between, he and I are trading trivia about old rock ‘n’ roll songs and television programs from the 1950s and ‘60s. We have a great time!