Throw away your trains?

[FJ and G]

I visited the sister MR forum http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=17075

and was surprised to see a post I made last June titled: "Have you ever thrown away a train?" still active on page 1 or 2

Some responses are hilarious, esp from guys who discovered (or rediscovered?) O scale and tossed their HO stuff.

I don't know why I'm still holding on to my HO stuff. I bet there are a few other toy train lovers who won't part with theirs. Even tho I know I'll never use them I still hold them like a pak rat.

Reg. O scale, I have one or two trains that don't work. Making a dummy out of one and using the other for spare parts or possibly trade. But throw them away?

NEVER!!!!!!

[ben10ben]

At a show today, I managed to pick up 3 O22 switches for next to nothing($9 for all three) out of a junk box. They were bad enough that I'm sure many would have tossed them and not given a second thought to it.

Upon getting them home, I pulled apart and examined each. Although one had some pretty serious damage to the motor(broken lantern bracket), all three had good, strong solenoids. Anyway, after some cleaning, I now have one switch every bit as good as one that I would have paid $15-20 for from the same table at the show. I will soon have at least one other just like it, as well as one not quite as nice one that can still be used.

If all else fails, the third one won't go into the trash. I'll have spare rails, a spare base, a good solenoid, and plenty of other parts that I'm sure will come in handy somwhere along the way. The last unrepairable O22 that met the same fate has come in very useful the past couple of years, and has gotten three or four other O22s working.

Cases like that are the exact reason why I don't like to throw away even the most seemingly useless pieces.

[pbjwilson]

I think that's in one of them there commandments - thou shalt not toss, throw out, or abuse his trains. Am I right or am I wrong?

[laz 57]

Throw away a train.....................yea right?
laz57

[brianel027]

I remember one time when a train buddy brought me this searchlight car that was in more separate pieces than it was together. Not only was it a beater in every sense of the word, but it was just sort of hanging in several directions... loose wires and trucks... missing parts and pieces.

Well I was so happy and thankful. My friend started laughing and I asked why? He said he'd never seen someone get so happy over a piece of broken train junk. I told him I saw the car not as the junker it was, but what I knew it would be after I got done with it.

And today it's a Penn Central searchlight car. And the best compliment comes when people (who don't know of my penchant for redoing cars) ask me "When did Lionel make that car in Penn Central?"

[riverrailfan]

I got a guy at work thats a junker(garbage picker). When I told him that I was getting into trains last summer, he told me he had some that he has found through the years. He gave me boxes full of this stuff. Some of it is really cheap late 70's Lionel and HO but there were a good few finds. 45 US Marines moble launcher, B&O 1956 box car, 3665 Minuteman operating car, 50's whistling tenders, transformers, Super O track, O27 track etc.

[prewardude]

Sometimes throwing away a train can be a good thing - in more ways than one. Remember the story about Richard Kughn finding a Lionel train in a trash can? Not only did that start him in a life-long hobby, it was also beneficial to Lionel many years down the road. If the person who threw that train away only knew the impact that they ultimately had on the Lionel name and the hobby!

As for me, I would NEVER throw a Lionel train away. My Mother once threw away a beat-up old Lionel prewar freight set that my Aunt had given me when I was about four years old. I'm still traumatized by that experience. I do believe that's what got me hooked on prewar gear, though.

Regards,
Clint

[Anonymous]

Hello All: I never throw anything away, give things away I will do, if someone has use for it they can gladly have it. ( I have just finished finding homes for my parents possessions, that took me 8 months) & it was a great to see people appreciate & have a purpose for things. It was never intended to sit on the shelf collecting dust, besides it gives me more space for new train equipment. Kind Regard's Steve

[dougdagrump]

BLASPHEMY

[Anonymous]

I think if any one plans on throwing out there O guage trains they should be stung up but first WHERE IS THERE GARBAGE CAN!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

I generally give stuff away (if I don't believe they will sell or are worth selling), but I have, on occasion, thrown away some train items in various scales if I don't feel they're worth resorting to either of the above options. I recognize that one man's trash is another man's treasure, but I also feel the need from time to time to just clean house and dispose of things I no longer want or need, and which I feel simply aren't worth bothering with.

[Anonymous]

Alan,
If you ever feel like cleaning house and disposing of train things again, tell us about it on here! I'm sure that many of us would be more than willing to take the stuff!

Anyway, on the subject of throwing away trains, that was how a good friend of mine got started in the hobby. He was helping a neighbor clean out his basement and he noticed a box of toy trains. He asked the guy what he was going to do with them and the guy said, "I don't know, throw 'em out I guess." My friend replied that he would take them. That was 15 years ago and he now has one of the biggest collections in the province! Also, this same friend obtained a super-rare Hafner Canadian Flyer passenger car in mint condition from a friend of his who found it in a garbage dump!

I myself obtained a Bub O gauge clockwork engine from a co-worker of my dad's who found it in his garage and would have thrown it away if he hadn't known that my dad had a son who collected trains. It wasn't exactly in great condition, but I still have found use for it.

I'm a person who strongly believes in not throwing away ANYTHING! Even if it's junk to you, there's got to be somebody out there who wants it!

[Anonymous]

[:)][8D] Hey Allen, like I had said if you want to throw away WHERE IS YOUR GARBAGE CAN??? I'm not bashful I'll dumpster dive for Ogauge (or any other gauge for that matter). My father just passed away so my mom ask me if I wanted his HO stuff eventhough my son and I are into O. I said YES ! not just because it is train stuff but it was his and I remember 30 years ago he would let me help and we always had a 4x8 HO layout under the tree from Thanksgivving till begining of Feb. when it came down (mom was not to happy but WE ALWAYS HAD FUN RUNNING TRAINS ! And when my son got old enough for his own train (4) he got his first Diesel freight set in O and dad was there running trains with him and me.

JIm D.
a.k.a. SOCKO[:)][:)]

[jimhaleyscomet]

True confessions time.....

About 20 years ago I pulled all my old train stuff out of my Mom's attick. There was a ton of rusty track, a cheap lionel steamer, a few plastic cars and a caboose (all from 1964). Then there was some real old stuff (might of been my brothers). Perhaps an F3 chassis? I kept the train set, cars and trainsformer. I tossed the track and a few other rusty cars / chassis. Now that I know more about the hobby I still wonder what I tossed.

One more confession. Two years ago I started with the Protosound 2.0 and TMCC engines. I traded off all my old conventional operation locos (Penn GP7, Union Pacific AA, UP RS-3) and 027 cars. Now I have restarted up a conventional operation door layout and guess what I am buying on ebay?

Live and learn!

Jim H

[Anonymous]

i was just wondering if you could tell me the price of a lionel tran engine number 239 it was my dads and noow that he has passed i am thinking of selling it i also have a camel train has the number 7701 and i have morton salt train number 9114 and a coal car this a small collection but he had thousands of them can you please help me thanks you can email me [e-mail] thanks alot Dallas

[Dr. John]

When I was a teenager, my Mom threw away my first toy train set - a Marx 2-rail clock work set. [:(] I sure wish I had it now! She also sold my first electric train set (a Marx Allstate set) to a neighbor for $10.00. She figured that I had out grown the trains. If she only knew!

I have sold off some of my HO collection, but hang on to a good bit of it. I also have some N scale too. Why keep it if I'm not using it? Well, I may decide to venture back into one or both of these scales one day (although my middle-aged eyes say otherwise). I would not dream of throwing them away. I may have grandkids one day that would love some of this stuff. Who knows? My 17 year old son might still come around to trains too!

[powernailer]

Am I the only one that hears their wife say, "why are you saving all that junk". Junk, that's almost grounds for divorce. She has gotten a little more understanding, but, sometimes I think we all ask ourselves that question, Why am I saving this? I have a collection of old parts, some cab, some track, and misc., I am looking for a home for it, ya I don't want to throw it out, but I really have no use for it. I have mostly new items now.