Need info re: circa 1955 Lionel O-27

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone

My husband found his old Lionel O-27 train set in his mothers attic over Christmas and has decided to sell it but has no idea of its worth. He got it somewhere between 1950 and 1955. It's cast metal with an engine, caboose, flatbed, tanker and 2 box cars. It has lots of tracks, but no transformer and no box.

As I said, he is trying to determine it's value, but has no idea whether it actually has any value. I am hoping one of you folks can give me an idea of where to start. Thanks in advance.

Hanne

[pbjwilson]

If you could give us some numbers from the engine and cars someone here might be able to help. The engine should have a number under the window by where the engineer would sit, probably a 3 or 4 digit number.

Each car will have a number as well, probably a 4 digits

Glad you found us, we enjoy investigating these problems.

[dwiemer]

Hanne,
Welcome. As Paul says above, we will need the numbers from the engine and the rest of the cars. If it is a complete set, that adds to the value. As to value, a subjective thing, you would need to find out what condition it is in. Does it run, any damage, any accessories, lots of questions to answer so we can give you a fair number. There are some guides that we use, but they deal in very very good quality to give a value. One idea is to see what the pieces are selling on Ebay. If you have a camera and can post some photos, this would aid us. We not only like to investigate these things as Paul says, but we like to help folks out. If you would like to look into the hobby for yourselves, we can help with that too.
Dennis

[daan]

Welcome Hanne,
The value depends on a lot of things, like mentionned above. If it's a steamlocomotive, like a 2026 with a normal tender without whistle, there are lots of them around and probably isn't worth a fortune. The flatbed would probably be a gondola, most usual is the black NYC gondola, value about $5-$10 when having white lettering. The boxcars can vary a lot. Those really depend on which one they are. The caboose probably is the red Lionel lines one, which is in line with the gondola when it comes to value.
The engine depends on what it is. A bell ringing diesel switcher with crisp lettering is worth a lot, but a scout (2-4-2 steamer) is about $25-$30 dollars.
Unless there is something unusual or rare with the trains, don't expect the vaue to exceed above $100. Normally the most trains from that era which are found on attics after a while are the starter set engines and common cars, and since there are a lot of them still running, there is a lot for sale. That keeps prices low.
You could look on ebay a bit to determine what the price could be for the items.

Personally I would rethink the sell and keep the trains for under the christmass tree..