Kusan K-line Bexel special train set

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I recently built my son a small layout for Christmas, so he could run his HO thomas the train set on it. After doing this I remembered I had a larger train set when I was young.

I took a trip over to my fathers and was able to find it. It is a Kusan K-Line Bexel special. Has a Desiel Engine, 1 box car, 1 tanker car, a coboose, and a gravel hualer type car. The engine is silver in color with Bexel Special printing on it. The car each have Bexel printed on it with different sayings. Has the original track and Power supply.

I pulled it out set it up and it still runs just like i remeber. So I brought it home to find out some info on it and have hit a brick wall. Very little info at all on the bexel speical. More on the atomic version but not much on it either.

The history I got from my Dad is this: His father pirchaced a drug store in the early 60s, this train setup was on display in the drugstore. He boxed it up and brought it home for christmas under the tree. It was passed down from oldest brother to youngest, finnaly to me.

It has the original shipping box with has a shipping date of 1958, KF-1015 is the model number on the box. Im wondering if anyone has any information on this set and weather or not its a collectors item and has any value.

I was going to let my son have it, but I dont want to hand over something worth quite abit of money to him since hes only 6 years old. If its not worth much then I wont have a problem. Plus Id like some general history on it, something to share with my kids if we put it on display here at the house.

Thanks for any info you may have.

[Anonymous]

Any info would help, a google search turned up nothing of real value, and no one around here knows anything about it.

If it helps I can take some pictures of the set and post them. Or if anyone knows of another forum that deals only with older trains they could point me too id appreciate it.

[Anonymous]

Kusan was a toy company located in Nashville, Tennessee. Kusan began making toy trains in 1955 after they bought out the train manufacturer AMT (Auburn Model Trains/American Model Toys). Kusan couldn't compete against Lionel or American Flyer and quit making trains in 1961. One thing that Kusan is noted for are their many models of military- and space-themed trains.

Bexel Drug marketed the train set for Kusan trains . you find them on Ebay alot either in a set or by the pieces.I like there boxcars alot the fit o-guage well.The engine works on 2-rail and uses a DC transformer.The complete set with all the paperwork can go between $50-70 on ebay.The diesel was silver chromed and a good looker.If you keep it check out ebay for the New Haven diesel also with the 2 seated engineers in the front
seat.There shells look like lionel but wont fit on the chassis without some work.I have taken some diesel dummies and repainted them to fit me layout theme.The dummy engines are dirt cheap on E-bay great for kitbashing.I would hold onto the set and enjoy them!! [2c]

[Anonymous]

You will find the Bexel set and single cars quite often on the KMT site for E-Bay. They typically don't sell for a very high price, seem the set w/o boxes for around 50 to 70 dollars

[alton6]

The Kusan cars mate fairly well with tradional sized Lionel cars, although tracking suffers some because they are pretty light. The shorter drawbars Kusan made help tighten a consist nicely. The wheels, being plastic, don't have the world's best rolling characteristics, but sometimes the cars can be found retrofitted with the metal wheels that Williams produced for its later versions. Then they run a lot better.

Friendly cars, and a good value generally. The tank cars are quite nice.

Carl