Lionel Postwar F3's

[J. Daddy]

I have had the same issue but in a different manner. Lionel reproduced PA-1' sets A-B-A with plastic gears and a faulty E computer chip in the 90's, My Dad collected allot of AF and when he passed on. I wanted to run them to preserve the memory. He purchased about 12 of these collector pass sets in different remake roadnames which are just beautiful, I did not want to ruin thier value by remotoring...so what I did was to buy one extra chassis, modify it so it ran really well, added rail sounds with TMCC and would just simply swap shells if I wanted to run another set. This will preserve the original sets and you can run them all day with better performance. Yet if choose to display them as original you have them still intact! Oh and don't repaint, those scratches, nicks and rubs show years of irreplaceable fun! If you want new you can always buy new....

[Dub]

Their is one reason I can not get serious about collecting for value and condition. NOS.I'm glad to buy runners, they are affordable and make a link to the past. How many times on ebay have I seen the older shells that have been changed out. Too many for me.As you can guess as a buyer I have been totally turned off. Well mostly.

[RockIsland52]

Always wondered about that, Dub.  How do you know what's on top matches what is underneath?  There's no VIN numbers on these things.

Jack

[Berk765]

That's a good idea keep them original. I guess if I had a valuable loco, I would run it. Lets face it, you can't take it to heavon with you when you die. Enjoy it while you can. Run it and get your money's worth.

[RockIsland52]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.  No trains in heaven?  I'll have to think about salvation for a bit, may not be worth the price. 

Jack