Your best purchase !

[TXT]

AM hobbies, I've purchased atleast 20 Atlas cars and 1 WP GP7w/tmcc from him ,great deals on all of them.

As for usage, my sons Magnetic gantry crane has paid for itself in 2fold in play time!!  

[seacoast]

 I usually find stuff at train shows (greenbergs or great american shows) or Amherst the Big E one in Springfield or smaller ones, In the summer I do not go to many shows as there are not many in the area (fall/winter I go to alot of them). Other stuff I find online (occasionally).

[Dub]

Of course! The train set was a find at the North Hampton Common yard sale a few years back. The caboose was last week at the Wonderland Thrift Store in Exeter ( My first visit there).

My wife introduce me to Antiques at College in Central NH. Weekends, we would sometimes drive the back roads and visit shops. I started to find train items and a collector was born, Lately train shows have interested me because of the amount of used items. As a result, most of my pieces have a story where they were found. In a way, it is a strange way to collect. I buy what I can afford but I never know what the next item will be.

It's late, Dunbaron Oaks and Holgrem yard sale in 7 hours. In your town! The hunt continues.

I'll have my El Campo ball cap on.  

[seacoast]

Hey Dub,

Good for you and your son, are you finding this stuff in Seacoast NH region?

[Dub]

An 80's DC set with the 8903 2-4-2 engine. A yard sale find for my son for $5.00.

The box came with 50% trains and 50% cat fur.    Surprisingly the set is in very good condition.

Just last week I found a Lionel Bobber for 25 cents. One broken coupler and no stack.

[tcox009]

Lionel 6356 Yellow NYC stock car, which was my first purchase after rediscovering Lionel trains in the early 1980s,  I had however managed to save my Lionel/Marx trains from childhood.  Now a couple of 100 items later I'm glad I bought that car.

[brianel027]

I don't have a nifty neat specific story as many of the other good ones here.

But I will say I consider all my trains to be my best purchase. I don't go for anything fancy or expensive: the lower-end products are fine with me. K-Line Alco FA's, S-2's, MP-15's, similar Lionel diesels and the Lionel 4-4-2 starter steamer, Lionel MPC and basic Williams... they're all great and have been more than reliable and have served me fine.

Back 6-7 years ago when the ecomony in my area REALLY was down the toilet, I went to a yard sale, where the guy had a Lionel 2242 New Haven F-3 set that was in pretty darn good shape, with the box to boot and he was willing to take $150 for it. I asked why so cheap and the answer was he needed the money and needed the money fast... like right now. The problem was, nobody had any money, including me, so I had to pass on that one.

I guess that would be the best deal I ever passed up instead of my best purchase.

Though later I did find a plastic MPC Lionel Dockside at a Salvation Army thrift store for one dollar. It even worked!

Not a great loco as was, but once I got done making changes and improvements (adding weight, handrails, headlight, cab figures, etc.) - yeah, it's a great little loco for sure. Even with the time and money I put into that one, it was still a great deal. And I don't think many folks find a working train loco these days for a single dollar.

[rjake4454]

My first lionel purchase was the pennsy S1 6-4-4-6 duplex. I am thrilled with it. Extremely powerful sound, beautiful streamlining, scale marker lights on the tender!

The only problem is the smoke is pretty weak for such a large, expensive steamer, but I have heard that lionel wins hands down when it comes to sound, whereas MTH wins with smoke. After my purchase, I tend to agree. And in my opinion, sound quality is far more important than smoke volume, especially considering I choose to run them most of the time with the smoke turned off.

I also prefer lionel's shade of tuscan red on the tender, its a tad darker than MTH's, I am not sure which is more prototypical but I like the look of mine better.

I would love to get my hands on the lionel J1a texas, but that won't be for another year or two after all the money I just spent on trains!

[krapug1]

A Couple of years ago I bid on a Lionel PW set featuring a 671 RR engine, (this was the reprise of the 671 during the Korean War, when Mangetraction was put on hold). First I put a low bid on it, and frankly never expected to win. Needless to say I won the set, and the price, with S & H was just under $75.00. The package arrived, and there was a note from the seller that said he thought I would enjoy some "extras". The extras included a Water Tower, 2 Crossing Signals, 2 medium sized PW era transformers, and 0 gauge track (straight sections.to boot, always welcomed for display shelves). On occasion extra goodies show up with e-bay purchases (in particular from non-business sellers), but I don't think none will top the 671 RR set "extras" Ken

[thor]

MY best and thus far ONLY purchase (of a locomotive) was the Hogwarts Express. The GWR was always my favorite railway company and their Castles and Halls were my favorite main line express engines, I wish Lionel would do one of their tank engines like the saddletank because they made a great range of tank engines. Okay so its the wrong color but I like the Harry Potter books too so its a twofer. All of my best stuff is Lionel train sets, you can't beat the deal and if you're starting out its the best way to acquire the stuff you need. I'd really love that ultimate two box train set that comes with a ZW and Legacy, maybe if i had a loop of 72 track my Hogwarts loco might get a move on but on 036 she's dragging around those curves. I really want a Stanier Pacific like MTH is going to make but I cannot afford it, so I'm betting on Lionel and keeping my fingers crossed!

[billbarman]

My best buy was probably my MPC era Lionel Blue Comet. I got it at a garage sale for about $50 with all the passenger cars. Everything worked great. smoke unit was fine, paint was fine, all couplers worked. My only problem is the Sounds of steam sounds didnt work. Not a big deal I guess. they didnt sound too good anyway. I run it alot and its defenetly one of my favorites.

[Texas Pete]

  The Polar Express set I bought on closeout in the spring of 2008 to put around the tree for Christmas.

  After a bad experience with a very poor quality Lionel starter set I got the kids around 1980, the PE was plenty good enough to get me back into toy trains.  Oy.

Texas Pete

 

[dougdagrump]

I have quite a few pieces that I would qualify as a best buy but far and away my "Best Purchase" was Christmas before last when we surprised our grandson with a Thomas and Friends set plus Percy and James when he started up the trains under the tree. Santa's helpers had parked them in the tunnel the evening before.

[Berk765]

Well, I guess my future best buy is my Lionel Santa Fe #3158 Mikado, well, havent bought it yet, its on layaway right now. This one costs $450, I know its way too much for this engine but it was made in America so I thought it was ok. Anyway it is in excellent condition with no scratches just a bent handrail on its tender and the tether wires are slightly damaged. This mike was made in 1994 and has Railsounds II that sounds great, runs smooth and has an AWESOME whistle. It has its original box with original paperwork and even the original smoke fluid bottle. My greatest buy for now would be my Wabash Hudson, this one cost $400 dollars, traded an MTH engine, and two williams engines for it. It is also in excellent condition with a slightly damaged tether plug. It was my first engine with magna-traction, and pullmor motor and TMCC. It has its original box in like new condition with all paperwork and its sound activation button and its small bottle of smoke fluid is still there. Still dreaming about the 50 dollar 700E Hudson but that probably wont happen.

[railfan23]

Here is my best buy. This set came out of a pawn shop in 2001 for $75.00 and it included the boxes. The cars had to be rewired and the 2332 is missing the sound box but I believe that I will never get a deal like this again.

[Berk765]

lionelsoni

Last year I paid the original list price of $50 for a 1950 773 with 2426W tender.  It was a little dirty, missing a tender wheelset, some tender steps, and some railings: but everything worked.  It's now cleaned up and lubricated, with missing trim replaced.

HOLY @#&% Where did you get that engine?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man I am JEALOUS. You lucky S.O.B!!!

[lionelsoni]

Last year I paid the original list price of $50 for a 1950 773 with 2426W tender.  It was a little dirty, missing a tender wheelset, some tender steps, and some railings: but everything worked.  It's now cleaned up and lubricated, with missing trim replaced.

[Train-O]

George,

Your patriotism, paying tribute to all of the Veterans and asking about our best buys is more than optimistic and I thank you.

I have many best buys, but especially my recent purchase of Lionel's G.E.U30C diesel locomotive with the TMCC features, Standard O Scale size and almost full detail, so far had to be a best buy.  Not only was the price right, but the many realistic features, as it's realistic details, makes this the best to date.

This is the first of a TMCC engine for me and I will try others and I'd like to try a Legacy System engine.

Now, I know what the forum members, who have Legacy and TMCC, are raving about.

Again, Thank You For The Salute,

Sincerely,

Ralph 

[seacoast]

First I would like to say I honor all of our veterans! Especially on this day the 6th of June the anniversary of D-Day 1944. I believe the men involved are USA's greatest generation.

 Trying to keep this Post optimistic. My best buy was 3 years ago on Ebay from a huge online train dealer (trainz). Its a ( Sunset 3 rail Brass) UP Big Boy early version. The last day it was listed at $500 I put in a "what the heck bid" at $ 600 , I did win the bid- the locomotive showed up in the box with all the bells and whistles. Its a true materpiece, it runs and is a beauty of an engine and my prized loco in O. I have it on a display shelf currently. I eventually --- when I get the time to build a big enough layout to have it run on it 072+ curves.  I dont think this loco would be sold for cheap today as trainz and sunset  models inc. have become more "savy" towards pricing of boneyard and leftover newer loco's.