Found this Lionel train set while clearing out the inlaws belongings. It was made in the mid-1970s I believe in Taiwan for Lionel Canada/ Parker Brothers. Do you think it is worth trying to sell or should I just pass it on. It is of no interest for me to keep. Is there a Lionel collectors site I could visit that anyone knows about?
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
A friend of mine found an old Lionel HO train set in a relative's attic. It had typical Lionel gimmick cars, a giraffe car, an atomic waste disposal car, and a helicopter car.
I took it to a train show and got $25 US for it.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
BATMANDo you think it is worth trying to sell or should I just pass it on.
Well on the plus side it's Lionel and looks complete with boxes.
OTH it's HO not O.
You might post this on the Classic Toy Train forum.
Paul
Mr Beasley, your friend was too quick. I had one of those Lionel Atomic cars (those are from the 50's, the first time Lionel did HO). Mine worked, and I think it did have the box - I think I got $25 just for that on ebay. I also had the missile launcher one and the exploding boxcar - same vintage. It was fun a time or two to spot the boxcar on one side of the layout and shoot the missile at it and try to score a hit on the proper spot (conveniently painted with a bullseye - just what I want on a car carrying explosives!). Gpt spmewhere arounf $15-$20 for each of those, too. Complete and they worked. Never had a full set, or any original Lionel HO locos, but the one other item I have is the section gang car. That used to run on a ledge about halfway up out mountain, back and forth, the one bumper out in the open, then it came across, curve on about a 6" radius curve into the mountain, and the second bumper was just inside the portal. Still have that one, but with no rubber band to hold it on, I think the drive axle got lost.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
If you have an LHS they might have the book listing the values of such items. I used one to find value for the insurance company after a fire. Since I didn't have a collectors rider I could only claim costs.
Good luck,
Richard
Well, I joined a couple of Lionel FB sites and got lots of help as far as value goes. Not a winner that is for sure. I'll just pass it on at some point. I think I will set it up and at least see if it will run.
The history is rather interesting. I have an old RMC that has an interview with Lawrence Cohen (son of founder JLC) right before their first HO line - Rivarossi made most of it. Then RR couldn;t keep up, so they used Athearn - which is why there is a Lionel Hustler. But they only used the Hi-Fi Athearn, not the gear drive (even though there was an advantage to the hi-fi drive - those locos had 8 wheel pickup, the geared ones only picked up on one side of each truck, in those days). Some of the later Lionel HO fromt he first go was made using HObbyline tooling they bought.
The 70's ones - I know there is an article in MR from the time period mentioning Cox, as they too tried to get into model railroading (more known for gas powered control line planes and such - I had 2 planes when I was a kid, and also a dune buggy that was free running - start the engine and let it run until it ran out of fuel - and the craziest thing ever, a flying saucer. Picture a big blue UFO shape thing, with a .049 plane engine with a propellor in the middle donut hole. Yes, think about flipping the prop to start it without getting your fingers caught. I don;t remember every flying that as a kid when my Dad got it, but in HS my friend and I found it in my basement so we played around with it. Worked great until he took it to his house and it sailed out into the Lehigh River and was gone forever.). I'd have to find the item, don;t remember is it was Cox makign the trains for booth, or Lionel making them for themselves and Cox, or a third party making them for both.
So I wonder who actually made those particular models. Hopefully there are some markings in the undersides other than just Lionel if someone else made them. Be sure to grab some shots of the innards of the loco, too. Made in Taiwan in the mid-70's when most of the cheaper stuff at the time was being made in Hong Kong (Tyco, etc).
MisterBeasley A friend of mine found an old Lionel HO train set in a relative's attic. It had typical Lionel gimmick cars, a giraffe car, an atomic waste disposal car, and a helicopter car. I took it to a train show and got $25 US for it.
I had a helicopter car, too. Although, it didn't really "fly", as it just kind of gyrated out of control in an upward direction.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Those Canadian railroads might intrigue a collector, sort of like the uncataloged sets Lionel made for specific stores. My hunch is that the original boxes have quite an influence on what a collector will pay.
Lionel just never seemed to have its heart in HO but they did try. Maybe what I should say is that they never quite figured out how to make the same model please the toy customer and the scale model railroader customer. On the other hand maybe that scale model railroader customer wasn't going to buy something branded Lionel even if you held a gun to their head, so it might have been a moot point.
Way back in its first go around, I had their version of the Athearn Hustler, the shell was the same but Lionel's was geared and had a decent motor. I think it had a working headlight too
Moreover the early Lionel freight cars that I had featured metal sprung trucks, nice and it rolled great but pre-RP25 flanges. The other odd feature of those old Lionel HO cars is that the lettering schemes seemed somehow stamped onto the sides with a heat process so that even if you removed the paint you could still see a "ghost" outline of the lettering. I think that is also how their O and O-27 lines were lettered at the time.
In one or another of their go arounds with HO they had some interesting and even well-detailed cars including the baby hi-cube boxcar that you can see in the photo - the green British Columbia rails boxcar (a paint scheme I have never seen for those cars). Bachmann took over the tooling as they did for another interesting (and prototypical) car, the coiled steel car with the unusual hinged clamshell hatches above. But in Lionel's version that car came with metal sprung trucks, versus the cheap Bachmann talgo trucks. And Bachmann's paint was thick and obscured more detail than Lionel's.
Anyway back to the OP's question, I think the combination of rare paint schemes and original packaging and perhaps the completeness of the set itself could all create some genuine value to the right collector. I agree that the folks on the classic toy trains part of the forums would know better than we. But don't disdain the freight cars just because they are Lionel.
Dave Nelson
Here is another paint scheme that may be quite rare. It is amazing what starts showing up with a little digging.
In 1977, I bought that GP9(?) Lionel engine with lawn-cutting money. I still have it, and I think it still runs. It's pretty much toy train category. I saw one on Ebay recently that got a decent price. Sometimes, buyers just come out of the woodwork...
Simon