A friend of a friend has an antique “live steam small scale train”. It consists of a locomotive and a tender on a round track. The loco says Dart 1887 M/F/G and the tender shows I. & A. R. R. The wooden track bottom has written in pencil Merry Xmas 1906. He is looking for info about this set. Any help would be appreciated. For example, what line is the “I. & A. R. R.”?
Weeden “DART” 1887 alcohol burning loco
good-300.00
vg-450
M-600
the wheel arrangement is 2-4-0
some info I found in Richard O’Brien’s book entitled Americam Premium Guide To Electric Trains,copyright 1983…
The Sears, Roebuck and Co…reproduction catalog for 1900 has a simular Weeden set listed…3 1/2 foot diameter track with 1" thick wooden ties, alcohol burning locomotive, tender, and one passenger car, shipped in a wooden box…price $3.50…Too heavy to mail because of weight,weight 7 pounds…
Edwin P. Alexander’s book The Collector’s Book of the Locomotive has a good picture of this set, and dates it back to the 1880’s and selling for around $2.50…Like the set in the Sears catalog, this set includes the track, locomotive, four wheel tender, and a passenger car.
hope this helps BDT