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Roger Carp’s Greatest Find
Roger, this is great. I can understand why you have been so inspired by this particular discovery and where it took you. Looking back to the late 1980s when I was rediscovering toy trains I think that finding out about “Classic Toy Trains” was my greatest discovery. I have not read any issue in all the ensuing years that I didn’t enjoy. Finding out about the pioneers of the hobby and its history has been as much joy to me as the articles about the trains and layouts. Of course knowing that there are other guys (and some gals, too) out there who love this hobby is close to having new friends you just haven’t had a chance to meet face to face, yet. Its also sort of like going on a mini-vacation for few hours when I receive a new issue. So thanks for what you have reported and for all the people and places you have seen, that we couldn’t, and for sharing it all with us. Cliff
Hi Roger,Thanks for the great reading about your trip to York,PA. show and for bringing me back to “Christmas 1956”,( for me),when my dad bought me a lionel steam set that Christmas i found under the Christmas tree.What a thrill that was,i don’t know what set it was or where he bought it but i remember it was running on a “figure 8” track plan under the tree.I was seven years old at that time. I loved that train set.My dad died the next year in 1957 and my older brother sold my lionel set when i went for a trip to california in 1959 on the “santa fe grand canyon”. I loved trains ever since. I have a couple old model builder magazines we found at the flee market and have been reading model railroader from the early sixties.I collect lionel again and love reading classic toy trains.Thanks for your time and “HI” to all the staff at “CTT”.
My greatest find was at a local train auction in wadsworth, Ohio. Included in what was primarily a toy train auction was various toys, including toy trucks, wind up toys, dolls and misc. other. The auctioneer decided to split the room and in the ensuing confusion, the train auctioneer started the first train item, a mint Flying Yankee. I threw up my hand on a 70.00 bid and and no one followed as people were scraping chairs, moving around, diciding which side of the room to go to, etc and the auctioneer finally said “sold” and pointed to me. The set was selling at the time for somewhere between $350.00 and $700.00. I was even more pleased when the fellow beside me said “whow, what just happened here” when he realized the bargain I got.
Roger,
Several weeks ago I helped a spry 89 year old move. When it was almost complete he showed me a box with trains, track and assorted things. I have never been into trains but he said take the two boxes as a gift. I took them home and they sat in the garage for a few weeks. My wife kept after me to do something about the two boxes. The following weekend I started going thru the boxes. They are original boxes with packing material and they weren’t assembled. It wasn’t until I was half way thru the box that I noticed on the bottom were instuctions, parts list and for lack of a better word blueprints for assembly. The paper work
in the bottom in the right hand corner of the blue prints are dated. ANYONE GUESSING WHAT I HAVE? The dates are from 1937 to 1941. I’m a huge fan of Antiques Roadshow and knew from the show that buyers prefer old things in their original boxes and with provenance. I had no idea the worth of old trains so I went on the Internet and looked up the train maker. I looked at every site I could find about American OO. Still guessing? I have a complete set of pre war Scale-Craft Model Trains and duplicates of some. I’ve been to two model train shows in Florida and none of the vendors said they had heard of Scale-Craft. I’ve bought every train magazine, Internet exploring and finally found a blog called American OO. We have exchanged e-mails and photos of my collection. There are photos on his blog of some of my stuff.
I think that since I’m not a Modeller that is “My Greatest Find!”
My greatest find is a Lionel set sold by Sears in the 1957 season it is not in pristean condition, I don’t have the boxes, the surviving accessories are in pretty bad shape. This is my greatest “find” because my parents spent two day’s pay to purchase this for me. They were wise enought to keep this set for me when I tired of it. I have built a shelf type “layout” about nine feet off the floor in our family room in their honor, the Jersey Central switch engine needs a little “tune up” but will run. the freight cars are all still here, I have rounded up some track and several transformers and have enjoyed playing with it even in my 63rd year. I wrote a collector some time back regarding my set, I was trying to find out when the train set was sold and if it was sold by Sears, he wrote back and said that because the cars and locomotive were scratched and dirty and didn’t have any of the boxes they were not worth much. I have never understood how a real toy could be in pristine condition, the are toys!! The worth of these toys is in the memories of love and sacrifice that they represent. My parents have passed away, but hopefully their memory will go on, like most of us, I would love to sit down with them and tell thanks again for the hard work that they did trying to raise me and my brother and sister.