Eric Beheim’s article “Discovery of a Lifetime” about an elusive Marx tender that came from a Sears set got me curious. The tender in question is a Nickel Plate Road wedge-type, not to be confused with the “box car body” style NKP tender that came with mechanical sets.
I didn’t remember seeing this tender in the 1996 Windmill Press book “The Toy Train Department”, edited by Thomas W. Holland which is a collection of the toy train pages from Sears Wishbooks from 1950 to 1969. So I decided to poke around a bit and I found this website: http://www.wishbookweb.com/the-catalogs/ which has many of them scanned for on-line referencing.
A few notable pages I’ve found so far:
- 1937, Pg 23, Marx Sparkling Mountain Climber
- 1943, Pg 53, Lionel Paper Train
- 1946, Pg 132, Lionel 221 freight set
- 1942 Spiegel, Pg 69, Flyer passenger set
- 1959 FAO Schwarz, Pgs 62-63, AF Defender vs. Lionel Missle Launcher!
With Sears, J.C. Penney, Monkey Ward and others to look through, there’s lots to explore and lots of trains to see! [:D]