I have collected HO trains for over thirty years and my collection is rather large, I think. Much of my stuff is the old blue box Athearn, Accurail, Roundhouse. I want to up date to the more detailed models such as Kato, Proto 2000 and others. I contacted Charles Siegel of trainman@traincity.com. He advertises in MR, saying “I have $400,000.00 to buy trains this year”. Has anyone dealt with him and is he on the up and up.
Also, I have anolder Mantua steam engine that just wouldn’t run. I checked the motor and body for any shorts. It would run briefly then just stop. So I lubricated everything, running gear, motor, slide rods, etc. let it set for a day or two. Early this AM I went to the train room and turned on the layout and lo and behold it ran like a Swiss watch, and very quiet. By lubricating it, I was wondering if by letting it sit for a few days did the oil and grease just kind of work its way in and loosen things up? Just after I greased and lubbed it, it would not run, now it does. Any thought?
There are several large dealers that purchase train collections. They are looking for high quality brass models in general but do purchase complete lots in large quantities including some plastic and die cast metal models. They are looking for models that will resale quickly and the bids for the entire lot of model trains will average 50 to 60% discount on the fair market going price.