Buffalo, NY in 1954 got you this deal for Christmas:
How cool. And a great userid too - thanks for posting!
Wow. And the ad included “Easy Terms.” I wonder what those were?
John O
FWIW using the Federal Reserve Bank’s monetary calculator, $39.95 in 1954 equals $299.55 in 2006 (the last full year they have data for).
Below is the URL for your own past-present calulating:
That’s great! And it compares to what a new set would sell for today.
Jim
Wow! I have that exact set!
For real, Ben? What is it comprised of? The image isn’t very clear to me. I can’t even tell what type of deisel it is.
Jim
$39.95 what a deal! The Irony is how much money that was in those days & now you can spend $40.00 or more on a piece of Rolling Stock! I bet the average Car payment was around $40.00 a month in 1954? Take Care all.
Jim A- That is the Black & Yellow Erie Alco with Diecast Frame & Magne-Traction & a Boxcar,Hopper,Tankcar, & Caboose. Take Care.
Thanks, Keith. I thought it was an Alco, but really couldn’t tell for sure.
Jim
Average paycheck back then was around $55 - 60 a week.
Still is here . . .
Jim,
Here’s the contents of the set I have.
2032 Erie Alcos
6656 Stock Car(same as the cattle car, but non operating)
6456 Lehigh Valley Hopper
6465 Sunoco Tank Car
6357 Caboose
Given the date on the ad, as well as the illustration, I’m positive that this is the set pictured in the ad.
Post this on another forum and they’ll tell you there is trouble at Lionel in '54 because they were discounting the set![:D] Cool ad!
AND they’ll tell you what is spelled incorrectly as they titter amongs themselves. Funny, I never see any one do that with MTH stuff over there in “negativity land”.
Jim
I just read the ad again. The contents and part number of the set are listed. I know what a CTC lockon is, but what does the CTC stand for?
Connector To Connector?
Circuit To Circuit?
Carolina To Columbus?
Jim
I like this consist enough that I assembled it from individual components to compliment the 2032’s I already had. I would’ve given my right arm for this set when I was a kid.
Is your hopper car black or maroon? I believe the Greenberg set guide states that it could be either one.
Joel
Actually in fairness they have. And the Merrimac incident MTH took a beating. But jeez the forums do pounce on errors. I don’t mind when they pounce on the errors in pictures as it may save some errors in production cars but just simple catalog reads… get a little, well strange we have nothing better to do.
Actually, I think Lionel was in trouble in 1954. After years of big profits after the war, I think Lionel lost a huge amount of money that year. I will have to check my Ron Hollander book when I get home later.
I have the 1954 catalog and I do not remember that set in the catalog. Could that be a 1953 set?
Regards,
John O
In prototype railroads “CTC” means “centralized traffic control”. I always assumed that that’s where Lionel got the name.