Not being very big on these things, I was nevertheless alerted to one by a friend of a friend this past week.
I enlisted the assistance of a friend who was well-versed in all things postwar (seriously--he made a game of matching license plate numbers to PW Lionel catalog numbers). He negotiated a substantial reduction in the asking price of four boxes of heavily played-with postwar (we each went in for half of the final price), and divvied up the take at his place. He got a couple of steamers (one of them a Berkshire with a 6-axle tender), some 027 passenger cars, 022 switches and a mess of 031 track. I got the rest.
Now I usually wouldn't give postwar equipment a second glance, especially in the condition all these pieces were in. Everything was dirty and scratched, almost everything was missing some pieces, etc. But all of it could be made run-able with a modest investment, and since they were now in my collection, I might as well see to it they are well cared-for. My take-rolling stock wise consisted of.:
--a pair of cosmetically beat-up 2343 Santa Fe F3 AA's (horizontal motored) that belched to life when one wire was reconnected to the E-unit. Man, these are some weighty units. I'll have to find some shells and mounting screws at York, since the shells are beyond restoration. No battery damage whatsoever--it looks like there was never a battery installed in these. I'll need a mounting screw for one rear truck sideframe, since that one's gone too..
--a 236 Scout loco and tender, which ran without hesitation, even the smoke unit started puffing seconds after putting power to it.
--2460 crane (chewed up boom-lifting screw, missing hook)
Either I'll need to cut new threads through here, or get a replacement boom-adjustment crank. It won't go all the way through the barrel that lifts the boom.
--3357 hydraulic maintenance car (Cop and Hobo?). Missing wheels in one truck. Somethng else to look for at York. I have the gantry, not so sure about the figures. Not too concerned about the action--I run stuff that's too big for the gantry anyway.
--6343 barrel car. (Don't know how many barrels are supposed to come with it). It should clean up nicely, though.
-- 6457 caboose. This one looks clean in the pic since I washed it and spritzed it with Pledge. Also banged out a bend in one of the end platforms on the chassis. trucks appear to be mismatched, as you'll see in the photo after this one. Maybe I'll put an LED or two in this one.
I found something interesting while cleaning this one up. Nevr-Dull polish really does a number on postwar wheelsets. The truck on the left had its wheels shined up with Nevr-Dull after scraping off the usual crud, the one on the right is the "before" version. This photo was going to be a Photo Fun entry by itself, then I decided to photograph the whole lot and make a dedicated post.
--6462 gondola. Mysterious paint spill inside--may just cover it up with canisters or spraypaint it after cleanup.
I'm beginning to suspect I have most of a set that encompasses the F3's, the above caboose, this gondola, a Shell tanker and a Lehigh Valley hopper. Still not sure if I'm going to look for those two cars and "complete" the set at York, as it'll be run with more than the cars in this thread, mixed with more modern traditional-sized stuff.
--Kusan/KMT boxcars. This motley trio of little value was bequeathed to my half. I'll need to find at least two trucks for the NH and UP cars, and perhaps a few more as spares. Didn't think anything from the postwar period was as lightweight as these, but there you go. Only thing metal in these are the screws holding the trucks.
--No.50 gang car. The only piece that doesn't work as of today. Probably a simple fix once I get under the hood.
