The Jim Seacrest mega-collection

http://coloradooscale.org/mr-jim-seacrest/

Nice write up Salty Rails. 

Several of us in the Colorado region worked for Jim myself included for over 10 years. Jefferson was close to Jim for decades .

He was a kind man and very loyal. I will miss him and his financial reach to bring us high end brass projects to completion. Outside of Neil Gibson, Jim likely has one if not the largest single collections of O Scale 2 rail brass. 

May he Rest In Peace. 

Hi Eric---So are you fellas the guys who were doing the building of the layout?  At one point Jim told me  he didn't "talk about"  the DW&P ANYMORE.  So I have always wondered what the stage of completion was when he stopped. I wonder if it was dismantled.   It was REALLY an ambitious project.

I was going to make a special trip to Nebraska to see the monstrosity----had it been completed.

                                                                  -Rusty Rails-

I met him in a Lincoln, NE train store. Very pleasant man. Knew what he wanted.

Dick

Here are a couple of You Tube videos of Jim's layout.  The videos are not that old so it looks like the layout is still going strong.

https://youtu.be/vLkFYn6D_I4

https://youtu.be/XuKKgUUTcVU

Scott Kay

Austin, TX

The majority of the Seacrest DWP was built by Scale Art Models. A professional service out of the Denver area. Scott has since relocated to Texas. I did some of the backdrop painting and other odd jobs on the layout over the years. Actually a very small part compared to the Anderson team. Jim was indeed a close friend. 

Me too - truly a gentleman.  Always took good care of me.

I have seen those videos recently and was curious as to the disposition of the building and layout, was a club able to take it over or is it to be part of an estate sale?

Has any of Jim's collection gone to market yet?  What venues might these show up on, i.e., Ebay, BrassTrains.com, etc. ?

Two or three months ago I heard the plan was to use Stout Auctions but nothing has shown up there yet so maybe the plan changed. 

I was always amused by his ads in OST. He would list a pile of stuff and then:  "Are you hiding these?"

Several adds in the same issue, also.

Guessing by his ads, he had a good sense of humor.

Simon

Stout Auctions has posted a video with highlights of the Jim Seacrest collection on their Facebook page.

Just from the video there appears a very large amount of rare "high end" brass along with large amounts of older brass models and non brass models. It will be interesting to see how high the bidding goes overall [+ 20% "premium"], from what I have read this is the largest collection currently in the country.

Derek,

My goodness, what a collection.  I'll be there, I saw stuff I want.

hibar posted:

Just from the video there appears a very large amount of rare "high end" brass along with large amounts of older brass models and non brass models. It will be interesting to see how high the bidding goes overall [+ 20% "premium"], from what I have read this is the largest collection currently in the country.

I mean no disrespect to Mr. Seacrest but I wonder how his brass collection stacks up against Al Edel.

It will be fun to compare the final Seacrest numbers with a guesstimate of what (by my recollection) Edel has in his garage and basement. 

I tried to watch the video.  Moves way too slow - how about a slide show with two or three shots of each model, one an elevation.

I personally would not pick up a 2-rail brass steamer by anything but the cab and cylinders, but I am not in charge here, and I am going to give the guy a pass.  Most of these models have been modified somewhat already, and the value may be diminished.  The Rock Island obs series, for example, has had windows changed, with silver paint over the plated brass.  Purchasers will only see this level of detail with better photos.  They are still great models, but not $600 ones.

I think Jim had the world's largest collection of Fischer cars.  I hope to see photos of them.

Oh, there's a fair number of 2-rail collectors out there so a good number will in all likelihood go back into their boxes and onto a shelf to wait for the next estate sale.

mwb posted:

Oh, there's a fair number of 2-rail collectors out there so a good number will in all likelihood go back into their boxes and onto a shelf to wait for the next estate sale.

Truth.

Has Stout Auctions provided a listing of items to bid on yet?  I looked and could not locate any listing.

Steve

Nope. Not sure what happened to the 90% of stuff listed.