I agree that the Gilbert NYC Hudson is a classic and remains my favorite AF steamer, but since my Dad had already purchased a nice freight set led by the 322AC, the other set I coveted throughout my youth, and through most of my adult years, was the Silver Flash Alco streamliner.
I never got one as a kid, and the vintage sets I saw later were either too expensive or too beat up. In the mid-90s (the years in the last century, not my age!) my wife and I were at a toy train club convention, and a vendor in the trading hall had a Lionel Silver Flash remake in a factory sealed box for a fair price. We had flown to the convention, and when he said he would ship it to our home for free, the deal was also sealed.
The Silver Flash remained sealed in the box and was actually "lost" in the storagein my "train room" until about five years ago. I then took the new found treasure to our local TCA clubhouse for its inaugural run on one of the club's S Gauge loops.
The beautiful Alco set returned a few years later during the clubs annual Christmas Open House where it rubbed shoulders with my Lionel AF Polar Express Berkshire, a locomotive which, of course, Gilbert never produced.
Cheers!
Alan
