1 - not in the trash, as such - but I was over at my friend's house one afternoon when we were 12 or so and noticed that the garage side door stop (literally) was a Lionel 2035 "K4 Pacific" ("Pacific" - yeah, right). It had been Jerry's and he was no longer interested, and the 2035 is one heavy little steamer, so - doorstop. It had been sliding around the concrete floor for a while. I asked Jerry if I could have it since he didn't want it and he (and his mother) said yes. I kept it for decades in a drawer (trains were not in my life for a long time), then "restored" it (to be kind) in the 1980's. Still have it. It ran about 20 years ago.
2 - a friend of mine with not much patience and a lot of money was prone to taking an uncooperative loco - MTH "ding-ding" PS1's with scrambled chip issues were his main targets - and simply throwing them in the city trash. Never seen again. Still in "Reset" at the bottom of the dump. I tried to explain that he was causing most of the issues (trying to run with a dead battery), but he wouldn't listen. He could be hard on machinery. And people. (Late at night you can still hear the sad little ding-dings if you listen carefully....)
