Years ago I bought two boxes of old Lionel from a young man who brought them into my hobby shop. I was fairly new to trains and was astounded at what he had - some O gauge track, an assortment of freight cars, most rusted away but a perfect crane car plus a 2332 GG1, 0-4-0 switcher, and a set of 2356s wrapped in newspaper. The family had been living in a rural place for several years and were cleaning out an old shed out back. These two boxes were underneath some other stuff on the bare earth ground! We had to throw some items out but were able to salvage the three engines successfully. My service man rebuilt the Southerns completely and we sent the cabs to Steve Latta in CA to restore. He had not done the 2356 yet so it took him about a year to get them back to us. Said they were the prototypes! I always felt that they were a little too deep in color and glossy but I was probably mistaken. My friend still has them and sent me some photos recently. These were restored back in the early 1990s. Paid $25 for both boxes. A lot of work went into a few nice items...
