The add-on 7th car is the Station Sounds Diner, 6-15383. Hard to find.
-------------------
We (my wife, actually) has the 7-car train. It was from one of the 2010 York meets. We were experiencing a 'Dreyfuss' mania at the time. Can't recall exactly why, though. We had bought the K-Line passenger set a year earlier, but found ourselves with two of the Dreyfuss Hudsons.
Anyhow, as we wandered through Brown Hall on Thursday, there was the Lionel 7-car set laid out on a table. Wife 'Oohed' and 'Ahhed'. Seller took note, engaged in friendly conversation. Price was fair, but it was not something that we had been searching for, and we had a few other items on our search list. I wandered on, wife followed...reluctantly, I'd say. Before the meet closed for the day, we wandered by that table again...and the set was still there.
That evening she kept bringing that set up in our conversation. As was our usual rationalization, 'If we're destined to have it, it will be there tomorrow.' (NOT an intelligent rationalization, mind you...especially if that item were high on your own list of wants!)
The next morning...bee line to Brown. And there it was...yet. Seller recognized her. She acknowledged his posted price...and countered...modestly. "SOLD!" The seller was collecting the 7 boxes from the table, when suddenly two gents rushed up to the table, glancing at the seller and us. "Did you just buy this?!?!?", the one exclaimed. Seller said it just sold. Wife beamed proudly.
The gents departed, grumbling animatedly. I think my wife smiled all the way back to Michigan on that trip.
I don't have a story like that for most of the trains we've bought. Most of the stuff I can't even recall circumstances surrounding the purchase. But my wife is somewhat incredible when at a York meet. The very first York meet we ever attended...2005...her registration number popped up on the posted door prize list Thursday morning. Knowing it was 'first come, first served', we ran to Silver Hall and the display of prizes. Scored?...One Lionel Christmas Set!! And we'd only been at that first meet less than an hour!! Every year thereafter, getting to York meets became her priority!!...as if I wonder why?
Yep, she's a keeper.
KD
