I wonder if we will ever get "the rest of the story" about this third-hand account?
If it got to the stage where the widow had to give up her house, the heirs probably had their hands full just to clear out the house for resale. The possible value of the old trains could have been totally overshadowed by the value of the property and the need to sell. Sometimes old neglected stuff just gets trashed because it is too huge of a job to sort through it all and try to clean it up for resale to a niche market.
