263E standard model

He listed same set on e-bay as well. It is afaict an original 263e set. Lead and traling  wheels zinc pest. Drive wheels look to be replaced. Not sure of value, but seems too high to me. Is a nice looking set though. I would do a Lot of research before undertaking a purchase such as this.

Chris

caa posted:

He listed same set on e-bay as well. It is afaict an original 263e set. Lead and traling  wheels zinc pest. Drive wheels look to be replaced. Not sure of value, but seems too high to me. Is a nice looking set though. I would do a Lot of research before undertaking a purchase such as this.

Chris

I’ve been looking into it for a little while and honestly I cannot for my life find proving or its present day value. 

I use e-bay to start, just enter 263e or 263e sets, and you can see others currently for sale. Also use advanced tool to see what past sales have been. 

Try moving this to Tinplate Trains forum. 

caa posted:

Try moving this to Tinplate Trains forum. 

Will do thank you! For anyone interested in some info I did find this page. 

https://mthtrains.com/11-6052-1

Long story short brand new these trains are at about $500 from MTH’s website. eBay they go for between $180-250 average. Not one was posted for more than $350 though. This guy is a scam artist who think vintage means more money. In some cases I think that’s true but not in the case of a base model,mass produced, and readily available. Correct? I’m pretty new to this hobby but I’ve seen some very cheap old trains for example I have a New York scour engine that I got for $20 on ebay. It a 1949 model and it was in great shape other than a burnt out light. I looked it up and  there isn’t a single one going for more than $30. It’s just crazy he’s asking $1000...

Just to be sure, this is not an MTH reproduction. I believe it to a prewar original.

caa posted:

Just to be sure, this is not an MTH reproduction. I believe it to a prewar original.

It is a prewar. I did look into that too and the prewar model are almost the same price as the reproductions. They run for about $250-300 in good shape. Still overshooting the price by quite a bit.

This looks to me to be a Lionel 263E Work train set from about 1936-7. The 263E from the prewar era often suffered from warped or decayed frames. This one looks pretty straight from the photo. If you can turn the drive wheels by hand without a sense of binding, chances are you can get it to run. The cars boxes have 3 digit numbers which denotes manual couplers and suggest the earlier production. I have a 263E from that period and it runs well. This one has its boxes which add to the value. There are some interesting extras like the toolkit and its box. 

It looks nice in the photos. I would be curious as to why the pilot truck and trailing truck are off the engine. It seems from the photos like a decent original set but is somewhat overpriced. 

Yes the set is prewar Lionel as others said. It dates from roughly 1937 give or take a year. The three red accessories are not Lionel. I think they are Marx, which usually go for less than Lionel. The train, the animated crossing guard, and the tool set are Lionel. The 2018 Greenberg Guide lists them in Good for a little less than $700, Excellent about $1300. These are in between as far as I can see, and in  my opinion, the guide is higher than my experience says. The track and transformer essentially have no value. You have a repair needed to the loco - the lead and trail trucks are off, and you may or may not need screws, etc to attach them, plus maybe new wheels since they are suffering from fatigue, which is deterioration of the metal due to very slight contamination in the original casting process. My assumption is that the 1045 Watchman doesn't work because there is a solenoid piece with the wheels which probably came from it. If you are a box collector, they can add value, but at least some of the ones pictured are not in good enough condition to add anything. No way I'd pay $1000 for it, and I can do the repairs.