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I'm asking because I was curious about if anyone else was an owner of a loco/set that is rare or made by an obscure maker. An example would be something that isn't really known to the average enthusiast, or even skilled collectors. My only one is a Bing locomotive which I just learned was rare, after stripping away the new coat of paint the previous owner had applied, revealing Great Western in big bold letters on the side, unlike the LNER, GNR, or LMS that I had always come across. More digging revealed nothing about it.

Guess I better take extra care of this little loco.

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Well, with a collector like you, something would be considered obscure if it's not in your collection!

But In all seriousness, I would say makers that aren't normally targetted for large collections. Such as makers of low quality, or ones that only produced for a short amount of years, or ones that are hard to find information on, or are completely off the radar. Maybe a prototype of some type, or an exclusive train for a special event. Custom-made for a high paying customer, or a gift to a valued employee. Anything along those lines.

-Berk

Last edited by Berkshire
sncf231e posted:

What is an obscure maker? I do not have an 0 gauge item from a manufacturer that is not on this list: http://www.binnsroad.co.uk/railways/oindex.html but I have items from some 300 makers.

Regards

Fred

Graeme's site is a wonderful reference.  I started looking through it again, and was amused to see he had posted the auction pictures of my Walker-Fenn.  This is one of the photos that shows how it looked when I bought it:

$T2eC16NHJGwE9n)ySfi-BRH+B[LOI!~~60_58

This is how it looks after doing a little bit of work to it:

26March2013WFleft

Even though Walker-Fenn is listed on the Binn's Road website, I think it is relatively obscure - especially on this side of the Atlantic.  Perhaps the postwar version - the Walker-Riemsdyk - is even more obscure.

I'll be interested to see what else is posted... 

 

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I purchased from a TCA charter member a short stripe, mint PW 746 with "matching" N&W passenger cars.  What made this set "rare" or "obscure" was that he purchased them at Madison Hardware and the passenger cars were the Canadian Pacific set with the two coaches, vista dome and observation car that MH had someone repaint in a dubious pullman green with dulux gold lettering.  Had the correct OB's and window strips for the CP set.

I have already posted in another thread about my latest rarity .... a Bing British made by Stephan Bing not long after he fled Germany to Great Britain in the period of Hitlers rise to power ( early 30's ) as identified with the help of some fine forum members here ... As far as I can research this is the only train set made under the Bing British name ( he also made wooden clockwork boats under the same name )  and apparently came in two variants this one being the L.M.S. livery and the other I have not seen a LNER scheme.

I think also rarity is very much a geographical thing and what you are used to .. here in Australia any pre-war USA made train is a "rarity" and yet common as muck where the majority of the forum resides lol

Arne and Fred would have a billion things ( lol ) in their collection that most non-europeans would think rare and I constantly drool at their postings and bow before their awesome knowledge

Rare to some might be my 1937 Mickey and Minnie hand car ... because its NOT made by Lionel , but is instead by Wells O' London in Great Britain ...

 

Rare to me is a lionel clockwork 1511 from 1937 ... there might be plenty there, but this is the only one I have ever had the chance to grab in Australia

relatively rare to me are my Maurlyn's but I am wagering the majority of collectors outside of Australia would have never seen one in the flesh ... These were made in Sydney after the war ( 1948 )

Rarity also depends on what you collect I guess .. I mean most die hard "Gunzels "  would never give cheap and cheerful sets of the 30's to 60's a look in , but I like them ...

Something like a Burnett/Chad Valley Flying Scotsman ?

or a Czech Igra set ?

Or a battery operated 4.5V Bing loco .. and yes it runs !

A Kraus Germany 20V loco ?

How about we swap scales and go to a LIVE STEAM HO Gauge ?

Someone had waaaaayyy too much talent and time to make that ... I am guessing its a one-off, do they get rarer than that?

 

And yet each and every item in my collection is a rarity to me, because they have ALL led spectacular lives , cheap, spendy, mass-produced, hand made, common as muck, never find another one,or just "toys" .... because they each have a story to tell and they have SURVIVED ... they make me smile

 

 

 

 

Last edited by Fatman

Obscure?  Yes.  Rare Maybe.  Its really hard to say that anything made in a factory setting is really "rare". Scarce is probably a more apropos term.

In the train and toy business, there are too many cottage players over the years that produced such small numbers to be anything BUT rare.  Who's to say that something rare here in the US in rare in Germany?  or England?  or Austrailia? 

We also pollute rare with desirable. We also pollute rare with "its-rare-because-i-live-in-a-small-town-and-have-never-seen-one" exposures.

I definitely have some difficult to find because they were not made in large quantities or hard to acquire pieces. I hesitate to call them rare.  

We are seeing trains now from 50-60 year collections that haven't been seen or been seen in these numbers... this is skewing the scarcity equations we collectors use to judge the trains...

What galls me is the ePlay person calling a Peacock 253 rare.

Andrew-Porter posted:

I have a number of wooden trains that I received as a child in the mid-1950s. I recently discovered these were made in kit form in the 1930s by Stromberg. Whoever had these originally did a great job of assembling, painting and decorating them.

WoodTrains3WoodTrains8

these look so familiar, i'm sure i had a few;  the time frame is right.

I think Stromberg made these kits for a while after the war.  They had some in HO and O.  I built some in the 1950s.  The kits come up on the bay a lot, as well as built ones.  Quality, particularly paint, varies greatly in the built ones.  I have bought kits of most of their train models (also made cars trucks, etc)  in the last five years and have had good luck getting all the parts in the kit (no sealed plastic bags) (YMMV).  I have built many of these over the years an they are fun kits.  Most of them are models of very early engines.

Bill

 

Hello all...rare / obscure.....  all depends on what floats your boat ...   depends on which circles you run  and how hard you've been looking ...  lots of stuff out there ..fortunately no two of us are the same ...so each sees a different view  of what is rare or obscure ...     here are two very early electrics ...one on right Ernst Plank considered the first "electric toy train"   1882 ...one of left roughly same era perhaps a bit later .. more of a scientific demonstration model .  

Cheers Carey 

 

 

 

 P_20180718_140200_vHDR_Auto

here is a link to see the Plank run 

https://www.facebook.com/Tinpl...os/1825786144150542/

 

 

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if you collect railways of the 20s 30s or even older, much is very rare.

For example.

Karl Bub postal car in yellow, never seen a second.

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Bing, factory error, NYC and PRR on the same car.

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Bing Fish car as NE, never made regular, hand painted prototype

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Fandor Fish car, never seen a second

20190112_234404

Karl Bub Observation, very hard to find

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And new in the collection but need a bit repair and a new driver.

Brimtoy All Clear Loco, every few seconds the driver looks out of the window. Worldwide known at the moment 3 of them.

20190112_234729

Arne

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Arne posted:

if you collect railways of the 20s 30s or even older, much is very rare.

For example.


Karl Bub Observation, very hard to find

20190112_234457

And new in the collection but need a bit repair and a new driver.

Brimtoy All Clear Loco, every few seconds the driver looks out of the window. Worldwide known at the moment 3 of them.

20190112_234729

Arne

Was that the one on ebay I was watching recently Arne... Marvellous pickup if so ... I meant to have a go at it , but it finished at an ungodly hour here in the Australian morning and my body decided sleep would be better !

Stoopid Body!! LOL

I had never seen or heard of it before and it was on my "hair on the back of the neck standing up" meter !

Glad to see the meter was/is still calibrated !

I wonder if KBN ever did the observation in blue to match my

Berkshire posted:

Well, I might not have time to reply to all of these wonderful submissions yet, but what I can to is finally post a video of my little thing loco running. Sadly my normal camera is broken and all I have is this to work with, but it still gets the point across

Berky .. I shall see your Bing Great Western and raise it with my Bing LNER .....

LOL!

And tho not "rare" I shall throw in a slightly "uncommon " Bandai aerotrain ....

 

I am actually looking for the battery/control station for this so if anyone has a cute little tin building that takes "D" sized batteries and has  AERO STATION  emblazoned on it that they wish to be rid of, let me know

Fatman posted:

And tho not "rare" I shall throw in a slightly "uncommon " Bandai aerotrain ....

 

I am actually looking for the battery/control station for this so if anyone has a cute little tin building that takes "D" sized batteries and has  AERO STATION  emblazoned on it that they wish to be rid of, let me know

That's very cool- I'll have to keep an eye out for one of these

While I have posted a picture of this Swiss car on the Forum before, no one has yet helped me identify it. I bought it in Austria about 15 years ago without trucks. There were some strange body mounted couplers on it. It's about the same size as a Lionel 027 passenger car. I added the trucks and enjoy running it. - Any thoughts on the identification?

Lad

swiss-tinplate

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Last edited by Lad Nagurney

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