John DeSantis - Standard Gauge Collection

Where in Pittsburgh? A lot of artifacts there from and around Pittsburgh I'm guessing? Wabash, PRR, N&W, P&LE, B&O?

John's standard gauge collection is divided up into separate rooms where each room covers a specific manufacturer. There is one of everything ever made including all the variations of each piece. These photos were all taken in the Lionel room.

RaritanRiverRailroadFan4 posted:

Where in Pittsburgh? A lot of artifacts there from and around Pittsburgh I'm guessing? Wabash, PRR, N&W, P&LE, B&O?

John is in the Allegheny West section of Pittsburgh. Yes, a lot of those artifacts came from the area.

Wow!
What a collection, imagine what is not on display.
Hope you have more pictures to add.
Never saw something like this, I would of been like a kid in a candy store taking pictures of everything.

One of the tour guides said that what you see out is only a third of what John has.

Amazing.

I sure hope he has a good insurance policy..

Here are some of the American Flyer room and also some Dorfan.

Awesome.  I love the videos on the I love toy trains show.  Seems like a great guy too.  He must have been born very wealthy to have had the time and money to amass his great collection.  That isn't a knock, I just don't see any other way he could have done it.  Love the house and all it's opulence and grandeur as well.  Thanks for the pics.  I'm kind of fascinated with this since I saw the shows.

Thanks Joe, great pics.  for some reason I though he was on the West coast.  Is this only open to the public during the Christmas tour?   

Thank you for sharing the photos of John's beautiful collection .  The depth of the collection is overwhelming, so many one of kind and rare pieces .  Do you take any photos of the Ives and Boucher / General trains rooms ? 

John has been very kind to open his house for tours .

Thank you Cheers Carey

Wow - you must have been speechless.  I'll be hovering around your pics for a while!

What is the figure-eight on the flatcar - is that the original Lionel window display?

Thanks for posting these wonderful photos.

Samplingman posted:

Thanks Joe, great pics.  for some reason I though he was on the West coast.  Is this only open to the public during the Christmas tour?   

Yes, this is the only time he is open to the public.

Firewood posted:

What is the figure-eight on the flatcar - is that the original Lionel window display?

That car was originally presented to Joshua Lionel Cowen from The Standard Gauge Association in 1958.

What a wonderful collection. I am afraid however, that this is just a disaster waiting to happen. A big old house, probably with old wiring, many wiring modifications for lighting, and no evidence, ( from the photos), of fire sprinklers. This collection should be in a more secure location for sure.

I can not imagine the time and effort that went into amassing this fine collection.

mowingman posted:

What a wonderful collection. I am afraid however, that this is just a disaster waiting to happen. A big old house, probably with old wiring, many wiring modifications for lighting, and no evidence, ( from the photos), of fire sprinklers. This collection should be in a more secure location for sure.

This house has been completely renovated. The work on the electrical system alone took over a year. This house is very safe and secure.

Wow! That is quite a collection! There is so much to see!

Carey Williams posted:

Do you take any photos of the Ives and Boucher / General trains rooms ? 

Yes, I did. Here are some of the other rooms.

What an amazing house and train collection! Thanks for thinking of us and sharing the pictures.

The 2017 TCA Convention is in Pittsburgh this summer and a tour is on the schedule if you can make it.

Forgot to say that it is on the Northside of the Burgh-which at one time was the city of Allegheny.

Really like this picture.
The marine steam engines/burner boiler on the right of the picture. Looks like a "SUN" enclosed crank marine steam engine and maybe Stuart turners? Can not believe the quantity of items.

Thank You for the pictures as this is a truly one of a kind collection.  He must have started as a young child, and had a lot of help and great jobs along the way!!! Wow..Its just Fantastic...

My wife needs to see this to realize how much money I have NOT spent.....

leapinlarry posted:

Thank You for the pictures as this is a truly one of a kind collection.  He must have started as a young child, and had a lot of help and great jobs along the way!!! Wow..Its just Fantastic...

According to the breathtaking DVD from TM Books, he was given Standard Gauge as a kid, and was able to add to it in the peak of the Postwar era, when people were trading in their tinplate for pennies toward newer Lionel or Flyer trains.

He was able to get a lot of his collection that way, and quite inexpensively because no one wanted the Standard Gauge at the time, combined with his timely friendships with Louis Hertz and Graham Claytor, among others.

From the video, he seems to be an incredibly friendly person, eager to talk about the trains as well as educate on them and the history.

After you tour the third floor, you then walk up to the fourth floor where the layouts are. Everything is original, even the track. Again, similar to the display rooms, each section of the layout represents a particular manufacturer. Under the layout is nothing but original train and accessory boxes.

leapinlarry posted:

He must have started as a young child, and had a lot of help and great jobs along the way!!!

All correct.  He goes into a little detail about this in the TM Video.  I've done this tour and it is incredible.

Andy

More photos showing the layouts. There was not much running of the trains going on. It appears the layouts are used mainly as more display space which works just fine. I believe they said there is approximately 2500 sq. ft. of layout area.

Thirty years ago I bought my 1835E from a guy who lived outside of Pgh. in Carnegie. His basement had been full of Standard gauge engines he picked up in trash collections after WW II. He would go through neighborhoods gathering them up and later restoring them.  Zinc pest.  I checked the TCA program and there are day & night tours of his place - 4 days total. 

Last set of pictures. John was a very gracious host.

Incredible. Thanks for sharing your photos.

You know when your brain goes into overload and you start biting your lower lip, eyes tearing up from seeing so many amazing trains?

Yep, this is one of those moments.

RaritanRiverRailroadFan4 posted:

I sure hope he has a good insurance policy..

And a good sprinkler system...  Most of his stuff is irreplaceable.

I made the 6-hour drive to Pittsburgh last year to go on the home tour and see John's trains.  It was well worth the drive, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes old trains.

thanks for sharing Joe. I was hoping to make the tour this year but work had other ideas. Do they give you a decent amount of time to drool?

Wow - and thanks for posting all these pictures - looks like he didn't care for the Modern Era Stuff? Or is that another floor?

Jim Waterman

In the video he has trains running and I was more than pleased to see he had a #10 gray and maroon set on the rails, the same as my dad's set I have.  Needless to say, not one of his high dollar sets, but it was nice to see.  The video is shown on two episodes of I love toy trains and I had it recorded, but I deleted them, otherwise I would watch them again right now.  It's amazing to watch on the tube, in person it must be almost overwhelming.

Thanks Joe!  Great Pix.  John's layout was one of the tour stops at the LOTS 2015 Annual Convention.  What an unbelievable collection, and, such a genial host!

I'd love to see the roller coaster in action. Do you know if that was a manufactured item (and if so, what company?) or a home built? Likewise the incline: it looks like short Lionel passenger cars.