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I was looking through my Lionel Train Sets by David Doyle last night. Do you realize how expensive Lionel O gauge Train Sets were in the middle 1950s? No wonder my friends who had trains were an only child or 1 of 2 children. Those catalogs were truly wish and dream books

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  Yes, they were.  I was given a Lionel Scout set in 1951. I was aware the couplers on my set didn't seem to match the couplers of any of the newer cars that showed up in each year's Lionel catalog but I was patient - I figured sooner or later they would offer another car to go with my set.  Finally, in 1955 I saw the #3620 searchlight car and, correct coupler or not, I wanted it.  The catalog and hobby shop price was $7.95,  My allowance was 25 cents a week...so I started saving.  For 8 months I did no buy a thing - I just saved my quarters. 

  When I reached $8.00 I asked Dad to take me down to the hobby shop to get the car.  We got to the hobby shop, I made my request, the owner pulled one out of the box and set it on the counter.  I was reaching into my pocket to pull out all my quarters when Dad said, " But the couplers on this car don't match the couplers on your train."  Dad said I looked him straight in the eye and said in a very slow and determined voice, "I-Don't-Care!" 

  Dad told me many years later it was at that moment he realized I was really serious about my trains.  He covered the sales tax (I was almost heartbroken when that was added to the cost and I didn't have the money to cover it) and that Christmas, Santa gave me an unasked for and totally unexpected gift in the form of a #1615 engine and tender whose couplers matched everything in the Lionel catalog...as for #3620...

SL_3620

it still runs just fine...so does #1615.

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I was fortunate. My dad (a fireman in Hoboken) bought me a set pulled with a steamer (221), and a few freight cars just before I was born, then a 2035 set with a few more. By the time I was somewhat conscious, we had a full blown layout of an oval with a passing siding (in looking at old films, I’d say 5 x9 foot). The siding included the milk car platform, the cattle car platform, #97 coal elevator, magnetic crane, and the requisite cars. There was a #38 water tank, and block signal. On the outer loop were crossing gates, an oil derrick, flashing cross bucks, and the giant gateman. There were two houses in the one Road Town, and green painted sawdust for grass. He also made a tunnel from paper and wire and varnish, then painted. Oh, and a revolving beacon. My current layout with a few exceptions is very similar. My dad kept the layout hanging on pegs in the warm months, and set it up around Thanksgiving, and took it down around February.
The layout had to be broken up when we moved to a small apartment, but I kept the trains running on a 4x8 I set up in I and my brother’s bedroom. I kept the trains after I got married in my 20’s, but foolishly sold them for ski boots. I’ve been trying to catch up ever since!

This subject often comes up, but what no one seems to remember are the Day-After-Christmas sales back then. Department stores, hardware stores, appliance stores, etc., used to sell trains as a seasonal item, and the day after Christmas were blow-out sales with trains selling for a fraction of what they sold for on Christmas Eve. My mother used to buy my present for next year at these sales, and as I got older and had my own money I also hit the stores. I still have a GM Emergency Generator car (blue with full stripe) that has the $2.45 sticker on the box from Taubman's Hardware in Baltimore. Yes, trains were expensive back then, but bargains were there if you looked.

@artyoung posted:

This subject often comes up, but what no one seems to remember are the Day-After-Christmas sales back then. Department stores, hardware stores, appliance stores, etc., used to sell trains as a seasonal item, and the day after Christmas were blow-out sales with trains selling for a fraction of what they sold for on Christmas Eve. My mother used to buy my present for next year at these sales, and as I got older and had my own money I also hit the stores. I still have a GM Emergency Generator car (blue with full stripe) that has the $2.45 sticker on the box from Taubman's Hardware in Baltimore. Yes, trains were expensive back then, but bargains were there if you looked.

I remember those half price sales at the large department stores in downtown Indianapolis when I was a young boy. The trains were mostly items they had on their display layouts but other items were also included. One year I had received the 2412-2416 passenger set for Christmas and my dad purchased another 2412 & 2414, orphaning the 2416 observation car that was on the layout. We also got a 6822 Searchlight car that year. I still have all of them.

Regards, Steve

Great thread Big John Henry, I always wanted a Lionel train set for Christmas but my dad thought that the newer HO trains that were coming out was the way to go, so I never received any 3 rail trains, always HO, that was back in the early 50's.  About 20 years ago, I was given some Marx trains and they were a disaster, I still have them in a box, they will take an enormous amount of work to get them presentable just to put on the display shelf.  I've always thought that Lionel was on the expensive side but as my wife and I were able to come up with extra money now and then and I found the OGR Forum and Fee Bay, I started buying the trains that I felt I could afford and it wasn't until about 6 to 8 years ago that I bought my first new train set, 80% of what I have are used trains and even those I found to be expensive but not as bad as brand new.  I think the new stuff coming out now is just crazy for the prices we're having to pay.  I paid $1,600 or $1,700 fora new Lionel SP AC-9 and my wife thought I had lost my mind, I think I did but that's another story.  If you really stop and think about it, any hobby you get into and really get into it, they are all expensive and will probably stay that way.  Wish I was a Millionaire, so many trains and things I want but will probably never be able to afford.  Thanks for starting the thread, great answers guys.

Yes they were expensive but many have lasted from the pre-World WarI  years until the present time.  That's over a hundred years.  I'd say they were worth every penny.  Think the new stuff will be around 100 years from now?   On the other side of the coin we have Marx Trains which were very inexpensive and even they are still working 70 or more years after being manufactured.  The old cliche, "They don't make them liked they used to" still hold true.

My trains were acquired in the early 1960s, so things had changed somewhat.  There is something else that needs to be remembered.  Train purchases were quite often CASH purchases.  Having children and homes and cars hasn't changed that much.  Then like today there was always something that you could be spending money on.  Even for families that could afford to buy trains with what they could set aside over two to three months, there would have been a huge temptation to raid the train fund for other purposes.

I think back then people used more common sense and as said bought trains for cash.    And the cash used was what became available after all the "real" expenses such as mortgage, groceries, kids clothes, car expenses etc were paid.    if a few bucks extra were there, maybe buy some train piece.

I have story about the discounts.    There was a small local hardware store chain in the area I grew up in.   I heard there were 7 brothers and each one had his own store but they used the same name and probably bought in bulk.

They did discount Lionel stuff even before Christmas, and the one in my town at least always had a huge inventory.     My much older brother worked for the local newspaper in plant going through a printers apprenticeship.    He got off work one Christmas Eve about 4:30 and had a few bucks and wanted to buy me some train stuff for Christmas - he figured a few passenger cars.     So he went over to store after work as they were getting close to closing time on Christmas Eve about 5:00.    He said they seemed to have already started a Christmas party and everyone seemed to be in very good spirits, literally.     So he was standing front of the big set of shelves about 15 feet long and 12 feet up to the ceiling in the old building.    He was looking things over and was impressed by a new Santa Fe Freight Set - top of the line that year.   In my research, I think it retailed for $75,    The store manager came over and asked him if he wanted that set.    My brother said yes, but he didn't have the money for it, he couldn't afford it,  He said just wanted to buy a couple passenger cars for his little brother.   Well the store manager said, how much money you got kid?   My brother said $45.   The Manager OK, you can have it for that, and he dug under the counter for the boxes and handed to my brother.   He said,  you take it down and pack it up.     So that is how we got the big santa Fe set.    When I grew up I gave it back to my brother and his son still has it.

@Joe Connor posted:

Was the catalog price what you actually paid, or was it an MSRP that dealers routinely undercut by a significant margin?

In the early 1950s, trains usually were sold at prices shown in the catalog. Larger dealers might have specials at times, generally items that were discontinued by Lionel and Flyer at the time. In 1955, the catalog didn't show set prices. There were catalog set numbers for  Lionel dealers and a second set of set numbers for outlets sold in discount locations. Often these sets were slightly different that the sets provided under Lionel catalogued set numbers.

In our family, trains were handed down from sibling to sibling. My next oldest brother had prewar items with the exception of a 675 loco whose tender had a box coupler, a Madison Hardware modification. When the trains became mine, i went to Madison Hardware to have a knuckle coupler installed and purchased a 2456 Lehigh Valley Hopper, a 2452 PRR Gondola, a 6465 Sunoco tank car and a 6257 Lionel lines caboose. Caboose , Those cars cost me the $10 dollars i had saved. I didn't have the  $3.50 needed for the 6454 Erie box car that i really wanted. Not to long ago, I bought that Erie Box Car on Ebay  after all the years that past. You know it was more than $3.50.

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